Powermatic Model 50 Jointer

[Matt Meiser]

I went to a garage sale today and came across this jointer. The seller had it marked $350, but upon talking offered to sell it for $275. I said I couldn't go over $175 and he said $200 was as low as he'd go. After talking to him for for a little while I agreed to the $200 price and brought it home.

Looking at information on the OWWM site, I think it is probably and early 60's model. It is three phase, but I have a single phase motor that will work. It needs a serious cleaning (that's grease on the tables, not rust) and needs to be repainted. I'm going to strip it down and do a full restoration.

Talking to the seller, it came out of a suburban Detroit-area high school and had been in storage for a few years before he bought it at an auction a few years ago.

[Bruce Page]

Nice find at a great price. I almost bought a model 50 several years ago but it was also 3ph and I didn't want to deal with changing out the motor.
I wish I knew then, what I know now....

[Jim Becker]

I think you got an excellent deal on that Matt and it will clean up very nicely! Do check the bearings since it was a school machine and likely got heavy use over the years.

[Matt Meiser]

Do check the bearings since it was a school machine and likely got heavy use over the years.

I'll probably just end up changing them out regardless. No reason not to when its all the way apart as they are relatively cheap.

[Simon Dupay]

First an unisaw And now a PM 50, soon you'll have a whole shop full of old arn!:) The first jointer I ever used was a PM 60-very nice machine

[Matt Meiser]

Fast-forward 25 days. Here is how it looks now. Painting is complete and all the hardware is cleaned up.

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I'm still messing around with motors. A friend gave me a no-name Chinese motor which would work, but another friend has a Century motor I'm going to look at tomorrow night that he'd sell me for $35. Only question is whether it is reversible as it currently is rotating the wrong direction and he's not sure.

[Matt Meiser]

A couple more pictures of some completed parts. It came with a magnetic starter, but the overloads for it aren't easily available and were too small for a single phase motor so I decided to put a standard switch on it. I started watching Ebay for an original style switch, expecting to pay $40-50 for it. Someone listed one and I asked if he'd be interested in adding a Buy It Now at whatever price he felt was appropriate. I got it for $12. It cleaned up nicely

[Mike Spanbauer]

Will you be sanding the paint back off the mating ways before er-assembly (or is it taped off and not obvious in the pics?)

Looking pretty good there Matt!

mike

[Brent Ring]

Nice find Matt. Old Arn is good stuff!

[Matt Meiser]

Will you be sanding the paint back off the mating ways before er-assembly (or is it taped off and not obvious in the pics?)

Yes, they are all taped with blue tape.

[Matt Meiser]

I actually finished this up the week of the 4th, but things have been crazy around here so I just got a chance to take photos. I picked up a dust hood for it this past weekend but haven't had a chance to install that yet.

[Bruce Page]

Nice job Matt. It looks brand new!

[Barry Vabeach]

Matt, you did a great job. I have a brother to your machine, not sure if it is older or younger. While mine is essentially the same, the switch is on the front, and you have much nicer bolts that lock down the ways - do they have a ratchet mechanism - if they don't, how do they clear the handles? BTW, I have the 1/2 hp single phase Dayton that came with mine if you are interested, though shipping would probably be prohibitive.

[Gary Herrmann]

Nice job, Matt. The jointer looks great.

[Matt Meiser]

Barry, your handles are the originals. Mine were missing and one of these days my dad is supposed to make me a set like that but in the mean time I used some modern handles painted to match the rest of the knobs on the machine. They are the style which you lift to disengage the teeth so they can repositioned to clear as needed. I ended up finding a good 3/4HP motor from a friend which is what Powermatic recommended on these. I've since found a 1HP motor which I've been thinking about putting on there, but I think I'll wait and see if it really needs it.

[Barry Vabeach]

Matt, I went with a 3/4 hp and a link belt and don't have any problems, though I usually go with light passes anyway. I felt the 1/2 hp was under powered.

[Matt Ocel]

SWEET!!!!

Although I would have painted it GOLD!:D:D

But thats just me. I have a "setting the gold standard since 1921" addiction