Sell Old 16" Powermatic Planer for used 20" Spiral Girzzly?

[Patrick Irish]

I've been lusting after a larger planer for awhile. I made the decision last April to keep my 16" 5hp probably 50 year old powermatic planer and upgrade it to a Byrd spiral cutterhead. Well the cutterhead came and is still in the box. It's a pretty involved process to install and with a 2 year old and pregnant wife, haven't had the time.

I recently came across a 6 month old 20" Grizzle G1033x with a mobile base. Good chance I can get it for $2k.

I should be able to then sell my powermatic and cutterhead for the same price if not a little more.

The question is should I? Both planers are heavy, 1,100lbs for the powermatic and 900lbs for the grizzly. Both are 5hp. The Powermatic I slapped ona new Baldor 5hp and it has an adjustable feed rate. The Grizzly has two speeds. The Grizzly is plug and play ready to roll and 4" more area of cutting. I think it takes up the same space since the motor is underneath too. The Powermatic currently works but knives are dull, it's loud, and will take a weekend to swap out the cutterhead to the byrd spiral.

What do the 'Creekers think?

[Mel Fulks]

I hear good things about Grizzly and others, but I like Powermatic . I prefer high grade traditional knives , and attribute much of the rush
to spiral to guys buying mostly low grade knives.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Let me get this right, you want to swap a BMW for a Yugo. How much do you plane that's more than 16" wide?

[Andrew Hughes]

I’d keep the Pm.
Invest the time to get to know the machine. I believe it’s a better made machine

[Jared Sankovich]

I'd keep the pm. I have a pm180 and a g1021 with byrd head and I hate the grizzly most days.

[George Makra]

Grizzly carbide is a lower grade and more costly than your Byrd head. I know this because I take care of a saw mills equiptment.

Grizzly has a place in shops that see light use. Parts can be problematic with grizzly. There is a sliding table saw that is about 10 years old. The trunion is broken and thete are no parts in the system.

In my opinon you get what you pay for.

[roger wiegand]

Unless you have a compelling need for the extra 4" I'd keep (and upgrade) the PM, for all the reasons cited above. At this point in life I find that it takes pretty much all my strength to push a ~16" wide board through my MiniMax jointer, I don't think bigger would be even possible. If I had to work with wood that large a lot I think I'd want some kind of real industrial four surface machine with power feeds.

[Mark Gibney]

Jared, what do you find frustrating about the Grizzly?

[Jared Sankovich]

Jared, what do you find frustrating about the Grizzly?

Besides the intermittent feeding issue (with waxed beds) it regularly chatters in the middle of a cut leaving a washboard surface on one side of the board. It's It's caused by board flutter and sometimes is as much as .010" deep. It's not consistent and I've been chasing it for years. New chipbreaker springs help for awhile but it eventually comes back.

[Mark Gibney]

That must be maddening.

[Warren Lake]

are all the set up dimensions accurate?

[Bill Dufour]

Just buy the PM sharpener and use it before tearout prone wood.
Bill D.

[George Makra]

Ok I habe dome expirence eithat problem. The chip breaker is a pain. Try shiming the springs for the chip breaker. Try shimming in 8th inch at a time.
Check to ensure your feed roller is the same height from the left to the right dide.
Lower the feed roller a quarter inch at a time.

Doing the above should help you. I also use a piece of masking tape on the machine to record what I have done to the machine. I.e. turned
feed roller screwd down 3/4 turn.