Someone scored some nice old lathes

[Adam Petersen]

My friend in Columbus, NE called me and told me that there was a high school auction going on. He was messing with me saying he bought these two lathes. Truth was he got there too late or I would have had him snag them for me. The one on the left west for $200, the one on right went for $250 is what he told me. That's a pretty good deal IMHO. They look to be pretty complete and in good condition. Probably 3-phase too coming out of their industrial arts shop. Some of the other things were big Powermatic planers, an Oliver table saw, and a couple "industrial" bandsaws, no names. Auto shop too. I hope they were just updating equipment but I'm guessing it was the death of their program.





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[John Keeton]

Look like PM90 lathes and in pretty decent shape. Would be some neat spindle lathes, and with modifications, perhaps even more versatile. Lots of creekers have modified them with VFD applications.

[William C Rogers]

It's rare I ever get to post about my lathe with everyone posting about Grizzly, Laguna, and others. That is how I got my PM 90. PM made these in several different speeds. The one on the left looks a lot like mine, which has a speed range from 350-2100 (tel:350-2100) rpm. The one on the right is 1000-4000 (tel:1000-4000) rpm. I think all of the PM 90's were 1 hp 3 phase. I replaced my 3 phase with a single phase, but this was before VFD's were reasonably available. While it is true these lathes have seen a fair amount of abuse from students, I know mine was regularly maintenance by an outside company. They have also achieved reliability and I can still order a lot of OEM parts from Powermatic. I paid $180 for mine. After I bought it and opened the cabinet door there were several faceplates, hand wheels, extra banjo, and off-set banjo inside. The main limitation is these lathes are only 12" swing. I raised mine to a 18""'swing. The PM 90 is a solid lathe. Oh I have thought about a newer lathe, but I am just a hobbiest and can't justify it and don't want the initial problems with a new lathe purchase. I put my $$ into Robust tool rest and Thompson tools instead as I can't have everything.

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[John Hart]

Very nice. Awesome price. Retrofit with a VFD would be a great solution.