New to the Powermatic club . . .

[Wayne Jolly]

Hi all,

I have had a Craftsman contractor saw that I have used for years and years. Last week I decided it's time to upgrade so I started looking for Unisaws. I was looking for Unisaws mainly because the Powermatics in this area are quite a bit more expensive. Like $800-1000 for a decent Uni and $1400-2000 for a PM66. Then one day I see a PM66 in Craiglist for $1000. Looks like a 1996 3HP Baldor motor with left tilt and 50" Accufence.

Well, I bought it knowing there were a couple of issues with it, but they seemed like minor issues at the time, and they still do. The biggest "issue" is that the owner before the one I purchased from had a sliding table attached and the fence and rails on the left of the blade have been shortened. I may look into rectifying that at some point down the road, but not now. I managed to get it home undamaged with only the help of my wife and a trailer that I borrowed from a friend of my sons, an engine hoist, and some good sturdy nylon straps. My son was supposed to help, but he had a major issue at work and had to spend most of the weekend getting things going again. The owner help with small stuff but he was conveniently on disability. Figures!

Anyway, I started doing some additional research and low-and-behold it's missing a part or two. One part is the rear splitter bracket. I'm not sure if I would even use the splitter since I never did on my Craftsman because it was such a pita to intall/remove. If worse comes to worse though I think I can even fabricate one if I have/want to.

The other is the right side table extension. This is also not a show stopper because I could build a new table for that side of the saw, but I would still like to get one if I can. Without this extension, the previous owner just bolted the wooden table extension directly to the table top and the outer table support legs do not fit the mobile base. To get one from Powermatic is $355 plus tax and shipping which would mean I would wind up spending half as much as I paid for the saw just to get 8 more inches of table. But since I would still like to see if I can get one, does anyone have a "spare" right side cast iron table extension for a PM66 that they could let go of at a price that I could justify? This is the one that is 8" wide and all four corners are square. I know that I will not be able to get one in pristine condition, but I would also like to avoid the other end of the spectrum and not get a pile of chipped and broken rust.

Thanks in advance,

Wayne

[glenn bradley]

First off, congrats. Second, always use a splitter whenever possible. Third, unless you are going for an 'all original' restoral effort I would pick up a wing or just make an extension table of the right size and move on. If it is a left tilt version, with that 50" fence there is room to combine the right hand wing/support into a storage area with drawers perhaps? Once again, congrats and have fun.

[Jerome Hanby]

A Shark Guard makes for a good splitter and dust collection. Micro Jig (think that's the company name) makes a nice little splitter that mounts on a ZCI.

[Wayne Jolly]

Thanks for the replies.

I am not doing a restoration, but I guess I have a touch of OCD in me and without that 8" of cast iron that came with the saw, it jus' ain't right. I know it isn't necessary, and the rest of what's left of my brain is telling me all the things I could buy with the money. So I realize that I will most likely build a longer table and I will probably even put in a router plate. I did that with my Craftsman saw and it is really nice to have the router table built into the saw. Saves a lot of space in the shop just for starters.

As for a splitter, I have looked at a lot of options. Everything from just making my own like a simple wedge in the insert, making a new bracket for the one I have, The MicroJig Splitter, and thanks to Jerome the Shark Guard. The one I like the best so far is the **** but it doesn't fit the PM. :(

Thanks again, but I am still looking. For a little while anyway.

Wayne

[Bruce Wrenn]

Biesemeyer makes a "snap in splitter" that fits your saw. Don't fret too much about the missing wing, just enjoy a your saw.

[James Baker SD]

Wayne,

Just wondering, any chance that you have the right side wing and it is mounted on the left side. Not sure if the wings are interchangeable, but if the fence rails had to be cut to mount a sliding table attachment, then the left wing was likely removed (and maybe lost at that time) to make the slider fit. Perhaps the owner you bought it from moved his only wing to the left if he never had the slider attachment. In any case maybe someone with a sliding table retrofit will have a spare left wing and you could adapt that to the right side. Without looking at a PM-66 I would think the two wings are likely to be identical to reduce the number of different components PM had to make for the saw.

[Kevin W Johnson]

They are identical, and the saw comes new with two. One on the right and one on the left. They aren't cast in such a way that you could put them both on the same side either as they have rouonded corners. Now, they did make an extension with square corners, as it's in the parts list. As far as I know, it was an optional part, although it may have came with saws with certain fence options. I haven't seen one in the wild though, just on the parts list.

[Kevin W Johnson]

Wayne,

If you'd like, post a pic of your saw and we can assist with whats there, and what should be there. I'm just about finished restoring a 1979 Powermatic 66. I only need to mount the control box that houses my VFD and start/stop buttons, put a final surface/finish to the top, and due a full tune up on it.

[John McClanahan]

All top sections are available in cast iron. You can have a 6' cast iron top. (I have one) Powermatic also offered a wood top section. In my opinion, a router table extension would be a good option.

[Jim Andrew]

When I got my new Uni in 05, the best priced package included just the cast wing for the left, and a laminate covered panel for the right, which extends out with the long rails. If I had got the other package, would have included the right ci wing, and a shorter laminate panel to go with the long rails. I don't miss the short ci wing.

[Rick Moyer]

When I had my contractor saw I put this on the right side. I liked it for the fact that I could write on it if I really needed to note something. It was also pretty slippery with a good coat of paste wax. It is an oak frame with MDF inset, bolted to the sadie of the saw.

223707

[Wayne Jolly]

Bruce - I didn't know Beis made a splitter so I'll check it out.

James - I'm sure that the wing in question is missing. According to what I have found out, with the 50" rails there is a 8" wide wing on the right that has all four corners square. The one that is on the left is 8 1/2" wide and the outer corners are round.

Kevin - From the pictures I have seen, the saws with the 50" fence have the square cornered wing between the main table, and the wooden extension. I'll get a pic or two up a little later.

John and Jim - The wooden laminated section is original Powermatic. At least it has a PM sticker/decal on the under side. I don't know enough about Powermatic's yet to know if they had different sizes of table extensions, but this one is 36" wide. When I move it out so that the legs fit properly into the mobile base, there is a 8" wide gap between the wooden table and the saws cast iron top. Just the perfect size for the 8" wide cast iron extension wing. :-) So with that 8" wing I am looking for, the cast iron would be a total of 38" wide.

Rick - That looks pretty much like my Craftsman saw right now, except my wooden table on the right has a router plate in it. It is actually a router table top made by Rockler. And it is probably the way my PM will be laid out a few more paces down the road.

Thanks everyone, but I would still like to take a shot at getting that wing. Just a small shot though. More like a .22 and not the BAR. :-)

Wayne

[David Winer]

"I didn't know Beis made a splitter so I'll check it out."
___________________________________
I am very pleased with mine. It has a small knob that you grab to snap in and out. Seems to be a well-thought out device. Well worth your consideration.

[James Baker SD]

Wayne:
I have an PM-66 that I purchased new around 1998. Couldn't get to it last night to look at it. Just took a look now. It has 52" fence and two identical 8" wings bolted to either side on the main table. Both wings have rounded corners on the outside edges, square corners where they mate with the main table. I have a green melamine particle board extension table that fills in the space to the right of the cast wing and the end of the fence rails. There is a gap where the rounded edge wing meets the square edge green extension. Such a small detail, I never noticed before and as I said I've had the saw for about 14 years. Maybe older saws had separate castings for the right and left, but my saw came from the dealer with the interchangeable ones.

All that aside, I think your best bet of getting a CI wing at a reasonable cost is to find someone who has installed an Excalibur style sliding attachment and has a spare left wing available.

James

[frank shic]

i have a shark guard installed on a PM64. it works great and made it much easier to connect the outfeed support table to the saw whereas before the OEM splitter would interfere with the placement and made closing up the back more difficult.

[John McClanahan]

My PM-66 has a center cast iron section about 18" wide with 4 square corners. It bolts to the main table, and a section with 2 square and 2 rounded corners bolts to that.

John

[Kyle Brooks]

Welcome to the club Wayne - I have a couple of things that are PM and love them. I have the PM71 table saw made in 1961, and a PM100 planer, made in 1983 if memory serves me right. Check out bigtoolstore.com and maybe contact them and see what they know. Another person that maybe can help is the guy who runs nebraska tool in Bennet NE. His website is nebraskatool.com. He has all kinds of stuff that is not in pictures on his website and is really easy to work with. Again welcome to the club and I hope that your PM will serve you as well as mine has.

[Don Jarvie]

Watch ebay. Parts for a PM 66 come up frequently. Join OWWM.org and place an add in the BOYD section. I would be very surprised if an extension table from any year wouldn't fit. You might need to paint it.

[Wayne Jolly]

Thanks for the responses. There is good info there that I will be sure to check out. In the meantime, here is a picture of my saw. There are still quite a few things I need to do to it before putting it in service. One thing I noticed is that with three different blades mounted on the saw, the all wobbled about .010". I don't yet have a good alignment plate, but these blades all run true on my Craftsman so I don't think all three blades are equally warped. I have ordered an arbor replacement with new bearings and spacers, etc. from Powermatic.

But for the topic of this thread you can see the 8" gap between the main table and the laminate extension. When I got the saw, the table was bolted directly to the saw top and the gap you see in the picture wasn't there. But that made the feet of the outer table legs drop into the space between the wheels and the inside cross brace. That interfered with the wheels and they wouldn't turn properly, not to mention making the saw a tad unstable. In this photo, I have taken the fence off and this is just after moving the laminate table out 8" so the support legs fit properly in the rests in the mobile base. The table extension on the left side of the table is 8 1/2" wide, and that is actually too wide for the right side. If I move the laminate table out another 1/2", the feet of the table supports will be on top of the outer cross brace. This tells me that the Cast iron extension cannot be more than 8" wide.

Now someone mentioned looking on ebay for that wing, and I have been doing just that already. I have noticed that several of the pm66's for sale do indeed have a wing on the right that has the rounded outer edges, but I also see several that have the square extensions too. But whether rounded or squared, they all have one there.

The simple thing for me to do would be to simply build a longer laminated table to put in there. And with the cost of these square wings that is probably what I will do. BUT I STILL WANT ONE!!! IwantitIwantitIwantit. So now I think I will go take a Valium and watch some tv. :p

Thanks all,

Wayne

[Kevin W Johnson]

I'd like to have a square cornered extension to add to mine as well. The rails stick out past the end of the table as they are, so I'd like to fill that space with usable table.

In the interim of finding one for your saw, I'd just make a filler plate to fill the 8" gap you have rather than remake the laminate extension. Soon as you do that, you'll find a good deal on a cast iron extension.

The runnout you have on your arbor, can be corrected by truing the arbor flange. Some do this on a lathe, but it can be done with the arbor in the saw. On the saw truing may be best, since the arbor will be in its operating environment,, and chucked in a lathe is different. You can find more info on this at the OWWM forum. At any rate, replacing the bearings is a really good idea, and may fix the arbor runnout. Just be prepared to have to correct runnout even on the new arbor. I need to true mine ( I know it's out, but not by how much), but don't have access to a dial indicator yet. There's one in some of my dads things, I just haven't had the opportunity to go find it yet.

[Van Huskey]

Nice looking saw, good luck with your wing quest!

[Don Jarvie]

Forget the extension table on the right. You can put the money towards other things. Remake the extension table longer and that will fill in the gap.