PM3000 14" cabinet saw

Rob Damon

Member
Messages
198
Does anybody have any info on the PM3000 TS? Just wondering if anybody has seen one "up close and Personal". I will be going from a contractor saw to a cabinet saw in 2008. Just curious.

thanks,

Rob
 
Well, I know that I would not want to have to pay to high cost of a 14" blade. Is there a reason why you are makeing such a big jump in saws?
 
Hi Al,

A little background.

I started model building at 9 and while in Germany, an old Sargent-major took me down to the local shop on base (Patch Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany) and got me interesting in woodworking and I have been at it ever since. I am now 50 years old. When I first got married, my shop was the "spare bedroom". Last year when my father passed away, he left me a nice home with a nice sized back yard. For years he talked about putting up a shop building out back, but kept saying he didn't want to spend any of it to save for the future. But when my mother passed in 1999 and my only brother in 2001, everything came to me.

We are having a 24'x50'x10'clg shop built out back. The slab is poured and we hope they will be framing this week, but don't expect it to really start until after the new year. I am planning to continue working until 60. Between now and then I plan on putting together a shop to retire in. I am going for one large machine a year.

Over the years I have also bought things to minimize cost, only ending up upgrading and upgrading and upgrading.

Back to the Saw in question.

I was looking for at least a 12" TS, but it seems the 2000/66 are only 10" TS. So the next step seems to be the 14" TS. As I don't ever expect to ever upgrade or replace any of the tools, I don't want to go the "upgrade" path. I just want to end up with the "final" tools to retire with.

Rob
 
Hey Rob, welcome to the clubhouse. :wave:

I fully understand your "buy the best, and only buy once" philosophy, but I'm wondering what benefit a 14" saw offers. I realize it can cut thicker lumber, but do you really anticipate ripping or crosscutting 6" or so thick wood? Seems like a good bandsaw would be better suited for ripping big stuff, and a big SCMS would handle the crosscuts nicely.

Not trying to talk you out of your decision, but just curious about the benefits.
 
All,

All good points and thoughts. I was looking more from the 45 degree cut capacity, as oppose to the 90 degree cut capacity.

It will be many months before I start building up my toy..ah.tool collection, so I have time to consider all points of views before making my final commitment. I have to wait for a completed building first!

Thanks,

Rob
 
I was looking for at least a 12" TS, but it seems the 2000/66 are only 10" TS. So the next step seems to be the 14" TS. As I don't ever expect to ever upgrade or replace any of the tools, I don't want to go the "upgrade" path. I just want to end up with the "final" tools to retire with.

Rob
So consider a MiniMax slider, or a Hammer, or Robland, or Felder. My MM has a 12" with a scorer. Works very nicely.
 
I have been looking at the sliderTS with some interest, but sorta had the impression their benefit comes in cutting larger panels.

I was actually looking at the Milwaukee vertical panel saw (or similar) for initial rough cut down to size plywood panels and finishing on the TS. I have never liked hauling a full 4'x8'x3/4" sheet good up on a TS. I have up to now, straight edge/Circular saw to rough size and then hit the TS. The panelsaws they have setup at the BORGs sure looked like they could be a back saver, especially as you get up in age.

Have you found anything that you could not do on the sliding TS that you could do on a standard TS? If there are not any real downsides to a sliding TS, I may need to reconsider how I am looking at this.

Thanks,

Rob
 
Have you found anything that you could not do on the sliding TS that you could do on a standard TS? If there are not any real downsides to a sliding TS, I may need to reconsider how I am looking at this.

Hmm, hard to say since I've never had anything but a slider of some form. My first saw was a Ryobi BT3000 which is a very baby slider. Then I got an old Robland X-31 and now an MM CU300.

THe only two things I can imagine being a tiny bit simpler on an old-fashioned TS are :-
ripping really long boards, longer than the stroke of the slider, where you have to spend a moment removing the slider table fences;
cross-cutting small pieces where you're chopping back and forth quickly (think Norm using the saw to nibble away at a tenon) and the inertia of the slider can give your arms a bit of a workout.

Other than that I find having the support for my work-pieces and utterly reliable 7ft fences to be very handy. With a large 90 deg. cut-off fence and a large mitre fence each with flip-stops I never have to wonder if the angle is correct or the distance measured properly.

Think of it as buying a really high quality table saw and a really good mitre fence and a really good self-aligning, travelling, roller stand and you might well conclude that the price represents good value. If you use a shaper at all, consider getting a saw/shaper combo since then you get the benefit of the slider for the shaper too.
 
Thanks for the additional information Tim.

Decisions, decisions......well a delivery of construction material showed up today (wall lumber, roof truss, shingles, OSB, rigid vent) so now it is just a matter of time.

Rob
 
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