Powermatic Planer Value

[DieselDennis]

Well to wrap things up, I went to the auction. The planer did have an indexable (Byrd, Shellix style) head on it.

Despite waiting for 3 1/2 hours, I did not stick around to see it sell. I knew when I got to the auction and there were around 200+ people there, the only deals would be at the concession stand (ran by the local VFD). The stationary woodworking tools were the last thing to sell before they went into the house.

There was three items I was looking to bid on. There was four, but once I noticed the table saw was just a hybrid saw and not a unisaw, I became uninterested.

So there was a Delta 17" bandsaw, a dinky homemade router table, and the planer. I wasn't really interested in the dinky homemade router table, but I would have lifted the Porter Cable 3 HP router & Jessem plate out of it, unscrewed the other full size Bosch router, and removed the sliding Incra rails from it after I bought it.

The bandsaw sold first, it was my test item. It went for $800 to a local retired guy. So that's $800 + 10% buyers premium + 8% sales tax. That was more than what I would have given for the saw, so I decided I should go ahead and leave. Because after the saw they were going into a reloading room to continue the auction. Decided that I wasn't going to stick around for another 1 - 2 hours to possibly bid on some items that I probably wasn't going to be able to buy.

Oh well, that's how auctions go. I did check this morning, they did not list the auction results on their website.

[6270_Productions]

Sometimes I go to an auction as a "social event" - just to visit and talk with friends.  Those are the ones that I often impulse buy or flat out miss something I discovered before the auction started.  More than a few times I have had to tell the friend I was talking to that I was interested in this item and just wait until it sold.

Other times I go to the auction to buy something - usually something I saw on the sale bill before I arrived and then confirmed I was going to buy it that day.  It is at those auctions I have to remind myself how much of my time I already have invested in the item.  That means it is getting too expensive as the bidding goes on - or since I already have X hours invested in it I can go "just a little bit more" (the latter ones are the ones that I usually regret later).

[toolmiser]

I remember going to an auction 20 years ago with my Dad. I was interested in a jointer, but waited 3 hrs for it to go up. I was all done bidding, and my father said "we've waited for three hours, buy it." I did.

[Bill_de]

Jet corporation paid for the tooling that resides at the foundry.  Do you really think Jet lets that foundry cast the same iron for other manufacturers using the Jet tooling?

The answer is probably yes. They make money selling to other companies. The exteriors get a cleaner finish on the higher end models, but that is just cosmetic. Then each buyer determines the quality of the innards, motors and such, to meet their price point. 

Grizzly is a good example of a the type of customer they would would sell to. Grizzly does not make tools and doesn't claim to. They are "purveyors of fine machinery".  Somebody is manufacturing their tools for them, and it is likely they have more than one source.

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[fishhh4]

The answer is probably yes. They make money selling to other companies. The exteriors get a cleaner finish on the higher end models, but that is just cosmetic. Then each buyer determines the quality of the innards, motors and such, to meet their price point. 

Grizzly is a good example of a the type of customer they would would sell  to. Grizzly does not make tools and doesn't claim to. They are "purveyors of fine machinery".  Somebody is manufacturing their tools for them, and it is likely they have more than one source.

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Geetech makes machinery for a lot of companies. The castings are not nearly the quality that came out of tennessee. Grizzly had a lot of warped castings on the jointer fences...

Sawstop manufactured by Geetech as well

[rwe2156]

How do you know?  I hear that all of the time about the Asian crap to justify buying the cheapest copy of something.  The truth is that no one knows.  The 15" and 20" planers were designed after Jet purchased Powermatic so they share the same source in Asia.  Jet corporation paid for the tooling that resides at the foundry.  Do you really think Jet lets that foundry cast the same iron for other manufacturers using the Jet tooling?

I read that on a machinery forum somewhere.

Plus, just look at them - certain models are identical

Seems a lot of estate sales get turned in to auctions.

[Ray Newman]

Several years ago, Fine WoodWorking had an article about how Delta and Powermatic at the time were combating the Asian imports. From what  I recall and was told by the local Delta tool dealership/repair center, the quality depended upon how much the Delta, Powermatic, etc., were as willing to pay for increased quality control/inspection and fabrication specifications. In other words, machines were built to a manufacturer's certain price point. Later I heard that Delta and Powermatic had their own inspectors in Taiwan.

[EvilTwin]

How do you know?  I hear that all of the time about the Asian crap to justify buying the cheapest copy of something.  The truth is that no one knows.  The 15" and 20" planers were designed after Jet purchased Powermatic so they share the same source in Asia.  Jet corporation paid for the tooling that resides at the foundry.  Do you really think Jet lets that foundry cast the same iron for other manufacturers using the Jet tooling?

if you know what you are looking at, it is easy enough.  That particular planer has been sold in multiple colors but its the same basic machine.  Jet, blue and white, griz green, plenty of other off brands.  Powermatic yellow


Lots of the Asian drill presses are easy enough to id just looking at the base.  They all use the same casting, even if the head is a bit different.