Hello all,
This is my first post but have been creeping for a while now. I am just getting into this hobby and have been looking for saws. I acquired a Powermatic 66 from 1971 a few months ago for $200. The guy was moving to Europe so he wanted to get rid of fast. It is a 2HP, 1PH and came with one of those old Powermatic fences that rides on tube rails. He also included a Shark Guard, an Incra miter gauge and a dado blade. It's a great saw and works great.
My dilemma is that while I liked the fence, I really wanted a Biesemeyer type fence and so I ran into a guy who was getting rid of his Powermatic 66 from 1995 for $500. It is a 5HP, 3PH and has a T-squire fence with very long rails. The 3PH part doesn't matter to me because I have a spare VFD that I can use on this one. I talked him down to $400 and he included an extension table and 6 decent blades. Problem is that I don't need 2 Powermatic 66s and My wife doesn't seem to enthusiastic about me keep both. Sounds like I should probably sell one. I guess the question is, which one should I keep if they are both in about the same condition. I know that the older one would probably sell for less but what I get back doesn't really matter to me. What matters most is that I keep the one that will last me longer and that has the most parts still available.
What do you guys think? Which one would you keep if you were in my shoes?