Another Powermatic 66 Restore

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have just completed the restoration of my third Powermatic 66. This one was built in 1966. I traveled to Michigan to get it. It was not in to bad of shape for being 44 years old. The motor was burnt up, the dust door was missing & some rust. I tore it completely apart, cleaned and painted everything. Changed the arbor bearings & installed a 3 hp 1 phase motor. I do have one hangup though. The saw has a Powermatic overhead blade guard. I have never seen one of these before & never seen a picture of one. It looks like there should be a top cover for the guard. Would anyone know what type of material this cover would have made of & the size it should be?

[Brian Weick]

that is an awsome job you did and a great saw~ so what are you going to do with it~
One more thing ~ you suck!
Brian

[Ben Cadotte]

Nice job on the saw. So when are you going to send it to me for a thorough testing?

[Andy Livingston]

That looks fantastic. Should be a great saw! Did you fabricate the access door and motor cover, or did you part out from other saws? Did you do your own paint job?

[Doug Shepard]

Very nice. Now you've just got to drive it back to Michigan to repatriate those archaelogical remains. I'll volunteer to store it.

[J. Z. Guest]

Very nice work Chris. I don't think anything is missing from the blade guard. It seems like it would prevent you from accidentally dropping your hand onto the blade and that's it. Has it got a splitter of some sort, (I can't tell by the pix) or just the guard you picture? Were you able to get the old fence to lock parallel? I think I'd be more concerned about kickback from lack of a splitter or riving knife than the guard itself. Without a ZCI or overarm dust collector, it is going to spew a lot of dust.

What are the two levers on the fence? Front & rear?

[Jason Beam]

VERY nice!

That's one dandy restore job, there. I wonder ... could they have mounted a sheet of clear plastic on the ledges created by the "bent" top edges? Glass, maybe (surely not?)?

What are the two levers on the fence? Front & rear?

I believe those are "LOCKED" and "Micro-Adjust Mode" - one engages the micro adjuster (i think that's what that dial on the side is for) and the other completely locks the fence down solidly.

[Terry Mays]

Good job Chris next time I'm up your way and have sometime I might stop by and see it in person.

[Victor Stearns]

Chris, Sure looks better than the day it was built!
You metion third restoration. What happened to the first two?
Keep up the good work.
Victor

[Jim Becker]

Outstanding restoration, Chris!

[Chris Rosenberger]

Thanks for all of the kind words. I enjoyed doing this saw more than the others for some reason.

I will try to answer some of the questions.

Brian,
I am not sure what I am going to do with it.

Andy,
The dust door was missing. I found an original on the E auction site.
The motor cover came with the saw when I bought it.
I did the painting.

Doug,
With the price of diesel now around $5 a gallon, I do not think I will make it back to MI for quite some time.

Jermey,
After some adjustment the fence locks perfectly parallel.
I installed a shark splitter on the saw.
The two handles on the fence lock the front & rear of the fence. You lock the lower handle first. This gets the fence parallel & then you lock the top handle.

Jason,
The left guard has 3 screw holes in the top edge. I was thinking it might have had a piece of plexi glass on it, but was not sure & did not know what size it would be.

Terry,
Stop in any time & welcome to Sawmill Creek.

Victor,
The other 2 restores are machines I am using in my shop. The first was a saw owned buy a former employer. It is a 1967 PM 66. The first time I used it was in 1975. The company that owned it was a remodeling firm. The carpenters cut everything on the saw. Cement blocks, bricks, heavy angle iron & sometimes they even cut wood with it. I was able to purchase it in 2003. It was in bad condition, but it did have all of its parts. I was not interested in restoring it back to original state so I sold off some of the original parts to help pay for the new fence system.



The second restore is a 1994 model. It was used in a factory. It looked like it had cut alot of solid surface material. It was in fair condition.
Link to a post about this saw.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=72699

[Randy Davidson]

You have me drooling in my coffee cup this morning Chris. Beautiful restorations.

[George Sanders]

Very nice work. Now I know what a real saw looks like.

[John Keeton]

Well, the first report (3rd restore) was great, but the one with the router table extension, DC setup, etc. is a work of art! Color coordinated, well designed, and you may have missed your calling if you are concentrating on woodworking. There has to be a great market out there for that kind of restore/readaptation of these old machines. Not cheap I'm sure, but worth every penny!

Honestly, I never really considered this type of thing when I started looking for new machines for my shop. I would LOVE to have that kind of setup.

After posting this, I went back and looked at the prior restore posted in January - these are simply stated - masterpieces!!

[scott spencer]

Chris - That's a striking difference from the "before" to the "after". Awesome job!