Powermatic 54A, 54HH User Manual

POWERMATIC 54A/54HH 6” Jointer

Creating flat, straight surfaces is crucial in the quest to build elegant
projects. Virtually all forms of joinery and the tools that cut them
depend on straight edges and square cuts. The POWERMATIC
54A/54HH 6” Jointer makes it easy to achieve the high levels of
accuracy you need in this always-crucial operation.

Base Cabinet

The 21”-wide by 13”-deep all steel base cabinet provides stable footing
for the POWERMATIC 54A/54HH 6” Jointer and puts the table

The Powermatic 54A/54HH

6” Jointer has been designed

and built to provide the

u7ltimate in accuracy and

dependability.

surface at a comfortable 32” above the floor.

The 1 HP, 1Ph, 115/230V motor (pre-wired 115V) is factory-mounted
within the base cabinet and can be converted to use 230V power should
that be desirable. The motor is on a special mount within the base cabinet
that allows the user to adjust belt tension should that become necessary.

The base also contains the dust collection chute that evacuates debris
from below the cutterhead. The chute guides that debris to the exterior

The all-steel base cabinet

not only provides stable
footing for the jointer, it

houses the motor and dust

collection outlet.

4”-diameter port near the floor. Locating the outlet port near the floor
helps keep the hose out of the way and puts it at a similar height as the
inlet of our popular dust collectors such as the PM1300.

3-Knife Cutterhead (54A Model)

The POWERMATIC 54A Jointer features a 3-knife cutterhead fitted
with adjustment cams that make setting critical knife height easy
and extremely accurate. Each knife is 6 1/16”-long, ¾”-tall and
5/64”-thick and made from high quality steel.

The knives are secured by a set of 4 gib screws and a gib plate.
Below each knife are two adjustment cams. The included manual
provides complete instructions (with illustrations) that make
changing and setting the knives easy. They even show how to offset

The 54A cutterhead (top in this

photo) features our Quick Set

knife system that uses cams to

position the knives precisely so

they cut smoothly and work

together equally to disperse wear.

one or more of the knives for cutting small rabbets or to compensate for small nicks in a knife.

Helical Cutterhead (54HH Model)

There are many cutterhead designs that carry the helical moniker, including simple straight
blades broken into segments and dispersed around the cutterhead cylinder. However, despite the
name, they retain many of the liabilities of the long blade designs. While designing the
POWERMATIC 54HH 6” Jointer we wanted to incorporate the performance of a true
segmented, shear-cutting helical head.

The helical cutterhead is so effective because its carbide inserts are
arranged in spiral-shaped rows. The inserts have a 4” radius ground
into them and are mounted so they approach the wood at a 14-degree
angle. That creates a true shear cut that eliminates much of the
impact and the resulting fiber disturbance other cutterhead designs
deliver to the wood.

The helix head (right side of the

image) uses full carbide inserts
that greatly extend durability as

well as the quality of the cut.

Sound is also drastically reduced

over nearly all other cutter

configurations.

The helical cutterhead cuts so efficiently that it dramatically reduces
the noise made when cutting wood. In fact, it is so quiet, new
POWERMATIC 54HH 6” Jointer users often think it is not cutting
wood at all, until they see the results. The shearing effect of the
helical cutterhead produces a remarkably smooth surface on even

heavily figured wood.

The helical cutterhead inserts are precisely machined from solid high-grade carbide, each with
four identical cutting edges. If an edge eventually goes dull, you simply index it to the next
cutting edge! Each insert has a marking at one edge that makes indexing all or any number of
them the same way very easy, though needing to do that is unlikely.

Because the inserts themselves and the seats into which they fit are so precisely machined, there
is no adjustment or “fitting” necessary. Indexing or replacing an insert takes just seconds. Simply
loosen its retaining screw, turn the insert to its new position and tighten the screw.

The durability of the carbide combined with the low impact, shear cutting action mean the inserts
have an extremely long life, far exceeding that of straight blades. The potential life span of these
carbide inserts means that many woodworkers may go years before having to index them. Should
a hidden piece of metal be encountered and actually damage a few of the carbide inserts only the
ones actually contacting the metal need to be indexed or replaced.

Tables

At 7 ¼”-wide and 66”-long the cast iron POWERMATIC
54A/54HH Jointer table is one of the longest available in this class
and provides plenty of support for even large work pieces. The
tables are precision-ground to insure flatness and each is mounted
on dovetailed ways that keep them perfectly aligned through height
changes. The ways are equipped with gib screw adjusters that allow
the user to adjust out any wear-related play should that occur in
years to come. The outfeed table is equipped with a ½” by ½”
rabbeting channel along its outer edge.

The outfeed table height is adjusted with a handwheel mounted
below the table. A finger-operated gib screw locks the table in
position once it is set.

The infeed table height

adjustments are truly unique. The

handle can be moved up and

down for coarse height changes

or, after snugging the locking
knob (to the left) the long handle
can be rotated to make very fine,

precise infeed table height

adjustments.