Good 12" surface planer for the price
Written: Mar 13 '05 (Updated Oct 02 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good quality cuts, powerful, quiet
Cons: No dust collection adapter, single speed
The Bottom Line: This is a nice tool for a weekend woodworker
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| buggman's Full Review: Delta Shopmaster Portable Planer TP300 |
I have been a woodworker since I was in grade school and during all this time I have used many, many types & brands of tools.
This is the first surface planer I've personally owned, although I've used several over the years.
I received mine as a gift.
This is a "table top" planer, but like most of my table top tools, I made a small cabinet with locking casters so I can easily move it around the shop.
It will plane boards up to 12" wide and (I believe) up to 6" tall.
It's a 2 knife cutter head and so far I haven't had to change the blades after milling quite a bunch of rough sawn oak. (I first run the rough boards through my jointer to remove the majority of grime & roughness prior to using the planer)
***UPDATE***
I finally decided to change blades and I ran into an interesting issue. The blades are accessed by removing the dust chute and rotating the cutter head into position. This isn't the issue, but this design does allow relatively easy access to the blades.
Each blade is held into place by 7 bolts that are tightened against the cutter head. The 7 bolts are attached to a bar that, when the bolts are LOOSENED, presses against the cutter head and secures the blades in place. This is an alright system for blade attachment, but here in lies the issue I ran into.
The first blade (rather the 7 bolts holding the blade in place) was a snap to remove with the supplied 8mm open end wrench. One must use great care when TIGHTENING the bolts back into the blade bar as the blade is exposed and even after hundreds of board feet of lumber had been ran through it, the blades were still very sharp.
The second blade was another story.... As with the first blade, I sprayed the bolts with penetrating lubricant to help the bolts turn without issue. Six of the seven bolts came loose without much fuss. The last bolt however, stripped the hex head beyond description. I tried my best, with every wrench that would fit in the tight space, to break the bolt free, but the head only rounded more after each try.
After about an hour of trying without success, I finally had to grab my dremel & cutoff wheel and cut the head of the bolt and beat the bolt into submission until it finally broke off. The blade bar & blade finally popped out and I was able to switch blades. The problem now is that I am one bolt short... This will definitely cause balance issues at 16,000 rpm!!!
These bolts are NOT a standard SAE or METRIC thread, rather a fine metric thread that my local hardware store just happened to have in stock. The only problem with the new bolts is that the hex heads are nearly 3 times larger than the tiny 8mm heads of the delta OEM bolts. You must use SMALL hex head bolts due to clearance issues with the blade & cutter head design.
I located the DELTA website & after a few hours of searching I found the replacement bolts at a cost of ONE DOLLAR EACH plus an undisclosed amount (probably about $9.00) for shipping.
I decided to go with the standard bolts from my hardware store at about 25 cents each and take the time to grind the heads to the proper dimension.
After several minutes at the grinder, I had my new replacement bolt ready to go back into place. (Note that I bought several bolts at my local hardware store, just so I'd have some extras in case this happened again)
I replaced the blade, tightened & leveled everything and gave the planer a test run. After a few more minor adjustments I was back in business.
Now all I need to do is build a jig to hold the blades at the proper angle for my grinder so I can sharpen them myself and always have an extra sharp pair of blades on hand.
***END UPDATE***
The motor is single speed, although I would have liked a 2 speed motor, but it was a gift so I can't complain.
A second speed allows for fast/slow speeds for finish/rough planing.
It runs on standard 110/120 house current.
It's not very loud either.
As with any planer, you may get "snipe".
Contrary to popular myth, "snipe" isn't a fictional animal your crazy uncle tells you about hunting.
Snipe is when the cutter head cuts a small length (usually a few inches) of wood deeper than the rest of the surface of the boards your working with.
This normally occurs at the front or end of the boards.
I have encountered a little snipe, but I've found that when planing boards 5' or longer I feed the material into the planer and once the boards are fed through about a foot beyond the out feed table, I walk around and carefully hold the material so that it doesn't drop at the end of the cut.
So far, so good. I've managed to keep snipe to a minimum.
I also make multiple passes removing a minimal amount of material with each pass. I measure the boards I plane in several locations to get the thickest dimension. I then set the planer's depth just slightly HIGHER than the boards thickest dimension and run the board through. Sometimes the first pass doesn't take off anything at all; sometimes it removes just a high spot.
Sometimes, if I run a board that is much thinner than my depth of cut is set for, the rollers won't catch the board to feed it through. No problem, I just hand feed the board through & adjust the depth of cut for the next pass.
The planer I received didn't come with a dust collection adapter and I had to make my own from some thin metal, scrap wood & PVC fittings.
If you don't have a dust collector, you will probably want one after the first use without one. Planers in general produce a ton of shavings that will cover your shop.
I have a standard size dust collector with about a 40 gallon catch bag that will fill up completely in a good weekend of use.
The motor is mounted to a 4 post system while some units only have 2 posts. The 4 posts hold the motor more securely than a 2 post style.
The planer comes with one set of knives installed & an alignment tool.
The knives will cost about $28 to $35 per set, but they're double sided so you can get twice the life out of them.
For small shops, this is a good choice. If you're going to do heavy production, you want something more industrial.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
buggman
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Reviews written: 113
Trusted by: 1 member
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