Powermatic PM160 16" Planer - Upgrade to 20" spiral worth it?

[Patrick Irish]

I've got a Powermatic similar to below. Pm160 16" 3 blade. It was a 3 phase but after a VFD popped I swapped a new baldor 5hp single phase and new magnetic starter in. Works great. A little bit of a pain to fine tune to eliminate snipe I feel. I do like the variable feed rate.

That said, I've always wanted to a 20" and newer 20" planers take up less space and have better dust collection. My pm160 came with a huge 8" hood that my dust collector can't really keep up with.

I don't know what my planer would sell for BUT I've seen them listed from $1200 up to $4,000.

If I could sell it for $3000, I'd probably be willing to spend the extra on a new with warranty spiral 20" from laguna, powermatic or maybe grizzly. There's 20" 4 blade grizzly locally for $1400 which seems high for only a 3hp machine. I read that 3hp is too small if a conversion to spiral was an option. Plus I'd have to figure out how to move it.

I'm just a hobbyist BUT noticed when I batch cutting boards during production I always get bummed I can't make them bigger then say 15" wide.

Think I'm waisting my time in selling it? I have a small benchtop 13" I've been using since I've been too busy to work on the powermatic to get the snipe out.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Don’t think you’ll find too many willing to pay $3k for a PM160, but that’s just one man’s opinion. Maybe more like $1500-2000 depending on location and condition.

I jumped from a screaming 13” dewalt (for several years) to an older 20” SCM 4 knife machine and will never look back, but I’m not a hobbyist and the 20” planer is 3 phase and 9HP so it requires a rotary phase converter to run.

I think I would rather have a PM160 than a 20” Taiwanese import, but that’s just me. Is anything broken / not functioning properly on the 160 besides some snipe or is it just a width thing in your mind?

[Bill Dufour]

Location? that will help us determine price.
Bill D

[Stewart Lang]

I will say, since you converted it to single phase 5hp with a new motor and magnetic, that should help the sale quite a bit.

If it had a helical head in it you could probably get 3k for it, but straight knife I'd say $1-2k at most. Those old PM planers have good reputation and everybody *thinks* they want one, but in practicality most people will just want a newer 20" 4-post planer with helical head, like yourself.

[Mike Kees]

I would keep the Powermatic. Way more machine than the others you mentioned. Make your cutting boards in two pieces and glue up after planing the two halves.

[Bill Dufour]

I thought Ireland had three phase at most houses?
Bill D

[John Jardin]

Philip,
I have a PM180. Robert Vaughn's article in FWW is the Bible on planer adjustments. If you follow it carefully, I think you will limit or even eliminate the snipe. I also have a Grizzley 24" drum sander which gets rid of a slight snipe from the planer.

[David Kumm]

That machine should not snipe if adjusted. Without an onboard grinder, the price is less so 2K-2500 maybe. Build is about three times better than new under 7500. Some may buy to put a hermance or Byrd head on it though. With a grinder, a straight knife guy would snap it up. Dave

[Mark Gibney]

No, Ireland has 240V single phase at residential buildings.

[Bill Space]

How wide is your jointer, or whatever they call a jointer in your area?

Just seems to me that a jointer and planer are best matched in width to some degree, allowing that a rabbiting capability on the jointer can match it to a larger width planer, if steps are taken...

So if you have a 12" jointer (or larger) maybe an upgrade to a 20 inch planer might be a good move. Depends on how much you need to flatten boards greater than 12" width....taking the necessary steps to make that happen.

[Joe Jensen]

I have a 12" jointer and a 12" planer and I don't run glued up panels through the planer. IMHO that 12" PM is way better than most modern 20" planers. If I were going to upgrade I'd watch for a 20" SCM or other old Euro machine. That said, none of them have a spiral head either. Is it the spiral head of the 20" you really want. Maybe add the spiral to the 16" and if you don't like it the increased value might get the money for the head back.