Powermatic 15S

[BARRY RESNICK]

Does anyone have it? Any down sides? How is the cut?

[Kim Spence]

I have one and it works fine, but not sure I would buy it if I had to do it again. You're paying premium price but I'm not sure the product is really premium.

The steel spiral blades cut quietly and smoothly as long as they're sharp, but they don't stay sharp long at all. And once they're dull they're trash, can't be resharpened. If you nick a blade they can't be shifted side to side to hide the nick. And they're expensive, believe around $80 give or take for a set, seems steep considering they're disposable. On the positive side, when the blades are fresh the cut is very impressive especially in figured hardwoods. Quality of cut in softwoods is marginal.

Snipe is noticible, but not terribly bad...I haven't taken time to try to adjust roller pressure or anything to reduce it. I've just taken to running back over the jointer to get rid of snipe.

On the positive side the best feature of the machine is the digital readout, I wouldn't be without that now that I've got used to it.

I got mine from a local dealer and when I uncrated it the gearbox cover was shattered. Dealer ordered me replacement cover but it came in old Jet Blue instead of PM Gold. So I asked dealer to follow up with PM and they sent Gold spraypaint. Seems like they should have sent me a Gold gearbox cover. I've had it 2 years now and still haven't painted it...

Bottom line, if I was to do it over again I'd take a real hard look at the Grizzly G1021X for $1595 including CARBIDE spiral cutterhead and add an aftermarket digital readout. From the looks of it the G1021X is Grizzly's version of pretty much the exact same machine as the 15s, the castings and everything look identical. I have a Griz jointer with the same Carbide cutterhead and I love it.

Hope this helps and happy shopping!

[Kim Spence]

Update - I just checked Amazon and they have the replacement steel spiral blades for the 15s for $55, guess I was overpaying locally. But still $55 seems steep for single edge disposable blades that don't last long...

[Tom Cowie]

Does anyone have it? Any down sides? How is the cut?


Hi Barry

I looked hard at the 15S but the dealer talked me into the 15HH and I'm glad he did.

Go with a Byrd cutter head on either a PM or equivalent machine and I think you'll like it.

Tom

[D-Alan Grogg]

I have the 15S and am satisfied with it.

You have to have good DC in order to clear out chips. Otherwise, you may get tiny scallop shaped compression marks on the surface.

Regarding the blades, even though they are supposed to be disposable, I made a sharpening fixture for sharpening all 3 blades at a time. As long as they aren't deeply nicked, this works very well for me. I had heard of the helix heads with the square carbide cutters, but I had also heard that they can leave many lines on the planed surface.

Regarding snipe, this is my biggest issue with the machine. I haven't been able to completely eliminate snipe. So far, I've only tried adjusting the table rollers. While that helps, I can't eliminate it like I can on my DeWalt 733. Next, I will try adjusting the infeed/outfeed tables to angle them upward slightly at the ends (similar to the method I used on my 733).

[Chris Jenkins]

I'll say the 15S was a great machine in the right direction. Now that Helical Heads are becoming more afforadable and are offered pre-installed in the machines, I would go with a HH over a S. Plus with the HH you can just turn the inserts when needed versus setting all blades to the same height.

[Kim Spence]

D-Alan

I don't want to hijack Barry's thread here, but wondering if you could share more info or perhaps some pics of your sharpening fixture for the 15s blades?

Thanks,
Kim

[Bruce Page]

edit: Regarding snipe, this is my biggest issue with the machine. I haven't been able to completely eliminate snipe. So far, I've only tried adjusting the table rollers. While that helps, I can't eliminate it like I can on my DeWalt 733. Next, I will try adjusting the infeed/outfeed tables to angle them upward slightly at the ends (similar to the method I used on my 733).

That's what I did on my older PM15 with rollers. It helped the snipe but didn't eliminate it completely.

[D-Alan Grogg]

D-Alan

I don't want to hijack Barry's thread here, but wondering if you could share more info or perhaps some pics of your sharpening fixture for the 15s blades?

Thanks,
Kim

I'll try to post a design image of the fixture. This shows the general idea, but doesn't have all the details of the final implementation. The tabs on the blades actually make a nice alignment/hold-down feature. Disclaimer: Please use common sense if you try this. I use an extra-large DMT diamond stone across the top of the blades while keeping my fingers completely out of the danger area. This could easily cut a finger if you aren't careful.

[BARRY RESNICK]

It seems that the consensus is that the PM gives snipe. Is the Grizzly G0453 a better choice?