Very Very Good Portable Planer
Written: Jul 14 '00 (Updated May 17 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent performance; rugged; well thought out
Cons: Dust chute sits a little close to exit table
The Bottom Line: I highly recommend this planer. It does what it should, does it very well, is easy to use and maintain and is reasonably priced. Overall, A very well designed machine.
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| shieber's Full Review: DeWalt Heavy-Duty 12 1/2" Portable Thickness Plane... |
I bought this planer because I only had room for a small portable. A larger machine with a moving table and fixed cutterhead assembly would be less prone to snipe than a portable, which has a fixed table and a moving cutterhead assembly. But this one locks the cutterhead on all four columns.
Care is required to avoid snipe altogether but it is pretty well minimized for a portable machine. I usually don't bother to lock the cutterhead except on the last pass. If the pieces of wood are only about 2-3 feet long, you don't get much snipe, even without setting the cutterhead lock. It cuts hardwood without groaning and leaves a very smooth finish. Like all planers, the smooth finish can be deceptive -- when the varnish (or lacquer or shellac) goes on, the highlighted contrast can draw attention to slight ripples in the finish from the cutter knives. But I've also seen this from machines costing thousands of dollars. It sands clean easily.
The blades are 1/8 inch extra tall so they can be resharpened more than once, which costs about $20-$25 per pair at, for example, woodcraft.com or about $45-$50 to replace. They are very easy to replace using the supplied guides and wrench. Even if you have never done it before, you can replace and align the blades in a few minutes.
The blades hold an edge very well and won't dull easily except on hard maple, which is tough punishment for any blade. When dull, the machine struggles to feed hard maple. Replace the blades with resharpened or new ones. Don't push the boards or let them stall in the machine. Either action can cause the drive belt to rub on the drive wheel, heating the belt. The belt is polyurethane or similar material and melts through if there is too much friction in one spot. The belts cost $10 from Dewalt. But they are very easy to replace and it's better to melt through a belt than overheat a motor. One spare comes with the machine.
This machine allows for very easy, very precise, adjustments to cutting depth. And the settings are easily repeatable -- there isn't a a lot of slack in the adjustment mechanism that causes settings to vary from one use to the next.
Weak points:
The dust chute shouldn't be marketed as an extra (about $35). Using a planer without a dust chute and vacuum is like drinking coffee without a mug -- it's possible but very messy. But the chute works very well at sending the shavings away from the cutterhead and out to the vacuum.
The chute sits too close the exit table. It would be nice if there was more clearance between the chute and the table or if the chute exit was on the side. That would make it easier to hold the wood down as it exits the machine, which helps avoid snipe. Maybe next year's model will include an improved chute.
Meanwhile, I'd recommend this one planer to anyone that can afford it and can't spare the $s or space for a larger, non-portable machine. The dust chute issue notwithstanding, this planer is not perfect but it might be about as close as a portable is going to get until someone invents self-sharpening blades.
I have used this tool for well over a year and have run a lot of cherry and hard maple through it (including birdseye hard maple, which is almost impossible to plane without tearout). This planer has held up without any deterioration in performance except for the normal need to sharpen the blades. ***It is a true gem.*** I wouldn't hesitate to buy another.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
shieber
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Member: Scott Hieber
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 2 members
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