Is this a good idea, buying advise on a 8" PM jointer

[Tim Morton]

A friend of mine is selling a 15 year old 8" powermatic Jointer that has maybe 1 hour of use on it for $500 delivered. Only hitch is, in his words...it has something wron with it, and he is not sure what it will take for me to get it fixed. he thinks its mechanical. What do you guys think. He is digging into it now to try and remeber what it was.

[Don Abele]

Tim, if it's something that can identified and fixed easily, that's a great deal. My understanding is that many of those older tools were built much more solidly than those of today. If it can't be fixed easily ask yourself, do you really need an 8" jointer or is 6 large enough (had to reword that, it sounded too dirty :p )? For $500-$600 you can buy a new 6" jointer. To go up to the 8" new, you'll double that price. Let us know how it turns out.

[Michael Cody]

A friend of mine is selling a 15 year old 8" powermatic Jointer that has maybe 1 hour of use on it for $500 delivered. Only hitch is, in his words...it has something wron with it, and he is not sure what it will take for me to get it fixed. he thinks its mechanical. What do you guys think. He is digging into it now to try and remeber what it was.


Jointers are not to complicated. There can't be much mechanical wrong with them outside of bearings since it's basically a motor, belt, pulley and a spinning cutter head. What you need to do is make sure the tables are flat & the fence is square & not twisted. If that is ok, jump on because it's a great deal on a very good jointer and anything else should be a pretty easy to fix.

[Steven Wilson]

Something wrong, something mechanical? You can download a PM60 jointer manual from Powermatic and most of the parts will be the same. Does the motor work? Is it single phase? Do the bearings need replacement? As long as the individual wings and fence are flat then you should be able to get the machine back into fine operational condition. Besides motor/drive train issues the only others I can see would be a missing jib, and that's easily replaced - there isn't much too these beasts. BTW the PM60 is a great jointer, I use to have one, $500 is a good price as long as it can be brought back into service for under $300.

[Tim Morton]

I think the reality for me is that this is way more jointer than I need. I would never be able to get it down my basement stairs, and a 6" jointer would be better for me. But thanks for all the input and if anyone is in Vermont and wants to pick this one up, I can get you in touch with him.