She was flat as a board -- just like I wanted 'er
Written: Feb 25 '02 (Updated Nov 18 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, quick way to do simple planing jobs; inexpensive
Cons: Not for intricate work, not very heavy duty
The Bottom Line: A great planer for small, quick jobs -- especially for the money. But definitely not designed for large-scale jobs.
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| martytdx's Full Review: Black & Decker 3 1/4" Planer 7696 |
I bought a house last year, and at the end of the year moved to a new place with my fiancee. Once I had moved out, I had the great project of cleaning and upgrading the old house to rent out - a Herculean task that I had, um, perhaps underestimated just a bit. On the list was the normal cleaning and painting, but I has also tasked ourselves with putting in all new doors.
Little did I know that unless you buy the whole assembly (jamb and all), doors that are 'standard sizes' are never going to fit just right into your doorways. Not until I had already trashed the old doors did I discover my folly. EVERY door was about a 1/4" too wide, and all but one were too tall for the carpet.
I had a hand planer, which I whipped out thinking I would quickly plane the offending edges to a honed smoothness with a carpenter's skill and efficiency. Well, I'm not a carpenter, and my skill and efficiency were sadly lacking. I didn't have a lot of time to get this done, so I had to look for a quicker alternative.
Thus, the run to Home Depot (third one that day, I think). I ran to the tool department, hoping that it wasn't a pipedream that there was an existing hand-held planer for sale. Luckily there was: and there were four models to choose from: Black and Decker, Makita, Bosch and Porter Cable. The latter two were in the $100+ range, and the Makita was only slightly less. However, the Black and Decker was on sale for only $59! I wasn't sure how reliable the Black and Decker was compared to the others, but for the price - and the fact that this would be one of the few times I would need a planer - it was a great deal.
Twenty minutes later, I was ready to go. I took the thing out of the box, and let 'er rip across the edge of one of the doors. Within minutes, the evil door had been planed into shape and I was able to put it in place with space to spare. Time to take off 3/8" on the edge and almost 1" on the top and bottom combined - 5 minutes, including measurements. The rest of the doors quickly followed.
The Power Planer is a corded device, although I am not surprised since it requires a bit of power to do its job. It runs at 4.5 amps, but has a surprising amount of power for that small amount. The reversible blades rotate at 15,000 rpm, and are made of carbide to give you a reasonable amount of life out of them. Adjusting the depth of the cuts was simple, using the handy knob at the front of the planer to adjust quickly.
This planer did a nice job of doing runs of up to 1/16" deep, although it made thinner runs much easier. It took a very even cut across the wood, with very few problems. The width is only 3 1/4", which might be too narrow for some applications, but it was fine for planing doors.
Most of my planes were done very smoothly, leaving an even surface on the side of the door that I was working on. It ran smoothly without too much vibration, although it was relatively loud. It worked very quickly, too, running across the length of a normal door in about 10-12 seconds.
I did find that when trying to press it down instead of letting it glide across the wood, it seems to hang up and catch at times. And if for some reason you stop, trying to start again where you left off could be problematic due to the 'notch' the planer leaves at the edge of your previous run - something that may be typical of planers; I'm not that familiar with the equipment to know. But the problem was easy to take care of with a few smaller runs across the wood to even it out.
More problematic was the amount of dust and debris this thing shoots out. Although I guess much of it should have been expected, the velocity and direction that it spit everything out was a bit surprising. My fiancee caught a piece of wood in the face from about 6' away (I had the appropriate eye protection, but make sure you warn anyone nearby). I guess I just never expected a small piece of equipment to shoot the debris that far.
It does come dust-bag compatible, although I didn't buy one. That might cut down on both of the problems I encountered above (although my Black and Decker Sandstorm sander has a dust bag which is just a step above useless). You can also buy an edge attachment - I have no clue how well it works.
But overall, the planer did a great job on the doors. As I said, these were small jobs and it performed better than I expected. However, it is not designed for the professional or even the more enthusiastic home user. The precision of the piece could be higher, but for $60, you can't complain. If you need a planer to have around 'just in case', this is a great buy.
[r e l a t e d BLACK & DECKER TOOL r e v i e w s]
Fire Storm Drill - Fire Storm? Fire Drizzle, Perhaps.
Sandstorm Sander - The Sandstorm Aptly Names … Unfortunately
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
martytdx
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Member: Marty
Location: New Jersey
Reviews written: 481
Trusted by: 180 members
About Me:
Doing what I can to try new places, restaurants, books and beers.
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