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I'm in the market for a new 20" planer and I have been reading by different sources that all the referenced machines, and quite a few others, are all manufactured by Geetech in China. Can anyone verify that? A Powermatic 20" HH planer is $4290 but the Grizzly variation is $3095 and they look almost identical. Besides the gold paint, what else are you getting for your $1200 difference?
Howard
The Dallas woodworker
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Mark Twain
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So if they are all made in the same factory and do the same thing, is there any real difference between a Powermatic and a Grizzly that a hobbiest user would notice? I can get both a Planer and 8" HH jointer from Grizzly for the same money as the Powermatic planer by itself. What am I missing?
Howard
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Mark Twain
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Even if they are made in the same factory, they can still be made to diffrent spec.
Going back a few years Bridgwood was made in Asia, but with baldor motors.
15" planers of many brands appear to have the same casting.
PM and jet are owned by the same company. When I looked at new table saws, the jet had thinner sheet metal than the powematic and weighed less. I would assume they were both made in the same factory.
You just have to look at the pieces and parts. The upgrade to a byrd head can also vary ALOT depending on brand.
My .02
Karl
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Geetech is headquartered in Taiwan, not China. As far as I know most of their manufacturing is there, as well, although they might have plant(s) in China now. As to planers: the previous generation of Grizzly 15" planers (G01021?) was made by Geetech in Taiwan. All of the current models are made by some outfit in China. Not sure about the 20"...looking closely at the pictures, I would guess that the 454 is made in China and the 1033 is still made by Geetech...but that's just IMO.
Bob
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measure once cut remeasure said:
Even if they are made in the same factory, they can still be made to diffrent spec.
^^^ This. These companies will build to specifications and tolerances. They may look the same (perhaps intentionally) but there are differences. Grizzly also saves a bit by going direct to customer, but Powermatic has a better resale value. My $.02.
Doug
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My info is that the castings all come from the same factory so the specs on those would be identical.
The only diff's are the switch and motor.
The PM has solid outfeed tables.
I have a 20" Grizzly in use for about 8 years no problems.
I would put the PM money in a Grizzly helical head and still have leftovers.
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Seems to me like Geetech also makes the Sawstop saws.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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I think the term "makes" is open to a lot of interpretation too. Even if the same factory assembles them, chances are they get parts from different factories or companies too. More than likely the castings are exactly the same if they look the same, and probably machined to the same tolerances. They probably paint different colors to order based on demand, but all pulled from the same batch. Different motors, switches, etc can all change easily. And using different gauge sheet metal in a given design is sometimes as simple as doing a save-as and changing a single preference. I do it all the time...
Benny
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Ten years ago I bought a Geetech 15" planer. At the time I found a picture from the Geetech factory where they were rolling planers out the door for Powermatic, Grizzly, and somebody else.
At the time the Powermatic planer had nice infeed and out feed tables compared to cheap rollers on my Geetech. Other than small differences, I doubt there is any difference in the machines. I bought Geetech because the importer Sunhill, had worked a deal with Byrd and was equipping them with the Shellix head. Way ahead of the other importers.
I think the importers use whoever is cheapest and try to acheive passable quality. It does look like in the Grizzy catalog they flag machines made in Taiwan which might mean the Geetech factory.
Larry
