Powermatic 15-Inch Woodworking Bandsaw, 3 HP, 230V 1Ph (PM1500)

Powermatic 1500 a piece of junk. This machine is a piece of junk. I run a college shop and we have 6 bandsaws, two of them Powermatic 1500s which we bought 3 years ago. Some of our band saws have run ten and 20 years without a service call. The Powermatic 1500s are constantly breaking down. The braking system is very light duty and the bolts holding it together strip out, the "on off" switches fail and are expensive to replace, the guide bearings need constant adjusting and the blade tension switch and the brake switch have failed repeatedly. The motor stops for no apparent reason and the adjustable blade guard sticks in the bottom position.The Powermatic 1500 can not be permanently fixed and if "fixed the problem will reappear.We are now in the process of finding a band saw suitable for a school shop. The Powermatic 1500s we have will be junked. I don't think anyone should buy one. Over time you will be sorry you did. Do some research on your own. I dont know how the other reviews gave the PM 1500 high marks. If you read through most of the reviews were written by people who just bought the machines.

Power to Powermatic This is an absolutely terrific machine. My only criticism--and it is a minor one--is that the booklet that comes with it has no assembly instructions whatsoever and the tuning guide could have been better . Do they assume you won't do this yourself? But this is an outstanding piece of machinery and worth every penny. When I turned it on for the first time, one of the other guys in my shop marveled at how smooth it was. Everyone was anxious to take a turn. I restore old wooden sailboats and my fellow shopmates are mostly independent cabinet and furniture makers. We don't get easily excited by a new tool unless it costs more than $10,000, is exotic or is a rare antique. But this one caused a real buzz when I got it to replace an older Laguna. I didn't get the bandsaw from the Amazon seller listed with this item. But I did get it through Amazon and it was dropped shipped directly from Powermatic. I am not sure how many buyers will be equipped to follow Powermatic's instructions to lift the saw out of the crate with a crane. This is a big saw. Don't picture anything close to a standard 14-inch band saw. Do pay attention to the size of the bade: 153 inches.Update: Still enjoying this machine. I put a carbide tipped blade on it and have found it to be a ripping monster. Very easy to do your own resawing with this machine in some very tough woods. 10 inch board? No problem. (That's the largest I've tried so far.)

A TREMENDOUS DISAPPOINTMENT! I am terribly unsatisfied with the saw. I don't like the way the guides have the two circular wheels holding close to the blade; whereas, newer models of other companies have larger areas holding the blade in the middle of two flat guides. The build construction was disappointing as it is a tad too flimsy in my humble opinion. I think Grizzly offers better value for the money as a cheaper backup to a higher quality machine. We have a Grizzly in our shop (one of 5 total bandsaws) and that machine is much easier to cut straight where there is a lot more travel on the powermatic despite an immense amount of energy and use of many resources in an attempt to correct. Without a doubt this will be the last Powermatic we purchase. I am hopeful of selling our machine as there have been an abundance of technical issues which the company has said was our fault. This, in our opinion, is an attempt to hedge their warranty by placing the blame on us. The part which we find incredulous is the fact that we have rarely used the machine. The machine has either been inoperable or just inactive due to the use of our other four bandsaws. Maybe a hobbyist would be ok with this because they wouldn't know any better. We know that for us there are better options.

**** AWESOME SAW. **** AWESOME SAW.... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR AND MORE ****Ordered the PM1500 and mobile base (Jet 708119 JMB-UMB-HD) off Amazon on black Friday saving couple hundred as Powermatic / JET both had 15% discount promotion running. First let me start by saying I had been researching different band saws for over a year after I sold my old Delta professional saw late last year. My plan and theoretical budget was to get the best saw I could for around $2000.00 out of pocket AND whatever use whatever Amazon gift cards I could accumulate over the year. This did NOT prevent me from researching other saws as I felt that if I could get a better saw elsewhere I would and just give the gift cards to my wife to justify the difference in cost should I exceed the out of pocket amount :).To give an you idea of how much research I did, I looked at every model, trying to read every review, blog and view every video available online I could. I looked at the most commonly known bandsaw players: Powermatic, Rikon's, Agazanni's, Leguna's, MiniMax, Grizzlies, Jet, General's and even Baileigh. Due to cost and quality (usually hand in hand) I came down to three models: Laguna LT1800 3000 (on Amazon), Rikon (10-346) and of course the Powermatic (PM1500). So why did I go with the Powermatic, even though it was most expensive and a little more than I wanted to spend? The Rikon 10-336 looked like a great saw and for the money was probably the best bang for the buck BUT when I was doing my research and because it was so NEW there really weren’t any reviews on it by any major magazine and no video or blogs I could find about it. Because of this and because I was spending a lot of cash I wasn't sure I wanted to take the chance. Also, this was NOT available on Amazon so although I said I would purchase outside of Amazon if I was 100% sure it was the saw I had my doubts. My 2nd choice was the Laguna LT18 3000 which looked very nice and for the cost seemed to a great deal. There is a ton of material and video's for this bandsaw some was positive and some negative. In reviewing the material I just could not get over some of the negative comments albeit customer service, part availability, vibration and other quality issues. In the end I purchased this saw based on the following factors:(1) Powermatic 15% off deal lowered the price about 400.00 putting it closer in my price range(2) I had about $400.00 in Amazon gift cards making that price look even better(3) Free shipping always a great deal(4) Lack of negative press and positive reviews. (I could NOT find a single complaint about quality)(5) Powermatic reputation in regards to quality tools (There aren't lower end junky Powermatic's made)(6) I kept hearing the words in my head "You get what you pay for".The saw arrived in the scheduled number of days as expected and the 2 guys that unloaded off their truck using a lift gate and dolly rolled it into my garage without incident (bolted to a wooden pallet and protected by wooden slats top to bottom). After undoing the bolts holding the saw to the pallet, I had myself and two there help me slide the saw off the pallet onto the mobile base. The saw comes with a 1/2 blade and mine also came with a plug ready to go. After unpacking the three boxes, the installation itself was very minimal (motor was already attached) which only required me to install the fence which was an absolute breeze. All those FIRST time adjustments you hear about when reading other reviews for other saws did NOT apply to this machine. Everything was spot on as shipped so the hats off the quality assurance team. All in all, it literally took me no more than 20 minutes to have this saw ready for action. I stepped back and finally took a look at saw completely assembled. OMG what a thing of beauty.. The "built like a tank / over built" comment you hear when reviewing this saw is 100% true. From the heavy wheels to the dead flat table to the very SOLID fence this thing is awesome with NO flimsy parts. When I bought this saw I went ahead and ordered some Timberwolf bandsaw blades (which for 153" they were able to get these two me in three-four days with standard shipping) as I have read these are great blades for the money. Before starting with the shipped blade I changed it out (5 minutes) with one of the NEW Timberwolf (3/4) blades I mentioned above. .OK now the moment of truth. Started the SAW. Wow, this saw is sooo quiet (maybe used to louder, cheaper saw) and there is no vibration (tried every coin I had in my pocket and nothing moved even when cutting). So.. Now test fence alignment.. None required.... The first cut I made was with some scrap I had, 2" thick about 5 inches long of pine. First cut PERFECT 3/16 uniform cut, end to end top to bottom.. I then tried even thinner.. Second cut 1/64 slice with exact same results. GREATSo if you are looking for a SOLID saw with the reputation of excellent quality I would HIGHLY recommend this saw to anyone in the market with the means. I know this isn't cheap BUT if it means holding off a little longer (I saved for 1 year) you won't be disappointed.