# Vintage Powermatic 66 - Purchase, Restoration and Shop Build



## cabomhn

Came across this today, which is an older model Powermatic 66 in what looks to be a pretty good condition, along with a power feeder. The motor is 3 phase, but I could work around that with a converter. If I could snag this for around $450, do you guys think it would be worth it? 

I don’t mind tinkering and doing some work to it if needed to get things up an running, and always love older tools. I was wondering if anyone on here has experience with this saw and could give any advice or feedback. Thanks!

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## Nubsnstubs

If I was looking for a saw, I'd jump on this one like flies of smelly stuff.. That powerfeed is probably worth half of the asking price. My 2 cents.. ........ Jerry (in Tucson)

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## Nature Man

Powermatic certainly is a solid brand, and the price is right, so just might be worth it. Any possibility of seeing it before you pull the trigger? Chuck

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## cabomhn

Nature Man said:


> Powermatic certainly is a solid brand, and the price is right, so just might be worth it. Any possibility of seeing it before you pull the trigger? Chuck



Well, it’s a decent drive, so I would be fairly committed to it either way if I went that far to change my mind. I probably could “take a look”, but at that point might just make sense to bring it home and work on any minor issues, that’s at least my thought

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## woodtickgreg

I'd be all over that! If one came up near me for that I'd have to buy it and retire my old craftsman. I would even have the top reground if it needed it for that kind of money.

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## cabomhn

woodtickgreg said:


> I'd be all over that! If one came up near me for that I'd have to buy it and retire my old craftsman. I would even have the top reground if it needed it for that kind of money.



Well you guys certainly aren’t making it easy to pass on this one LOL

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## Brandon Sloan

I bought two of these at a school auction site unseen. The thought was that between the two I could put together a working saw. I paid around $400 each with shipping. Both saws worked without issue. It is regarded as one of the best saws ever made. They are a pleasure to use, you won’t regret your purchase. I sold them within the last year in anticipation of moving. Each sold the same day they were listed for $950 each.

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## Brandon Sloan

I’ve had really good luck buying my big tools from here. They have a bunch of stuff in Virginia right now.

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> I bought two of these at a school auction site unseen. The thought was that between the two I could put together a working saw. I paid around $400 each with shipping. Both saws worked without issue. It is regarded as one of the best saws ever made. They are a pleasure to use, you won’t regret your purchase. I sold them within the last year in anticipation of moving. Each sold the same day they were listed for $950 each.



I’ve reached out to the seller and made arrangements to get this thing back to my house, fingers crossed I hear back from the guy.

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## Brandon Sloan

Another one of my bookmarks. I’ve bought some nice machines off this site as well.

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> Another one of my bookmarks. I’ve bought some nice machines off this site as well.



I’ll definitely keep an eye on that. The guy accepted my offer, so if all goes well that saw should be in the garage by the end of the day tomorrow

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## woodtickgreg

Pics!

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## barry richardson

They are built like a tank, but it's gonna be a project, at least it would require a lot of work to get it the way I would want it... right off the bat I would want an extension table and rail, not sure how easy the rails are to come by, and probably a different fence..., and of course the phase converter, but at that price you could afford to spend a few hundred more dollars on it...

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## Brandon Sloan

barry richardson said:


> They are built like a tank, but it's gonna be a project, at least it would require a lot of work to get it the way I would want it... right off the bat I would want an extension table and rail, not sure how easy the rails are to come by, and probably a different fence..., and of course the phase converter, but at that price you could afford to spend a few hundred more dollars on it...


You can get away with a cheap variable frequency drive. Table saws don’t need a complex drive. Biesmeyer made the fence and rails for the one I had. This saw has the older style rails, but you can get the biesmeyer ones for it. I used my table saw fence on my bandsaw by adding a short piece of 2” x 3” tube stock on the bandsaw.

Congrats on a nice saw, if you have any questions let me know. I did a lot of research while I had my saws.

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## cabomhn

woodtickgreg said:


> Pics!



Will report back!

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## cabomhn

barry richardson said:


> They are built like a tank, but it's gonna be a project, at least it would require a lot of work to get it the way I would want it... right off the bat I would want an extension table and rail, not sure how easy the rails are to come by, and probably a different fence..., and of course the phase converter, but at that price you could afford to spend a few hundred more dollars on it...



Those all seem like good points! Thanks for the feedback. I always love a good project, especially with vintage tools, and I’m sure there will be some learning opportunities along the way. Extension table seems ideal, I just will need to get this situated and evaluate how much space I have once I start laying things out.

A new fence, or at least some level of modification to this one, seems like it’ll be in the future. I don’t mind doing some fabrication/welding if needed to get things added.


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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> You can get away with a cheap variable frequency drive. Table saws don’t need a complex drive. Biesmeyer made the fence and rails for the one I had. This saw has the older style rails, but you can get the biesmeyer ones for it. I used my table saw fence on my bandsaw by adding a short piece of 2” x 3” tube stock on the bandsaw.
> 
> Congrats on a nice saw, if you have any questions let me know. I did a lot of research while I had my saws.



Do you happen to have any pictures of yours? Would be interested in seeing what it looked like after converting.


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## Brandon Sloan

cabomhn said:


> Do you happen to have any pictures of yours? Would be interested in seeing what it looked like after converting.


I’ll search around and see if I do. If nothing else, I can make up some drawings. The main component is the biesmeyer fence. They actually manufactured all of the powermatic fences before being bought by Delta. The fence just rides between a piece of angle iron and the 2” x 3” rectangular bar stock. I’ll check my pictures though.

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## woodtickgreg

just an FYI, just about any T square style fence and rails can be adapted to that saw. You might have to drill a few holes but thats not a big deal.

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## cabomhn

Well after 9 hours of driving, catching up with a good friend who lived that way and helped me load it, I got the saw home. The saw belonged to a cabinet maker up near Richmond, VA who recently retired and had just started selling some of the equipment from his shop. Had a LOT of equipment and the owner was kind enough to show us around including the retired showroom upstairs showing off some of their custom cabinetry.

The saw is in pretty nice condition, both it and the power feeder fired up nicely and seemed to run without any issue at the shop. No obvious sounds or issues. Things need lubricated since it’s been sitting for a while, but generally speaking there’s minimal rust, just a few spots on the top and inside the cabinet. For the price I think I got a good saw that will be awesome after some TLC. 

Thankfully loading wasn’t too bad, as there was a truck ramp access so basically just had to set it in the bed. The power feeder is way heavier than I thought it would be, probably 175 pounds or so. Unloading was made pretty easy with an engine hoist. All in all, long day, but worth the trip!

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## Tony

That's awesome man, I'm happy for you!

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## cabomhn

Tony said:


> That's awesome man, I'm happy for you!



Thanks! Excited to get this thing cleaned up and give a second phase of life.

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## Eric Rorabaugh

Nice grab!

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## woodtickgreg

Man that's awesome! I'd have snagged that too. Just needs a fence upgrade. I haven't seen a tubular fence rail since I was in high school on old Rockwell's.

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## Brandon Sloan

You won’t regret owning this saw. I should clarify my earlier comments. My table saws were built in 1985 and came with the original t square beisemeyer fence and rails. Biesmeyer was bought out by delta at some point and the fences on these PM 66’s changed again. I put my own handmade rails on my bandsaw so that I could use my table saw fence on it. I got the metal out of the scrap bin at one of the local metal shops. I think they just gave them to me so they didn’t have to write up a ticket for the sale. The reason I even mentioned it, is because I figured you would be building an extension and some kind of amazing table saw cabinet. So building your own rails gives you some customization over the standard sizes you can buy. Plus it will save you some money and will be the easiest addition you make to that bad boy. The biesmeyer fence is the part you have to track down. Awesome saw and I’m looking forward to all the things you will create with it.

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## Mike1950

Nice saw- sell The power feeder and get most of your money back

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> You won’t regret owning this saw. I should clarify my earlier comments. My table saws were built in 1985 and came with the original t square beisemeyer fence and rails. Biesmeyer was bought out by delta at some point and the fences on these PM 66’s changed again. I put my own handmade rails on my bandsaw so that I could use my table saw fence on it. I got the metal out of the scrap bin at one of the local metal shops. I think they just gave them to me so they didn’t have to write up a ticket for the sale. The reason I even mentioned it, is because I figured you would be building an extension and some kind of amazing table saw cabinet. So building your own rails gives you some customization over the standard sizes you can buy. Plus it will save you some money and will be the easiest addition you make to that bad boy. The biesmeyer fence is the part you have to track down. Awesome saw and I’m looking forward to all the things you will create with it.



Thanks for the info! I’ll take a look into what it would take to make the rails myself to fit the biesmeyer fence


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## cabomhn

Mike1950 said:


> Nice saw- sell The power feeder and get most of your money back



I was curious about the power feeder and how well it works with smaller stock. It’s makes sense for use with larger stuff, but it wasn’t clear looking online how useful it could be for me.

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## Nubsnstubs

I had a friend that had both the saw and feeder when he was in business. My take on the powerfeeder is if you are gonna rip several hundred feet of material per day, it's well worth having it. It's an accessory that should pretty much go on a dedicated saw because it's mounting limits the use of the saw when it's mounted. Now, if you had a shaper, even though you won't be shaping a lot of stuff, it would be worth keeping because of the safety factor it produces and where it usually mounts. ........... Jerry (in Tucson)

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## cabomhn

Mike1950 said:


> Nice saw- sell The power feeder and get most of your money back



Well, I listed it, we’ll see if I get any bites. Worst case, I’ll hold onto it and I’m sure I can find a use for it at some point

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> You won’t regret owning this saw. I should clarify my earlier comments. My table saws were built in 1985 and came with the original t square beisemeyer fence and rails. Biesmeyer was bought out by delta at some point and the fences on these PM 66’s changed again. I put my own handmade rails on my bandsaw so that I could use my table saw fence on it. I got the metal out of the scrap bin at one of the local metal shops. I think they just gave them to me so they didn’t have to write up a ticket for the sale. The reason I even mentioned it, is because I figured you would be building an extension and some kind of amazing table saw cabinet. So building your own rails gives you some customization over the standard sizes you can buy. Plus it will save you some money and will be the easiest addition you make to that bad boy. The biesmeyer fence is the part you have to track down. Awesome saw and I’m looking forward to all the things you will create with it.



I saw some interesting DIY welded fences as well, which look to be based off the biesmeyer design. I’m not opposed to doing some fabrication if I’m not able to find a replacement. In the mean time I will probably clean up the current fence and attach a new HDPE facing to it. It runs pretty smoothly and the runners are nick free with all the teeth underneath in good shape. I think at the very least it will be functional for the time being once I get everything cleaned up.

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## Mike1950

cabomhn said:


> I was curious about the power feeder and how well it works with smaller stock. It’s makes sense for use with larger stuff, but it wasn’t clear looking online how useful it could be for me.


great for production shop. but as @Nubsnstubs said- it limits what you can do. really need a dedicated saw. especially for an industrial strength feeder such as that one.


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## Brandon Sloan

cabomhn said:


> I saw some interesting DIY welded fences as well, which look to be based off the biesmeyer design. I’m not opposed to doing some fabrication if I’m not able to find a replacement. In the mean time I will probably clean up the current fence and attach a new HDPE facing to it. It runs pretty smoothly and the runners are nick free with all the teeth underneath in good shape. I think at the very least it will be functional for the time being once I get everything cleaned up.


I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, interesting stuff. Save any extra HDPE for runners when you make a table saw sled. I bought some scrap at a place that sells dog mushing supplies. They use it for the bottom of their sleds. I used my cross cut sled and miter sled more than I used the fence on my saw.

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, interesting stuff. Save any extra HDPE for runners when you make a table saw sled. I bought some scrap at a place that sells dog mushing supplies. They use it for the bottom of their sleds. I used my cross cut sled and miter sled more than I used the fence on my saw.



I’ve seen a similar video, but that one is pretty straightforward. Thanks for sharing.


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## cabomhn

Got started in the summer heat today getting all of the surface rust removed on the top. A few areas with some pitting and some scratches, but overall the top was in pretty good shape. Going to start talking it apart and cleaning/lubricating all the internals. I may end up repainting the cabinet, but we’ll see how far my motivation stretches.

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## woodtickgreg

Did I tell you that I'm jealous of your saw deal, lol.

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## Mike1950

looks very nice. Great saw

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## tocws2002

cabomhn said:


> Got started in the summer heat today getting all of the surface rust removed on the top. A few areas with some pitting and some scratches, but overall the top was in pretty good shape. Going to start talking it apart and cleaning/lubricating all the internals. I may end up repainting the cabinet, but we’ll see how far my motivation stretches.
> 
> View attachment 191892




Top looks great, what was your process for cleaning it?

Thanks,

-jason

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## cabomhn

tocws2002 said:


> Top looks great, what was your process for cleaning it?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -jason



First I loosened the “wings” of the top and got everything as level as possible across the surface. Then I soaked the surface with WD40 and let it sit for about an hour, then went to town with a scotch brite pad. This removed quite a bit of the lighter surface rust and oxidation, but there were some areas that still had some rust/light pitting. After that, I did a wet sanding with WD-40 as the lubricant of the entire surface from 120-320 grit using an orbital sander. It didn’t take much at 120 to remove some of the remaining discoloration. Then, finished with some paste wax

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## cabomhn

Started the tear down. Although most things will still rotating freely, disassembly has been time consuming, especially trying to remove the arbor bearings. One bearing sounds ok, but the other needs replaced. Planning to replace both of them while I have everything apart. The second one is stuck on that main shaft, so I’m going to try to get one of those bearing removal tools from harbor freight to help get it apart. You can see my failed attempt to try to tap it out using some wood as blanks below. 

After I get all the parts separated, going to degrease them, and repaint everything. I’m not sure yet if I will paint on the pin stripes, or if I’ll use a decal like the original. The belts from the motor also need replaced, so that’s on the list too. Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have a fully functional saw. 

On another note, finished the installation of 2, 240v outlets (each on their own 20a circuit), and hopefully will have the city inspections done tomorrow. I plan to power the saw with a VFD.

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## Sprung

Matt, that was a nice buy. That saw will serve you well for many years - the rest of your life, if you maintain it well. And for a hobbyist shop, this saw (or an equivalent, such as a Unisaw) is really the last table saw you will ever need to buy. 

And taking care of anything that can wear, such as bearings and belts, is best all done now, as you are doing. If you give it all full and proper maintenance/attention/restoration right now, it could be decades before you have to get into it again for things like bearings and belts.

If you find yourself in need of a manual, VintageMachinery.org is a valuable resource, if you haven't been there yet. The OWWM.org forum is another valuable resource and there's probably more than a few threads detailing restoration of a PM 66.

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## T. Ben



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## cabomhn

Sprung said:


> Matt, that was a nice buy. That saw will serve you well for many years - the rest of your life, if you maintain it well. And for a hobbyist shop, this saw (or an equivalent, such as a Unisaw) is really the last table saw you will ever need to buy.
> 
> And taking care of anything that can wear, such as bearings and belts, is best all done now, as you are doing. If you give it all full and proper maintenance/attention/restoration right now, it could be decades before you have to get into it again for things like bearings and belts.
> 
> If you find yourself in need of a manual, VintageMachinery.org is a valuable resource, if you haven't been there yet. The OWWM.org forum is another valuable resource and there's probably more than a few threads detailing restoration of a PM 66.



That is hopefully the goal! Love old machinery and tools, and it’s even better when the vintage stuff is often better than the newer, more expensive tools. 

I hadn’t come across that OWWM forum, but thanks for sharing. There’s a bunch of useful threads I’ve seen already, especially about getting the arbor calibrated. That will be a great reference when I’m getting everything put back together.

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## cabomhn

Started tonight with the main trunnion rails. I didn’t get a good before shot, but they had some pretty heavy caked on built up of grease and sawdust, along with some rust on the lower third of both pieces.

My wife grabbed an “action” shot while I was scrubbing away. Notice the harbor freight bearing puller box as the working surface. I ultimately had to resort to picking up the bearing puller to get the second bearing off the arbor. I didn’t want to somehow bend the arbor trying to hammer it off, so this seemed like the safer bet. Even with the bearing puller, I still had to use an impact wrench to get the bearing off.





I taped off all the machined surfaces after getting everything cleaned up, degreased, and dried off.





Next, gave it a nice coat of paint, it was originally a bit darker than the original color, but since decided that the lighter green looked better and then would match the rest of the cabinet once I get it painted. I‘m just using basic automotive enamel pain for these interior components, but will likely find something nicer when painting the main cabinet.

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> I don’t know if you’ve seen this or not, interesting stuff. Save any extra HDPE for runners when you make a table saw sled. I bought some scrap at a place that sells dog mushing supplies. They use it for the bottom of their sleds. I used my cross cut sled and miter sled more than I used the fence on my saw.



I was wondering, do you have any experience with the Incra table saw fence? I came across one locally that will fit the powermatic 66 based on Incra’s website. Seems like the kind of OCD precision my engineering brain may appreciate.


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## Maverick



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## Tony

cabomhn said:


> I was wondering, do you have any experience with the Incra table saw fence? I came across one locally that will fit the powermatic 66 based on Incra’s website. Seems like the kind of OCD precision my engineering brain may appreciate.




I have one, if you have OCD it's good for you. You get extremely precise, repeatable cuts. The only thing I don't like is that it is limited on the width of cut. I don't know offhand how wide it goes and I'm at work now but it's not more than 20" if I remember right.

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## cabomhn

Tony said:


> I have one, if you have OCD it's good for you. You get extremely precise, repeatable cuts. The only thing I don't like is that it is limited on the width of cut. I don't know offhand how wide it goes and I'm at work now but it's not more than 20" if I remember right.



The one I’m looking at appears to be this one which advertises 32”. I know that’s not quite enough to split a sheet of plywood, but I think I’ll probably stick with a track saw for doing large cuts on plywood just because it’s easier for me to manage, and I won’t have the space to have large outfeed tables in my garage to support the plywood. 

One of the other complaints I saw was that you lose some horizontal space to the right of the fence just because the guide sticks out ~ the cutting width capacity at all times which can be frustrating. If those are some of the only drawbacks, seems like it may be a good option for me based on the type of work I hope to do.

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## Tony

If you do get it follow the instructions carefully and make sure it's all aligned right when you're setting it up, it's hinky but if you adjust it right you're golden.

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## Brandon Sloan

I looked into that system at one point. The reason I didn’t go down that path is because of the price. It wasn’t something I had to have. I used my cross cut sled and miter sled a lot more than I used my fence. Also, get yourself a good set of feather boards. I only had one kickback that could have been prevented if I was using my feather boards. Hit me right next to my junk. Felt like I got kicked by a miniature mule. I ended up adding an adjustable homemade fence to the cross cut sled. I really loved that saw, it never batted an eye at anything I sent through it.

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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> I looked into that system at one point. The reason I didn’t go down that path is because of the price. It wasn’t something I had to have. I used my cross cut sled and miter sled a lot more than I used my fence. Also, get yourself a good set of feather boards. I only had one kickback that could have been prevented if I was using my feather boards. Hit me right next to my junk. Felt like I got kicked by a miniature mule. I ended up adding an adjustable homemade fence to the cross cut sled. I really loved that saw, it never batted an eye at anything I sent through it.



Understandable, I don’t think I would be interested in full price, but I did end up picking one up today locally for around the same price as a biesmeyer setup, so we’ll see how it goes once I am ready to put everything together! Definitely will be making some feather boards, and may also look into some of the products out now that you can attach to your fence that do a similar job with angled rollers towards the fence and prevent the board from lifting. 

Made some more progress tonight, here’s the main trunnion assembly. Gears are in good shape but everything is hard caked into place. 







After a lot of scrubbing and degreasing, finally had the main piece (not sure the correct terminology) ready to paint and got the machined areas taped off. 








Finally onto priming/painting. Decided hanging in the air would be the easiest approach, and ended up working pretty well! Had all of the holes taped off, and tried to remove it as soon as the paint was on to get a clean edge. 








After a lot of wd40 and time with a wire brush, these are back in pretty good shape




Tomorrow I plan to get the main trunnion frame cleaned up and painted, as well as any of the smaller accessory pieces. Hopefully I’ll have time to start cleaning up the cabinet in preparation for painting next weekend.

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## Brandon Sloan

You’re not playing around!! Awesome job, keep the updates coming.

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## cabomhn

A bit more progress today. This piece was probably the grimiest of them all, and took a good 45 minutes of heavy scrubbing to get all of the angle adjustment gears cleaned up. It took multiple rounds of degreasing and scrubbing to get all of the buildup removed and ready for painting, and finally get it painted up. I need to clean up a few smaller pieces, and then it’ll be on to the cabinet next.

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## DKMD

It’s looking great!

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## Brandon Sloan

Love the color! You’ve already tripled the value of this saw. Not that you’d ever need to sell it. Have you bought the VFD yet?

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## cabomhn

DKMD said:


> It’s looking great!



Thanks! Liking how things are coming out. Will look great when it’s all back together (and hopefully run great too)


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## cabomhn

Brandon Sloan said:


> Love the color! You’ve already tripled the value of this saw. Not that you’d ever need to sell it. Have you bought the VFD yet?



Thanks! I haven’t picked up the VFD yet, but probably will in the next week or so as I get closer to actually getting this thing put toget her


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## cabomhn

Been a busy week or so with work and not a whole lot of time to keep moving with the restoration. The replacement arbor bearings made their way and I was able to get the main assembly put back together, and everything is nice and quiet! 





Started to get the cabinet cleaned up. First did a pressure wash cycle to get any of the bulk dirt and grime removed, especially on the very bottom where dust had accumulated and caked all around. Removed the pinstripe decals and spent some time removing the left over adhesive and then lots of time sanding to get to a smooth base to start priming. 




Got my first coat of primer. It’s a bit spotty due to the wind, but this coat will be sanded after a few days, and then another clean coat applied. Hopefully by next weekend the cabinet will be ready to go, along with the other parts so that I can start putting things back together. 





Notice in the background the little ryobi saw this Powermatic is replacing, quite a bit different! I’m waiting on the replacement motor belts to arrive, as well as the original motor cover. I found a good deal on one on ebay and decided it was probably worth the marginal amount more over fabricating one myself from scratch. So, when that arrives I’ll be going through this same painting process to get it to match. 

More updates to come!

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## Brandon Sloan

I’m enjoying this!

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## cabomhn

Not quite associated with the table saw restoration, but this came in today and I was able to get this installed with a little help from my wife. After the fact, I realized i probably could have used chains to incrementally raise it until it rested on the hooks installed in the ceiling. On high this will be able to filter the garage 8 times per hour when working with the door closed. Hopefully this will help keep the dust down in the air, as well as the dust that eventually settles on surfaces!

Two coats of primer in on the saw cabinet. I think once I get this sanding done it will be ready add the final color.

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## cabomhn

If y’all get tired of the updates, please let me know!

In the next segment of new items getting added to the shop, I came across the delta rockwell shaper for $225. I have some cabinets and molding work in mind, so this seemed like a no brainer with the price. After talking, I found out that the seller also had an older parks 12” planer that I’m also planning to pick up this Saturday. The planer needs an adjustment to get the feed evened out, so I’m anticipating a full tear down and rebuild similar to the table saw. 

Hopefully in a couple more months here I’ll have a functional shop up and running!

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## Gdurfey

Keep them coming Matt!!!!! I am really inspired. The shaper reminds me of my dad's that I did not get...…..

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## DKMD

Looks like good progress, Matt!

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## cabomhn

One final minor update. Finished installing the first set of 8, 4’ long LED shop lights tonight. There are the Barrina T5 LEDs off of amazon, and the set of 8 was ~$55. Overall I can saw WOW these things are quite bright, and much cheaper than the options from the box store. Installation was pretty easy and only really involved drilling into the drywall and splicing connectors for power. 





Highly recommend these lights if anyone is in the market for them. The angle of light that comes out of these LEDs is fairly low, so you’ll notice the bottom ⅓ of the wall is still a tad dark. I fully expect that to be completely lit once I get the third row away from the wall installed and the beam coming out of the light actually directed at that area of the wall. 

On another note, I picked up that bench in the back yesterday based off the Paulk smart bench design. Someone had made one of these a project with their son locally, and was selling it for less than the material costs (not including the fancy rulers used in the Paulk videos). The plan for me is to store this bench top on the ceiling, and bring it down as a work table while working on a given project, and then stow it away again to save floor space.

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## Sprung

Keep the old iron and restoration progress coming! I've been gradually upgrading my machines from newer Asian made machines to old American made iron, though there are a couple machines that probably will stay.

Yeah, those Barinna LED lights are great! I went with these, the T8's, in my new shop space and WOW!!! the amount of light! It catches guests off guard too and some have expressed that they wish their shop was as well lit.

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## cabomhn

Sprung said:


> Keep the old iron and restoration progress coming! I've been gradually upgrading my machines from newer Asian made machines to old American made iron, though there are a couple machines that probably will stay.
> 
> Yeah, those Barinna LED lights are great! I went with these, the T8's, in my new shop space and WOW!!! the amount of light! It catches guests off guard too and some have expressed that they wish their shop was as well lit.



More restoration pics will be here soon. Just need to get the smoothed out, and maybe try to find some pinstripe decals. 

Those ones look great too; a bit bright and a bit warmer color temp. Might have picked those up actually if I had seen them, but oh well! These are still good. Overall the price and value of Barrina seems worth it.

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## cabomhn

Bit more progress tonight! After multiple coats of primer and sanding, I got the first primary coat on. This is the “hunter green” rustoleum enamel paint. The color isn’t too far off from the original color that was underneath the safety sticker. I’m not a restoration purest so it’s close enough for me. 





Unfortunately there were a few areas with drips that I plan to sand down and do another coat after it’s had a chance to dry for a few days. After that and a clear coat the cabinet should be good to go and I’ll be able to move onto the motor cover.

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## cabomhn

Today’s machinery haul complete. All in all for $500 and a tank of gas, I think it turned out pretty alright. The delta shaper is in decent shape, and everything looks functional as-is. The parks planer looks really good. Everything rotates freely, has the original steel base, and a belt guard which is great. I found out that the motor is a beefy 3HP on it, so i’ll need to evaluate if my 20amp circuit will be enough. I believe during operation the amperage will be ok, but I may need a larger circuit/wire gauge to handle the startup load. 

Really glad that I went on the road trip today with an engine hoist thanks to my neighbor for letting me borrow it. I don’t think we could have gotten these loaded without it, especially the planer. The base on the planer appears to be close to 1/4” thick steel. Judging by how hard it was to even maneuver in the truck bed, it seems like it could be in the 500-600lb range with the base/motor. I know the tops on these things alone come to around 260lb. 
























Very long day, but glad to have these ready for some clean up/restoration. First priority though is to finish the last bit of work on the table saw to get that all pieced back together and running!

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## Eric Rorabaugh

NICE grab!

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## Gdurfey

Incredible Matt. You have a heck of a shop coming together that is going to be good for many years!!

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## Sprung

Nice gets! I'd love to have one of those Parks planers myself! They're great planers, from what I've read.

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## cabomhn

Gdurfey said:


> Incredible Matt. You have a heck of a shop coming together that is going to be good for many years!!



Thanks! Hopefully it won’t take me years to get the shop operational

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## cabomhn

Sprung said:


> Nice gets! I'd love to have one of those Parks planers myself! They're great planers, from what I've read.



Everything I’ve seen about them online is that once they are set up and working they are awesome, even on long heavy stock where other smaller machines would struggle. 

I was a bit concerned getting this sight unseen but I think it paid off

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## Nubsnstubs

After seeing the shaper you just got, now you need to get that power feed off the floor and mount it. You got some good deals. If you don't already have a compressor, drill press, and a jointer, get them and will be set for life in woodworking. thanks for posting your adventure. .. Jerry (in Tucson)

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## cabomhn

Nubsnstubs said:


> After seeing the shaper you just got, now you need to get that power feed off the floor and mount it. You got some good deals. If you don't already have a compressor, drill press, and a jointer, get them and will be set for life in woodworking. thanks for posting your adventure. .. Jerry (in Tucson)



I was originally planning to sell that power feed, but I am thinking that since i got this shaper that it would be an optimal use for it, I just need to figure out the best way to work out the power since the power feed is three phase. I may work out a way to jumper it off the table saw VFD with a separate plug since that motor is also three phase. 

I do have a jointer, a 6” powermatic (you can see it peeking out in the second pic on the recent post). The drill press is next on the list, and probably a disk/belt sander combo. Once I get the saw and planer set up, I can at least functionally start working on some bigger projects and working with rough stock.

Appreciate all the feedback from folks on here!


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## Tom Smart

cabomhn said:


> Bit more progress tonight! After multiple coats of primer and sanding, I got the first primary coat on. This is the “hunter green” rustoleum enamel paint. The color isn’t too far off from the original color that was underneath the safety sticker. I’m not a restoration purest so it’s close enough for me.
> 
> View attachment 192764
> 
> Unfortunately there were a few areas with drips that I plan to sand down and do another coat after it’s had a chance to dry for a few days. After that and a clear coat the cabinet should be good to go and I’ll be able to move onto the motor cover.


Kamado Joe Big Block -

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## cabomhn

Tom Smart said:


> Kamado Joe Big Block -



After it being out of stock everywhere for a few months here I jumped when Costco finally had it in stock!


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## Tom Smart

Joe is in our Costco next month. Our Lowes also carries Big Block in the summer.

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## cabomhn

The most recent obsession has been figuring out the best way to get three phase power to the shop. So far the powermatic 66 is three phase, the powerfeed is three phase, and I have my eyes on a drill press up for auction locally that would also be three phase. That and the fact that three phase equipment is much easier to come by had me thinking that a rotary phase converter would ultimately be a better choice in the long run vs. multiple VFDs, which introduce their own challenges.

I eventually opted for this American Rotary AMP converter, which is essentially plug and play. I did have to upgrade one of the outlets to a 50amp, 240v outlet with 6-gauge wire and matching breaker which is peaking behind the AMP in the background. This will allow me to keep the table saw plugged in, and cycle any other 3 phase equipment with the second outlet on the converter. 

In terms of the saw restoration, I got the final coat of green on the cabinet and it’s looking pretty good. I’m just waiting on the racing stripe to come in to finish off that project!

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## Tony

Just catching up on this thread, heck of a deal on your last haul! From what I hear those Parks planers are beasts!

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## cabomhn

A bit more organization complete last night and it’s starting to look like a shop! The wood rack is one of the bora racks that woodcraft sells. Overall it seems pretty nice, but I don’t think I will load it quite as full as it’s rated for. Will be perfect for storing wood project to project but won’t be able to store a stash!

Next I got the Paulk smart bench hanging from the wall. Hoping that when I don’t have any large projects that I can leave it stowed easy to save space. 





Now, just waiting on some decals and the table saw will be well on its way to completion, then on to the parks! I got a sand blasting setup to help with the paint preparation since there a lot more parts to work with unlike the saw.

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## cabomhn

Finally an update on the restoration. The decal took nearly two weeks to arrive from New Jersey but finally got it in and got it installed. I laid out the bottom edge with painters tape to try to center it as best as possible to the front “Powermatic” plate, at least where it will go. This is a vinyl decal that goes on wet and you have to squeegee out the excess water. All in all it went pretty well and it’s probably about as good as it would have come stock.

The paint took about 3 coats to get it just right with no (major) drips anywhere obvious. The rustoleum enamel I used was pretty good, but not enough paint and it left a textured finish. Too much paint and you got a drip. Honestly for the rest of the restoration projects, I think I’ll buy a HVLP gun from harbor freight and give those a go to hopefully make the process easier.





Up next I need to get the clear coat on, and then I’ll move on to getting the motor cover painting finished. Hopefully have this done in about a week! Next machine in the shop will be a vintage rockwell drill press I won at a local liquidation action. This is supposed to be in functional shape but I expect some level of restoration will be done on that one as well.

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## cabomhn

Not an update to the restoration, but another tool added to the shop! Thankfully this one was local and in pretty good shape. It will still need a bit of work to get going, but I will stow this in the back until the other projects are completed. One thing for sure is that I will definitely need a mobile base for this guy. Not sure how much it weighs but it’s a rock solid saw. 





Thursday I’ll pick up the vintage rockwell press from a local auction and with that the tools will pretty much be set for the shop minus a sander. Will be making sawdust in no time!

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## barry richardson

cabomhn said:


> Not an update to the restoration, but another tool added to the shop! Thankfully this one was local and in pretty good shape. It will still need a bit of work to get going, but I will stow this in the back until the other projects are completed. One thing for sure is that I will definitely need a mobile base for this guy. Not sure how much it weighs but it’s a rock solid saw.
> 
> View attachment 193575
> 
> Thursday I’ll pick up the vintage rockwell press from a local auction and with that the tools will pretty much be set for the shop minus a sander. Will be making sawdust in no time!


Nice! what size are the wheels?

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## cabomhn

barry richardson said:


> Nice! what size are the wheels?



I’m not 100% sure the size of the wheels, but here are the other specs for the saw. Wanted a resaw capacity that would complement the parks planer with ~12” of capacity.

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## cabomhn

Garage is filling up! This is the last thing for a while until I get a chance to finish up my machine restoration backlog. Physically this thing is a little rough, but functionality everything seems in good working order. Hopefully this will be the least intrusive restoration out of the bunch and lots of holes being drilled in my future

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## woodtickgreg

Very cool stuff Matt, for some reason I didn't get any notifications on new post to the thread. Wise choice on the rotary phase converter since you have multiple tools that are 3 phase. Rust oleum is my favorite paint for machines, very durable and oil resistant. Once you get the application figured out it flows out nice. I like that green. Nice score on the tools too! Be sure to post your restorations no matter how big or small, it shows others that it can be done and encourages them to do so. I like to show mine so others can learn from my work too.
Great job Matt.

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## cabomhn

woodtickgreg said:


> Very cool stuff Matt, for some reason I didn't get any notifications on new post to the thread. Wise choice on the rotary phase converter since you have multiple tools that are 3 phase. Rust oleum is my favorite paint for machines, very durable and oil resistant. Once you get the application figured out it flows out nice. I like that green. Nice score on the tools too! Be sure to post your restorations no matter how big or small, it shows others that it can be done and encourages them to do so. I like to show mine so others can learn from my work too.
> Great job Matt.



Thanks! Happy to keep posting the restoration progress. I always find restorations to be a lot of work and usually pretty challenging, but the end result is always worth it. 

Between last night and tonight I got the main assembly and trunnions reinstalled. I need to finish painting the hand wheels, but first I want to drill and tap out the handles to replace the plastic ones with a nicer metal one. After that I just have to paint the motor mount bracket and the mount that holds the angle adjustment screw and this restoration will be done.

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## cabomhn

Minor update after a very busy week. It’s started to get a little colder here and has been humid so it took several days to get the handles primed and painted up. Tapping the new knobs ended up being a bit of a pain as well because the cheap tap set I had wouldn’t quite cut, so I had to wait for a replacement ⅜-16 tap to finish the job. Thankfully things went back together very smoothly, and it rotates freely with very little resistance on both wheels. Very happy with how things are shaping up.





Only a few more things to get painted and wired and this project will be set. I need to get in and paint the bottom of the cabinet with a brush. You can see the cat prints where the cat got inside and picked up a lot of the green overspray!

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## woodtickgreg

It's coming out beautiful! Great job Matt. Now I want one.

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## cabomhn

Whoops, again, time got away from me in life and I’ve been away for a while. I did not mean to leave this thread hanging so I wanted to a a minimum follow up with the finished product





The saw so far has been a work horse and has been really great to use. I ended up going with the incra fence on this which took about 16 weeks to get delivered due to the pandemic, but the accuracy and repeatability has made the saw extremely functional for repetitive cuts where you have to change the fence location between cuts. 

The base is one of those BORA mobile base kits, which hurts the vintage aesthetic just a little but but was a necessity to pack everything into my garage. 

On the side are some sandblasted parts to a vintage parks planer restoration which is now complete. Will be happy to share and the best part is no waiting for the finished product!!!

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## woodtickgreg

Looks great! Must be a joy to use.

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