6 Replies

To be honest, I think they are all about the same anymore. If money wasn’t a concern…I’d probably go PM with a Byrd head, just for the gold paint. But all things considered, I think Grizzly is as good for the price as they come. I considered a Griz 20" when I bought mine (15 years ago) , but the weight and an impending move swayed me back to a 15"..in that size (and at that time) I chose Delta.

I agree, I believe the powermatic w/Byrd head is a top choice or Laguna (same thing only black). My concern is the weight, it will have to sit on castors.

You might want to look at the Geetech website, where they show the logos of many of the brands they make. I’m not saying the tools are all the same, or even that every tool of a brand comes from them (Geetech), but it shows you why I consider them all about the same. Note they show both the Grizzly and the PM logo among the group.

Awesome, thanks for the info I’ll check in out.

That’s an important oversight on my part, when I said I see them all as “about the same” I should have mentioned I do not include European machines in that comparison. I don’t think about them too often since the price is often beyond the scope of mere mortals.

I would really like to check out felder so I talked to every tool place and the machine reps that supply machines to the bigger shops and nobody carries Felder.
powermatic seems to be the dominant brand for the general planer. I went with a 20" Laguna.