Help Me Decide: Powermatic 60 or Delta 37-315 8" Jointer

[Ben Martin]

Can anyone give me any insight on which of these jointers I should pursue? I went out over lunch to check out a 1979 Powermatic 60, is was in perfect shape, the only issue was that the base had a larger dust collection housing attached out of sheetmetal, so the base might be a little messed up and it has also been re-painted white. Besides that it looked great. I should be able to get it for around $600. I have also seen 2 Delta 37-315 advertised locally, one is a 1967 ($490) and the other is a 1982 ($725). I have not seen them, but they both look like they would take the same amount of work as the Powermatic to get into running shape. All three are 3 phase, which is sort of an issue, but my uncle is an electrician so he can help with that.


So which should I try to convince the wife is a better deal? :D

PS. I currently have a 1984 Powermatic 1150 drill press and a 1995 Delta 28-203 bandsaw, so I am only partial to American made tools...

[Joe Jensen]

I don't know those two delta part numbers but I spent a lot of energy making this decision in 1990. Back then Delta had a parallelagram version and a dovetail way version. The dovetail version of the Delta and the Powermatic were very comparable. The newer style Delta (brand new design for them in 1990) had much lighter castings.

I ended up with the PM60 and I've been very happy. $600 is a pretty fair price. Locally in AZ nice gold ones go for $800-1K and the old green ones in rough shape for around $500.

[Keith Christopher]

Go with the mustard ! I'm a little down on Delta atm.

[Ben Martin]

Well, I ended up getting the Powermatic! Time to find a way to get it into my basement and start to restoration.