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Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

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Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#1

Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Anyone have a hand-held power planer they can 'recommend'?

I have a project to re-use / re-claim some church pew materials (maple I believe); these have a curvy front surface that I want to (mostly) flatten. I have managed with an old door planer (limited to edges) and a hand plane so far. That 'success' was on about 4 feet and I have about 20' more that I'd like to complete.

These glued up pieces are about 18-19" wide (can't recall exactly) and have two low valleys and two high edges, with a 'ridge' in between; I need to remove 1/8-1/4" for a 3-4" swath on each edge and about 1/8" through the middle (also 3-4' swath).

Yes I know a large planer could handle this easily, and I have already done one piece that way ( a few years ago; not my planer). That involves a lot more material handling and I am choosing alternate methods now.

So it seems that a combination of a power planer (crude), with a hand plane, and sanding to finish may be the way to go - but my door planer is limited to about a 2" swath and will not cut 'in the field', only edges.

Seem like (in approx low-high price order) there are current choices of:

<$100: Wen (2 or more models), PC, Craftsman, and Ryobi (all in the $55-75 range); HF has at least one 'Drill master" under $50 + a cordless model Bauer but neither really appeals to me.

<$200: Bosch, DeWalt are in $150-175 or so are are in Lowe's; did not check HD for stock

<$300: Milwaukee at $225 or so, but that's quite frankly more than I want to spend on this for my expected usage.

> $300 There may be others, (Festool?) but not at the right value point for me - so out of contention.

Advice? These are not particularly common items on CL.

Henry

Prolific creator of sawdust, and sometimes shavings - with the occasional completed project.


Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#2

Bosch


Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#3

I sent you an email

Tom Dunlap

Just in case it gets shuttled into Spam.

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#4

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

Yonak

One thing that's important to me on a hand-held planer is a fence to keep the cut square. Some do not have one for some reason.

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#5

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

Barry Irby

I have a Makita that I have owned over 40 years and it's still fine. Longer bed than most I see now. I would recommend it.

I also have a Festool I bought at an estate sale. Mine looks like it was rode hard and put away wet. Has two cutter heads, one straight and one with curved knives that leave a hand hewn looking surface. I don't remember what I paid, but the current price is $680 with only one head. I'm guessing that one is out of the question. Has excellent dust collection and the Makita has none.

Why not search out someone with a larger planer or an industrial sander? The people with the sander would be less afraid of stray nails.

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#6

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

AlanWS

Louis Sauzedde of the Tips from a Shipwright YouTube channel has most brands, and prefers the Ryobi!

He modifies it a bit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_a1HCqK5i-A

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#7

Thanks all

Henry (Raleigh NC)

If you have on-going or additional advice, please feel free to add to the thread.

I too actually liked the feel (and price) of the Ryobi that i saw in the store the other day ($75?). But I have another tool in hand now - b/c a friend provided his HF planer that he bought for a project long ago and hasn't used since. My first use of a HF power tool I think.

My expectation is that this will be a very crude method of stock removal, and that I will need to use a hand plane/sander/scraper etc. for refinement.

Thanks

Henry

Re: Hand-held power planer - recommendations?

#8

Update - HF tool usage

Henry (Raleigh NC)

A friend let me use his HF handheld power planer - that was sitting unused except for the one project that he had used it for. It looks very similar (not exact) to the <$100 options out there - Ryobi, Craftsman, and I am sure others.

I set it for a fine cut, and away I went - hooking the shop vac to the output to collect chips (very effective BTW)!

I flattened (mostly) about 5' of bench in about 1/4 of the time that it had taken me to previously do about 3'; previously I had used a door planer for the edges and a hand plane for the rest. With a fine setting on the power planer and many passes, it was possible to 'control the beast' and not to create substantial damage. So I am pleased with the result. It's a bit different than a hand plane in the way the blade and the base are setup; it's more like a stationary planer, with the 'outfeed' set to align with the blade depth, not like a hand plane that has the blade 'protrude' beyond the base.

Anyways as a relatively crude surface modification tool - it works. It helps to have reasonable expectations - this will not replace a finely set hand plane.

Thanks all for the above advice and offers. This solution will suffice (in the present at least).

Henry

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