Powermatic Model 54 not 54A planer blades

[kevin willis 557]

OK here goes with my first where to question. I bough a used Powermatic Model 54 planer this weekend. It is in awsome shape but needs a set of replacement blades. Where can I find those? When i do google searches all I get back are links for the Model 54A. Any help would be greatly appreciated…:confused:

[Todd Hyman]

Kevin,

Congrats on getting that jointer from Sam. I bet it was in great shape. If you know the size of the blade you could try getting them from Brian @ holbren. He has a 10% disocunt for woodnetters and here is the website.

http://www.holbren.com/home.php?cat=661

[Doug Shepard]

Are the blades different? I didn't think they changed the cutter head or knives between the 54 and 54A but could be wrong. I'm pretty sure I have the last set changed out of my 54 in the packaging for the new set. I can check what part number is on the packaging when I get home today.

[kevin willis 557]

Doug,

That would be great, I am having the darndest time finding blades for this thing. I really don't know if the cutterhead's are different.

[Doug Shepard]

They do appear to be different. It looks like at least initially they were the same. I've found a number of PDFs that spec the same PN as mine
http://www.misgroupinc.com/partfiles/Powermatic%20Model%2054A%20Jointer.pdf
PM's online manual (http://www.powermatic.com/Products.aspx?Part=1791279DXK&cat=332160)
for the 54A says PN 708801DX for the knife set and the product page says auto-set knives that align themselves in the cutterhead for rapid knife changes. The 54 knives (and cutterhead) most definitely ain't auto-set or rapid, so it looks like they've upgraded the original 54A. The PN on my 54 knife set package is 6285860 (http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHMI_enUS291&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=powermatic+6285860)
Results do not look encouraging on any Google links or PMs online part search. I think a phone call to PM is worth trying but we may have to go to aftermarket makers for more knives:mad:
Let me know what you end up with.

[kevin willis 557]

I called Powermatic and the old part number is 6285860. the new part number is 708801 not the 708801DX(quickset). Thanks for all ya'lls help!!:)

[Mark Carlson]

Hi Kevin,

I have a 54a. At some point I did get new knives for it. I took the old ones out and measured the width, height, thickness. I was then able to find Freud blades with the same dimensions on Amazon. Couldn't you do the same?

Later I replaced those blades with ESTA, dispose a blades. Later I replaced the head with a byrd head. I recommend getting the byrd head if you can swing it.

~mark

[Dave Verstraete]

Hi Kevin
When I owned a PM 54 I purchased some Jet blades that fit it. They weren't cheap, though

[Jim Becker]

In general, knives for jointers and planers (outside of those with special cutter head systems and many portables) are sold by size...length, width and thickness. "Brand" isn't really important as long as they are sized correctly.