Yes,I believe even the renouned TV Home Maker would approve of this saw. I received the saw yesterday afternoon and had it unpacked, assembled, and running in about 3 hours. I spent an hour this morning tweaking the Accu-Fence and the mitre gauge, and have been using the saw today. I was pleased to see that it came with a power cord, and all that was needed was a new plug to match my 230V socket. The casters work great for moving this 600 lbs. plus unit. The total shipping with saw,accessories, and fence totaled over 700 lbs., so this is no light weight machine. The arbor lock is great for changing the blade, and the dust chute works good. I have owned a Uni-saw, and two Jet Cabinet saws, all of which were excellent, but the Powermatic 2000 is a step above all the others. The adjustment handles work effortlessly, and the saw runs as smooth as silk with no vibration what so ever. The power switch is ideally located, and easy to shut off with the knee while keeping both hands on the stock after cutting. The fit and finish is great, and it looks good just sitting there. I think "it's a good thing".

I took the entire summer to make my decision on which cabinet saw to buy. I found it 100X more stressful than buying my truck or deciding on a "significant other". I built Excel spreadsheets trying to help analyze the decision; hours reading manuals online, and I went to see or use every saw on my short list.
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br /The short list had a `green', a `gray' and two `gold' saws. The `black' saw was just completely out of my price range.
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br /I visited a local woodworker that has a dream shop and uses `green' machines exclusively. He creates some incredible work pieces so obviously the `green' machines are capable. The 5 HP upgrade and router table accessory were very positive points favoring the `green' choice. Ultimately, however, I passed over the `green' choice because of it's fence. You cannot exchange or upgrade with the green machine except to discard and buy after market. If Sears can offer a Biesemeyer fence then I suspect Green could too.
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br /That brings us to the `gray' machine. I wavered daily, sometimes hourly. I started an order `cart' a dozen times. This is a good machine with a good fence and made in America. The tabletop is not as big, nor is the saw itself as heavy as the Gold machines.
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br /Going For the GOLD: During an exchange of emails inquiring about delivery charges, "Robert" at Southern Tool recommended the model 66. He works in the business and wrote that he could have any saw he wanted but chose the 66 for his own use. That was a powerful recommendation. I wavered for nearly a week between the 66 and the PM2000. There is only a few dollars difference between the two; the principle difference in cost is the mobile base that seems necessary for the 66. And maybe it needs a better blade guard or dust shroud?
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br /I am a beginning woodworker and only have half a garage for a shop so mobility is a MAJOR issue. And then, on the day before I ordered my saw, I had a `kickback' on my Craftsman contractor saw. The deciding factors for me then became the integral base and the riving knife on the PM2000.
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br /I bought the PM2000 w/ 30" AccuFence. The serial number is in 10k range and shows a June 2006 manufacture date. Amazon was out of stock so I went thru Southern Tool on the internet. I ordered on a Friday and received a call the following Friday from the freight company to schedule the delivery on Monday.
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br /The saw was drop shipped directly from Powermatic. For an extra $125 residential delivery, Spokane Transfer put the saw in my garage and suggested that I remove the shipping carton and inspect the saw before signing the manifest. Everything arrived in excellent condition.
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br /I did the entire setup by myself. I rented an engine hoist from the local rental center for $14 and with nylon straps raised the saw a few millimeters off the pallet so I could pull it out from under the saw. If you try this, BE MINDFUL that you do not run the straps near or over the casters.
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br /Based on other reviews that I had read, I had a Starrett 505A-12 protractor, a Veritas straight edge (get a 36" not the 24") and a magnetic base and dial indicator waiting for the saw. I also had a spray can of degreaser, lots of paper towels and a tube of Lenox lubricating wax for the tabletop left over from my band saw purchase.
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br /Assuming that I used it correctly the dial indicator said that there was there was virtually no arbor run out (.002) and the miter slots and blade angles were nearly perfect. I found the arbor collar to be so precisely machined that it was difficult to remove it from the arbor so I could install the saw blade.
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br /I spent a couple of hours putting the table extensions on. It was time consuming but well spent, as it was possible to set them absolutely flat with the saw. The next afternoon I installed the AccuFence. All the holes lined up except one on the end of the wood table extension.
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br /I had one issue on the setup so I sent an email to the tech support people at Powermatic and received an immediate response requesting that I call them for support rather than exchange emails. In rereading the instructions thoroughly AGAIN before I called, I worked through the issue and have not yet tested the technical support response.
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br /The fence is INCREDIBLE! Once set up, locking down the fence at a precise measurement on the rail produces that exact cut. I USUALLY double check the measurement with a steel rule but it has always been right on except when changing from a 1/8" to a thin kerf blade.
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br /The saw comes with a 6-foot 220 volt electrical pigtail, no plug. The electrical cord runs directly from a front mounted sealed switch box. Unless you break open the switch box (what does that do to the warranty?) you cannot wire a longer cord directly to the machine, only to the pigtail.
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br /I have two new saw blades: a WWII 40 blade and a Freud 80 ATB. With either, the "nickel test" is a predictable "No-brainer". There is NO vibration. Zero, Nawtha, NONE.
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br /The PM2000 just hummmmmmmmms. I can't hear the saw over my dust collector. My old contractor saw SCREAMED at me.
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br /During one rip cut I forgot to change the blade and took a long, precise ¼" slice off a piece of ¾" oak with the WWII blade. It was incredible, like resawing veneer with a band saw. I have since done the same thing with ¼" plywood. The precision is remarkable.
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br /PROS -
br /Excellent locking repeatable precision fence system
br /Vibration free, clean, straight cuts
br /Saw is a heavy, well-made machine
br /Riving knife
br /Pride of ownership. It's a Powermatic!
br /Miter gauge is accurate and easy to read
br /Bevel gauge is also accurate and easy to read. The saw makes 45 deg
br / bevels and miters that are 45 degrees. Imagine that!
br /No fancy (or otherwise) customer satisfaction surveys to fill out from
br /either Powermatic or Southern Tool. Is that a good thing? Hmmmmmm.
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br /CONS -
br /Integral base. There is nothing wrong with it, I have just NOT used it. I found a central place for the saw and that's where it has stayed. I would NOT have needed a mobile base for the 66, `Green', or `Gray'.
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br /Dust collection: the dust shroud is useful but it is not that terrific with my 2 HP `Green' canister collector through a ten foot 4" collector hose. There is still dust accumulation inside the saw. It will absolutely suck the small pieces of wood and shavings down the shroud tube but there is an annoying amount of dust left on the tabletop and around the fence rails. It cries out for a dust collector attachment on a blade guard such as an Excaliber or Biesemeyer blade guard system. I had factored that into the cost of the 66 but it is also needed here. Perhaps a table insert made with some high tech honey combed composite would suck down more dust?
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br /Tablet Insert: I bought a Freud box joint cutter blade set but can't use it. The table insert opening is too small. I need another (dado?) insert even for a 3/8" blade. Where are the accessories for the PM2000?
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br /Wood table insert: See the picture of the PM2000 on page 85 of the October, 2006 Woodworker's Journal. Notice that the end of the fence rail (right side) does not cover the end of the wood table insert (right side) which has a gap in the laminated cover. It looks amateurish and shows little attention to detail.
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br /Would I buy the PM2000 again? NO.
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br /The characteristics that pushed me toward the PM2000: the integral base and dust shroud have turned out to be unimportant or not as effective as I had hoped. The lack of availability for accessories for the PM2000 is a big problem: as of the end of September, expected delivery of dado inserts from Powermatic was quoted as "mid December".
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br /"Robert" from Southern Tool: if you are reading this, I apologize for not listening to your suggestion: I should have bought the 66. It is made in America, there are accessories readily available and MOST IMPORTANTLY it is also a POWERMATIC.
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br /While wishing I had bought a model 66, I am ABSOLUTELY and ECSTATICALLY happy with the PM2000. I am NOT sending this back. This is my saw for LIFE.
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br /Precision is a state of mind. When you know it is possible it is fun to achieve it. It was disheartening to spend an afternoon with my old contractor saw creating firewood instead of woodworking projects.
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br /The PM2000 has made woodworking fun.
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br /However, there is ONE other CON to consider. Since I got the PM2000 I have been spending hours and hours in the garage doing projects and building `stuff'. Mostly, I have been having great fun!
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br /Apparently, I have also been ignoring my `significant other', my lawn and my truck because they are all in need of maintenance. Even my little Maltese thinks her dad has abandoned her.
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br /Obviously, I need to better prioritize my shop time. Starting next week I am going to spend more time with my little dog.
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I had been mind set for a while on the Powermatic 64 after looking at other makes and although I did not much like to put such a machine on a separate base I needed the mobility. I am pleased that I held off and bought the PM 2000.
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br /The wheel system works well (lots of handle turns) but one can move the saw with one hand. Overall, the fit and finish is satisfying. The polished handwheels operate smoothly and effortlessly and look good in their finish. The cast iron table top and wings are milled the best that I have seen on other makes and were flat. The safety switch is sizeable and allows you to see if power is on at the machine. The blade guard and riving knife slip off with ease for those operations when they have to be removed.
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br /I had a problem with a faulty lower support bracket that allows the upper support for the riving blade to sit pararell to the table. I found the technical support from WMH Tools very helpful and prompt in their attempts to solve the problem sending out an engineer to rectify the fault. Both the engineer and I felt that the arbor lock can be subject to deformation if the arbo lock nut is just over tightened. Inside the arbor lock housing there is a cutaway in the lock itself for the return spring which reduces the cross sectional area of metal against shear.
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br /Generally though, everything about the machine feels solid, no vibration and a smooth quiet cut with a Woodworker II thin kerf blade and stabiliser. I am very happy with the purchase and it is a pleasure to use. It would be good if Powermatic applied the built-in wheel philosophy to their bandsaw and jointer models.
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br /If you order the 30" rail model you need to order the laminated plywood extension table separately.
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This saw is as good as you could expect it to be in its class. I don't know how the Powermatic 66 compares but I am really pleased with the PM2000. I chose it because of the special features I could not find on any other saw. The removeable riving knife is one feature that I appreciate since these splitters really help avoid kick back but usually must be unbolted to be removed to do dados. This one comes off with just a flip of a lever and it works really well. I didn't even have to adjust it. Another feature I like is the dust collection shroud (sp). It works better than most other saws that collect at the bottom of the base. It's not perfect though but better. The casters are also great although I won't be moving the saw much. But when I do, I will appreciate the wheels. One little problem I had was getting the wheels to drop when the way they were supposed to. I found that a sleeve on the shaft inside the motor compartment was not connected. Two allen screws were loose. I tapped it into place to connect the two shafts and tightened the screws and all is well. It could have come loose in shipping. Other than that, the saw went together smoothly in about 1 1/2 hours. Blade is true with the miter slots and what a great miter gauge!
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br /I know many people are reluctant to purchase made in Taiwan or China and prefer the USA models like the Powermatic 66. It would be great if we could compete but the reality is we can't and these foreign made machines have come a long way in quality. I have three other Powermatic machines all made in Taiwan and have nothing but good to say about each one. That was why I didn't hesitate to go with the PM2000 made in Taiwan saw. As for my credibility, I am a professional cabinet maker and have worked with wood for about 35 years of my life. I also own American made machines like the Williams and Hussey molder, Davis Wells shaper, Kreg pocket hole equipment, Conquest line drill, etc. They are all good as well. But not necessarily better. And you pay more for American made. That is a shame. Someday....? Maybe we will do better.

I've had mine for three months and it works very well for me. The heavy weight contributes to the relative silence of the running blade. My old saw, a Grizzly, roared like a lion!
br /The riving knife keeps the wood stock straight and really helps avoid kickback. I removed the blade quard because it interferes with close observation of the cutting process which I believe is essential for safety. The unit can be set up and adjusted in less than an hour. The cowel beneath the blade allows for removal of all but a few specks of sawdust that are easily vacuumed from the highly accessable cabinet. I especially appreciate the arbor lock mechanism for changing blades; a real time (and hand) saver. Adjustment of the riving knife could be improved. It's hard to reach the riving knife release mechanism and even harder to adjust the set screws that align the knife. I finally got it right after a number of attempts. The easy sliding fence is remarkably accurate and easy to adjust.
br /The only real complaint is the fact that the legs on my cast iron case were not ground properly to allow the table to sit perfectly flat on my perfectly flat floor. I had to place a wood shim of about 1/8th inch under one leg.
br /Despite a few drawbacks I'd buy this tablesaw all over again.

The set up time took at least half of a day. The milled edges of the table surfase and the extension wings had to be filed slightly to remove burrs that would have scratched any wood that would have passed over them. Bolting the wings onto the table was a little tedious in getting the surfaces to match up evenly. When bolting the fence's square tube to the angle iron attach loosly all bolts in order to get them to line up properly. The height adjustment of the white plastic pieces on the fence is a breeze.adjusting the fence to be square is a little more work, but if you have access to an "align it" tool with a 1000th of an inch dial does make life easier. The align it showed the blade to be within 1/1000th" in square to the tables miter slot. The attached plugless power cord was replaced with a longer one. It would have been nice if the power cord was an extra 3' longer, maybe its due to the price of copper these days. The biggeest delay in setting up was adjusting the module that the riving knife attaches into. the module has 4 set screws that are not that easy to get at and will take patience to fine tune. The module is attched to a steel plate with two bolts which are located inside the set screws. If the two bolts are tightened to much it will bow in the module which doesn't allow for the easy removal of the riving knife. My solution is to not tighten the two screws as much as you might normally and check monthly to see if it is loosening up. The particleboard extension table was bowed up about an 1/8" in the middle. My solution was to attach a small steel plate to particle board table extending under the steel extension wing, threading a hole in the plate under the wing allowed puting a bolt up thru to push up on the steel wing thus pushing the particle board table top down. The U.S. made fence wouldn't fit over the square steel tube. I called WMH Tool group and told tech svcs that the tube was 3 1/32" wide and the space inside the fence was 2 23/32". The tech said that he hadn't heard of this problem before, but he sent an entire new fence out that I rcvd within three days. The New fence works great and easily showed where the problem was with the first fence. The 3/16" thick steel on the end of the fence that the locking handel attaches to was bent in more than a quarter of an inch. The 2nd fence had better internal cardbord packaging than the first but I am not sure that the bend could have been caused just in shiping. There was no damage to the paint near the bend, so maybe it occoured at the factory ? This is the smmothest cutting saw that I have ever used, even when used with more moderatly priced Freud blades. Due to its 600lb mass there is no vibration to speak of.The miter gauge is very adjustable with every feature you could need already built in. The fence is rock solid. In the past, I rarely used a blade guard due to their poor performance and difficulty of removal and replacement. That is definatly not the case with this powermatic. The saw's 3hp motor cuts 6/4 yellow birch like it was butter. For my needs I can't see why I would need the 5hp motor that is available for this saw. The dust collection is better than I have seen on other table saws, but you still have some material coming out in front of the blade. The retractable wheel system works well. You should have plenty of space for a tool of this size as you don't want to have to move it around. For the 52" fence model you would need to add wheels to the extension legs in order to make it more portable. Despite some initial set up problems this is the finest tool in my shop from a company with outstanding ten star customer service.

I just got this machine a few days ago, but am already very happy with it. I was looking for a new table saw to replace a Bosch 4000 portable, which served its purpose at the time, but wasn't good enough for the type of woodworking I'm doing now. I wanted something that would last for a long time and was of good quality. I went to my local tool supplier and talked to them about the different saws. They recommended buying the Delta Hybrid saw. For under $1000 it looked like a great saw, but then I got it home.
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br /The instructions for the Delta were ok, but it took me a long time to assemble the saw and I'm very mechanical. After getting it together, I had a problem where the left extension wouldn't level and was out of level by 1/16" of an inch to the outside. I thought about shimming it, but decided to wait. Then I started to run the saw, there was terrible vibrations with or without the blade on. I called the retailer and decided to take it back.
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br /I read some reviews and chose to spend the extra money on the PM2000 with the 30" fence. I got this saw home and started to unbox it and noticed the different right away. The finish was much better and the quality of construction was also much better. The saw came together much easier and with no problems. The instructions were good and simple. It took me 1/3 the time to assemble this saw over the delta, mostly because this saw took very little adjustment to get everything lined up correctly.
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br /Once I turned the saw on and there was no vibration at all and it ran smooth and cut smooth, I was very pleased with the change from the Delta. I think the Delta could be an ok saw with some time and effort and if I had the patience to wait out getting a new motor and arbor, but this Powermatic was terrific right out of the box. I plan on keeping this saw for the next 50 years, so whats an extra $1000 dollars anyway.
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br /I would recommend this to anyone.
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br /Thanks Powermatic for making a great product.

I have owned this saw for 6 months (at the time of this review). If you are considering purchasing this saw, then A.) you have done your homework and B.) you cant decide between the P66 and the PM 2000. Well, here is the green light. I too followed this track and decided that the PM 2000 and its modern features would set the standard for the next 40 years much like the P66 did in 1966. And that was that.
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br /Upon delivery, I had it loaded to my truck, drove it home, built a quick ramp, uncrated it but left it bolted on the pallet, pushed it off the truck bed to the ramp and down to my driveway. Then we unbolted it off the pallet, lowered it to the pavement, engaged the roller system and off it rolled into my garage. Beautiful!
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br /Next came proper careful set up. I purchased a steel Veritas straight edge guaranteed to be straight and parallel within some ridiculous spec such as 0.001" and a feeler gauge set. This tested flatness, and allowed proper flat installation of extension wing and plate insert. Also purchased a grizzly Magnetic Base/Dial Indicator Combo and a set of precision steel squares. These tools were used in combination to "square", "parallel", and make adjustments to the saw. I unbolted the table top and re-squared it. DONT take shortcuts or you will disappoint yourself with your investment.
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br /This was 6 months ago and just last night while making a router table I cut the glued up table top MDF core surface to size and tested it for squareness. Measuring diagonally, perpendicular, and every other way I could, there was no denying it ... it was perfectly square. Next I stood the table top on its side and grabbed my precision steel straight edge and checked the edge cuts for straightness and it was beautiful as I could not see a gap at all! I always find that amazing. It cuts and leaves beautifully jointed edges ready for glue up.
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br /Now since you are buying the best table saw, do yourself a favor and do what I did and buy the best blade, a Forrest Woodworker II. All the results above are made even better with this blade. Lastly, protect your investment and buy a can of Boeshield T-9 Waterproof Lubricant and use it regularly. It is expensive stuff but after 6 months I still have more than half of my first can. You only need a little spray of the stuff then rub it over the entire table top surface. Have some sort of dust collection and use it religiously. (My garage workshop is often a lot cleaner that the bedroom!) I just have it connected to a Shop Vac (connected to a 5 gallon homemade secondary large chip collector).
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br /Finally, it was alot easier than I thought to wire my garage with 220V circuit. Now my lights don't flicker when using a table saw. Just buy a good book that shows you how to do it.
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br /So the moral of the story: High Quality Saw + High Quality Setup Tools + High Quality Blade + High Quality Rust Protection = Potential for High Quality Work. Now I only say potential because the last factor in the equation is you.

This is a beautiful saw and makes my old Delta Unisaw look like junk. It is very heavy but runs smooth and quiet. The cast iron extensions are flawless and fit very level to the saw. I love the wheels that can be lowered to move it around my small shop. I would recommend this saw to anyone who wanted perfection.

Just purchased the PM 2000. Started putting it together and found both extension wings have a .010" belly in them. The beveled edges of the extensions wings don't match the main table bevel. The carriage that rises and lowers the saw doesn't work. Very Very disappointed. This will be the only powermatic tool I will ever purchase. I would take a Grizzly over this thing any day. JWV.