Home Depot also sold a Ridgid granite top table saw
Hobbyist woodworker
Maryland
Steel City is still alive in Canada. The Canadian distributor for Steel City bought the rights when the company folded in 2015. It's now essentially the house brand for the Normand woodworking stores and the same Taiwan equipment that everyone else sells. https://steelcitymachines.ca/en
I wonder if Powermatic is using something like this carbon coating;
https://carbonmethod.com/carbon-coating/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-86b9mYHRQ&t=574s
Last edited by Edwin Dodds; 09-09-2023 at 11:53 PM.
I grew up in coastal CT. Cars rusted out like crazy, along with anything else made of steel, no matter how it was coated. Salt air gets everywhere - even inside houses. Corroded refrigerators, doorknobs, and bathroom/kitchen fixtures were commonplace.
I have also lived in CA, AZ, TX, GA, and VT. I have spent summers in MS, MO, SC, and FL. Subjectively, the humidity in CT (and RI and MA) makes summers feel wetter and more miserable here than anywhere I have ever spent time. Even in inland CT it is a constant battle to keep rust off of my machine tables.
I would be very interested to see what Harvey's and Powermatic's coatings do in the long run.
I miss going to Bills restaurant by the singing bridge!! Are you familiar with it?
Getting back on Topic. I used Boeshield T9. Its expensive and needs to be applied frequently.
https://boeshield.com/shop-woodworking-tools/
It's not tin coated; its TiN, that is Titanium Nitride. TiN is very hard ceramic that bonds well to iron, and so protects against both abrasion and rust. It's also a low friction surface. It's commonly used to coat cutting tooling like drill bits, and also used to coat medical implants because of its corrosion resistance. Elemental tin (symbol Sn) can be used as an antirust coating, but it's very soft. Fine for use in tin cans, where durability and abrasion resistance is not an issue, wouldn't last long enough to be worth the trouble on a cast iron tool surface.
Last edited by Steve Demuth; 09-10-2023 at 7:12 PM.
Seems like they may be using a moly-disulfide coating that has been used in aftermarget racing pistons for many years:
https://www.wiseco.com/auto/wiseco-a...e-performance/
Ex-SCM and Felder rep
Isn't Harvey making Powermatic tools? Not sure I would call it copying when it's the same company building them.
Call me a sceptic, but could the truth be that PM's typical polished finished is becoming too expensive and not having a
"premium" surface wasn't a viable option for PM.
Alex Zeller is spot on as for Harvey making the PM equipment. They also make many other of the larger saw companies equipment. Even the beloved SawStop. I saw a video interview a few yeas ago with the owner of Harvey and he told of all the the different brands he handled. It just stands to reason to offer the same type of coating on the PM's seeing as to their following here in the US. More market share because of the name brand.
My Dad always told me "Can't Never Could".
SWE
I highly doubt moly disulfide is being used on a saw table top. Moly disulfide is a lubricant coating that actually transfers between the host item and the mating metal. It is not very hard but is very slippery. It is the material used in anti-seize. More likely Powermatic is using a nitriding process. Melonite is a trademark name for nitrocarburizing but many heat treating facilities do the same process without the fancy name. Nitrocarburizing will result in a very hard, dark surface that is rust proof and relatively slick (with a bit of post process polishing). It would be a great choice for a table saw surface.
Really good information being shared. I found this article. Read and look at the photos carefully. I dont think Sawstop is made by Harvey. Also, isnt Sawstop made in Taiwan?
https://www.woodworkersjournal.com/h...ucation-china/