Keith Weber
10-17-2010, 6:12 AM
It only took me 2 years of searching, but I finally found a planer at a good price to replace my Delta 22-580 lunchbox planer. I got tired of the multiple, shallow passes needed to keep the thing from bogging down.
The replacement is a mid-80's Powermatic 180, weighing about 1550 lbs., and sporting a 10 hp, 3-phase motor. Hopefully the only thing bogging down will be the lights when I start this thing up.
It's in really good shape mechanically, no rust, and seems to have been kept well-lubricated. The guy I bought it from said it came in a lot that he bought from a school auction in Wisconsin. It came with a grinder bar, but was missing the grinder itself. When I took the dust chute off, I noticed that it had what is called a Quiet Cutterhead (9 rows of 3 staggered 2-1/4" knives instead of 3 18" knives).
Anybody have experience with these? The knives are a little nicked, and since I don't have a grinder, I'll have to buy some new knives. The problem is that I can't seem to find where to buy the 2-1/4". The only company that I could find was American National Knife, which charges $18.40 per knife (or $500 for a set of 27). For that price, and considering that I don't have a grinder right now, buying a Byrd Shelix head for it begins to sound like a viable option.
Also, anyone know of a knife setter that would work on that head? I figured that the "busy" cutterhead with all of the troughs might require a special knife setter.
Keith (looking forward to turning my pile of rough cut oak into stair treads once I get this thing working)
The replacement is a mid-80's Powermatic 180, weighing about 1550 lbs., and sporting a 10 hp, 3-phase motor. Hopefully the only thing bogging down will be the lights when I start this thing up.
It's in really good shape mechanically, no rust, and seems to have been kept well-lubricated. The guy I bought it from said it came in a lot that he bought from a school auction in Wisconsin. It came with a grinder bar, but was missing the grinder itself. When I took the dust chute off, I noticed that it had what is called a Quiet Cutterhead (9 rows of 3 staggered 2-1/4" knives instead of 3 18" knives).
Anybody have experience with these? The knives are a little nicked, and since I don't have a grinder, I'll have to buy some new knives. The problem is that I can't seem to find where to buy the 2-1/4". The only company that I could find was American National Knife, which charges $18.40 per knife (or $500 for a set of 27). For that price, and considering that I don't have a grinder right now, buying a Byrd Shelix head for it begins to sound like a viable option.
Also, anyone know of a knife setter that would work on that head? I figured that the "busy" cutterhead with all of the troughs might require a special knife setter.
Keith (looking forward to turning my pile of rough cut oak into stair treads once I get this thing working)