Powermatic1610086K Model 60HH 8-Inch 2 HP 1-Phase Jointer with Helical Cutterhead with Mobile Base for 60C,60HH Jointers

Stunningly beautiful. But let's face it, many times beauty is only skin deep.I am constantly amazed that Amazon can ship three, four, or even five hundred pound packages across the continent and have it in my garage two days after I placed the order. And with Amazon prime, they do it for free.This jointer arrived in two separate packages. They are both heavy but the jointer top is exceedingly heavy. It simply is impossible for one man to lift it by himself. I am 6'4" tall, 220 pounds and I have worked in the construction industry my entire life. I am amazingly fit and yet there is no way in the world I could lift this unit and assemble it by myself. So my advice to you is to be sure you have some assistance in lifting the top onto the stand. Once in place, there are only three bolts that connect the two units so it is a very easy assembly. Other than that, there are very minor other assembly issues which must be addressed. They are all very simple and quite intuitive.Maybe I got lucky but the fit and finish on this jointer is far superior to the fit and finish on my 15 HH planer. Honestly with my Powermatic planer, I was a little disappointed at the moderately rough finish of the planing table surface. That is not the case with this jointer. It has been ground and polished to a high sheen. It is the way high end woodworking equipment should be manufactued but rarely is anymore.Honestly, I haven't run a single board through this unit yet but I know, through prior experience with that Shelix helical head on my planer, that I will love the results of the same head on this jointer.I will certainly update once I've completed assembly and run a couple hundred board feet of lumber through it. But I couldn't wait to post my initial reaction. The fit and finish is as good as I have ever seen from any manufacturer. The highly Polished jointer tables are amazing. And I already know that that shelix cutterhead is like nothing else on the market.So back to the shop I go, prepared to work well into the night fine tuning this incredible piece of machinery.Update to follow.UPDATE:I finally had time to address the "set-up" of this planer and I am stunned. Even after shipping across the globe, the beds are dead flat. Both the Infeed and Outfeed tables are perfect. I have measured with a high quality straight edge and couldn't find even the tiniest bit of daylight underneath. I used high end feeler gauges, going progressively smaller and I couldn't fit any of them under the straight edge anywhere. I am pleasantly amazed. These tables are very long and incredibly heavy. I have never seen a jointer that came out of the shipping containers in such perfect condition before.The ONLY adjustment I needed to make was a very minor adjustment to the fence stop for its 90 degree preset stop. That took all of about two minutes.Sooooo................having set aside a couple of hours for final set up, I used the time to play with this incredible machine. After cleaning the unit thoroughly, I applied three coats of Johnson's paste wax to the entire machine, to every surface. I live in a residential area and I'm sensitive to the noise I produce with my shop so I usually relegate my waxing to early mornings. It produces very little noise and it keeps all my machinery in top condition and protects all the surfaces, ESPECIALLY all the cast iron tables. My table saw is well over 30 years old yet it STILL looks virtually new.Finally I ran various pieces of material through the jointer. As expected, the Shelix head is amazing. It is incredibly quiet, although not as quiet as my planer but that is attributable to the cutter head being more exposed on the jointer than on the planer. The finish is flawless and requires very little effort to push the stock across the beds and cutters.I purposefully selected some pieces of Maple which had fairly pronounced cupping and/or bows. After running them through this jointer, they were rifle shot straight.............which is what a jointer is for after all. The effort to obtain that however is minimal with this unit and very little subsequent finish sanding will be required.Definitely Five Stars are warranted. This will be the last jointer of my career. I have found "Jointer-Nirvana". I am SO glad I went with the 8" model instead of the 6". It has ample power for deep cuts in very hard stock.An amazing unit. Very, very pleased.

This is a preliminary review, and I plan to contribute additional comments after spending more time with the machine. My initial reaction was some disappointment, as I expected a little better appearing fit and finish. The lower case/cabinet for example obviously made from good thick material, but here and there one can see where there was a hurry up approach or carelessness to get it finished. Getting the motor and belt adjusted was difficult, as one of the captive bolt heads was either rounded off or the elongated hole at that position was distorted as I could not get the bolt much looser because the head wasn't captured fully. Anyway I evetually worked around that frustration but could not budge the motor (its pretty heavy) up to allow slipping on the belt, and neither could my son who is pretty darn strong. I took a long 4X4 post placed it on a gallon paint can levered the motor into position to slip on the belt. 4 X 4 lever worked like a champ. The belt was twisted out of the package so at first gave the appearance of a major misalignment on the pulleys, but I figure with some use it will straighten itself out.I plan to check it again soon. Motor runs fine and strong. The fence does not like to retain a 90 degrees, and so far I have to keep making slight check/adjustment. I was also a little surprised as to the roughness in places of the casting, functionally of little consequence where I can see it, but it lessens, to me, the "joy of ownership". So all this at this point is the reason for three stars. I expected more from Powermatic, as some of their other products look pretty good. I am hoping I can give one or more additional stars in the update.Ok, moving forward, I am a newbie at the jointer, so have used up some 8/4 hard maple rough lumber as part of the learning process, and have discovered that there is an art or at least an acquired skill set in using jointers. For example, how much pressure is adequate on the out feed tabIe, using a hand over hand push block method taking the board over the cutters, "walking through" the cut on long boards, etc. One long board in my early attempt became tapered to the point of laughability - this is a common result for newbies I understand.I went though the manual, made some adjustments as initially the jointed wood displayed characteristics the manual indicates are due to poor adjustments. Adjusted outfeed table to eliminate unwanted effects, etc., and that seems to work now just fine. So this has been a learning experience, in jointing and getting acquainted with the machine.By the way, the mobile base is a cut above junk. One adjustment wheel knob was broken out of the box; other reviewers have commented re the bad packaging and poor quality of the Powermatic mobile base . There is another manufacturer's base recommended, but unfortunately it will not quite fit this machine.I haven't checked table alignment (for co-planar, etc.) yet, other than a cursory, and have ordered a Veritas straight edge. So that's next on the agenda. A few pieces of wood I jointed last, actually turned out pretty good. I remain optimistic and hope to be able to soon report jointing nirvanaRegarding delivery, via Amazon: It was superb, right on schedule, delivered and positioned in my garage.