Anyone with Byrd head in pea green Powermatic Model 60 8" Jointer?

[Steven Wayne]

Took the afternoon off work yesterday and picked this old girl up. Former school machine with a 3 phase motor and a static phase converter. Needs a little cleanup and sorting out. Thinking I'd like to get a Byrd Shelix head for it. Wondering if anyone has done this on this model jointer.

Thanks!

P.S. It wasn't a bad deal :)

[Dave Cav]

I have done two of them, not on the pea green, but on older gold (late 80s to 90s era). It's about an hour job if you take a coffee break. As I recall, you lower the tables, remove the belts and cutter pulley, take two bolts loose, (one under each bearing housing) and lift the cutter out. Pull the bearing housings off, install new bearings on the Byrd head, reinstall.

Powermatic has used at least two bearing sizes (different bearing ID) on the Model 60 so you need to verify the shaft size on the cutter head before you order the head from Byrd and buy bearings.

[David Kumm]

If the tables are flat I'd go for it, but buy a vfd to run it and can the static. Dave

[Kent Adams]

If the tables are flat I'd go for it, but buy a vfd to run it and can the static. Dave

+1. Get rid of that static converter.

[Steven Wayne]

Thanks for the input guys! I have a newer Delta "professional" 6" with the Byrd head that got a great deal on. I'd always wanted one of these 8" machines so I jumped when I finally found one for less than $500. The Delta is a bit light weight for my taste. Ii think it needs to be bolted to the floor. Figured I could recoup a good bit of the cost of getting the Powermatic going by selling the Delta.

I have VFDs on a few other machines. Need to get one on my Powermatic 1200 drill press as well..

[Joseph Montroy]

I just did what your thinking about to a pea green 8" p60. Pay attention to what bearings are on it when you pull them off. I had a hard time finding the outboard one. You'll definitely wasn't some shim material. Even though my regular cutterhead worked perfect, when I put the new byrd in, it was off by .070. If you pull the old head, get the bearings coming in the mail when you order the new one. Should take an hour to reinstall it if you have everything there. It took me a while because I assumed I wouldn't need to shim. You know what happens when you assume :( otherwise, I love the new head in that machine!

[David Kumm]

There should be a bunch of info on the PM head and bearings over at owwm.org. Dave

[Allan Speers]

I just did what your thinking about to a pea green 8" p60. Pay attention to what bearings are on it when you pull them off. I had a hard time finding the outboard one. You'll definitely wasn't some shim material. Even though my regular cutterhead worked perfect, when I put the new byrd in, it was off by .070. If you pull the old head, get the bearings coming in the mail when you order the new one. Should take an hour to reinstall it if you have everything there. It took me a while because I assumed I wouldn't need to shim. You know what happens when you assume :( otherwise, I love the new head in that machine!

FWIW, most of the shelix head sellers offer pre-installed bearings, for a very reasonable price. One less hassle.

Last time I checked with Holbren, they were using a top Japanese brand. Nishi, I think. OF course, you still have to tell them which particular bearings were in your machine.