Thread: Powered Hand Planer

Daniel I'm sure someone will be along to give you an answer to your question.

For what it's worth I use makita tools all day.
In my Handyman business.
Why because I find then robust and up for the job I'm also tuff on work tools they need to pay for them selfs.
My electric planer sees day light every so often
But I don't have a problem with it when it does.
I know it's a short answer but hope it helps

Cheers Matt
Not sponsored by makita [emoji41]

Hi Matt. I have always liked Makita and i get them whenever i can.
I was lookng at getting the makita planer as you can get the HSS blades for it. Have you used the HSS blades before?

Originally Posted by Daniel.A

Hi Matt. I have always liked Makita and i get them whenever i can.
I was lookng at getting the makita planer as you can get the HSS blades for it. Have you used the HSS blades before?

Hi Daniel,
No I haven't used the HSS blades.
But am thinking about replacing the original ones with them.

Cheers Matt

Do you have any 18V or 24V cordless tools? These systems are now at the point where the power difference between a corded and a cordless tool is quite minor and cordless is just so much more convenient. You pretty much have to stick to one specific brand though. I am slowly replacing a lot of my corded stuff with 18V AEG cordless.

Milwaukee has 5yr warranty, left or right chip port and a guide with adjustable fence angle. Have never used one but I have found all their gear to be pretty nice, been working with a friend that has been moving from Makita to Milwaukee and he is much happier with the Milwaukee gear. Warranty support is supposed to be top notch too, I was talking to another builder friend and he said he saw a guy return a European market tool bought from EEbay and they warrantied it then and there.

I have the Brushless Dewalt 18v and it is fantastic. I have used it for trimming a fraction of a mm off a door and cleaning up reclaimed jarrah and it handled both with ease.

All the rest of my gear is AEG but their planers are terrible.

I have an older corded AEG that uses replaceable tungsten carbide blades. It has a switchable chip port and it works just fine. I've used it to clean off old paint when recycling old boards and for rough out flattening of boards and slabs.

Festool EHL65; single carbide blade with a large shear angle, nice feel in the hand and excellent chip clearing. They're $600 new, but can be found second hand for $3-400. I know it's a long drive, but if you're ever in Melbourne you're welcome to have a play with mine.

Hi Daniel,
I use a Makita planer a lot at work and have found it to do a really good job.
However I've just ordered a Festool planer for myself which is a substantially larger investment. But they have barrels with different profiles available and use a spiral cutter head as standard.

The decision of corded vs cordless should really come down to whether you will be using in a workshop environment or more on worksites etc. Cordless are good onsite but having to swap batteries all the time in a workshop and risking the battery going flat mid cut are things to think about.

I saw another brand with a spiral cutter recently. No doubt they will all go that way in time.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Daniel

I am not sure how pleased you will be with an electric hand planer for chopping boards. I am assuming they will be a reasonable width; probably 300mm to 400mm. The 84mm electric planers (irrespective of which brand you choose) will leave lines in the timber. You will then have to remove those lines with either a belt sander or a hand plane (smoothing). If you are making more than just a couple of boards I would suggest you look at a thicknesser. The problem here is that while the lunchbox style, as one Forum member so irreverently calls the benchtop models, are quite inexpensive ( $400 to $500 and less secondhand) they will only thickness up to 300mm or 330mm in some cases.

One way around that would be to make the boards in two halves. The join would be less complicated and more easily manageable.

A lot will depend on how many chopping boards you are contemplating.

Regards
Paul