A couple of months ago my good old Skil electric planer died right in the middle of a job, so I had to go buy a new one immediately.
Nearest was B&Q so I bought the McAllister one for £49. Seemed OK at first but performance is utter crap. It's going back.
Anyone tried one of these Bosch Woodrazor Planers? Sounds good, but are they?
Yes, I have - the 40-82C. Quite a nice product and the feel and control weren't bad.
However, I also tried the Festool EHL65 which is only about £20 more and felt very much better balanced and did give a better finish. It is only a 65 vs 82mm planer though, so depends on the application.
To be honest, I don't have a quality electric planer because I have no real need for one. I have a very old B&D one which has been sitting in a corner of the garage attic for years and seldom sees the light of day. When it breaks, I probably won't replace it.
Either I use my combination machine if I want to produce material to specific sizes and with planed finish, or one of a number of hand planes for something like a door or similar joinery that are not easy to move. I can get far better control with a hand plane, but can see the process is slower than an electric one.
Certainly I can see the point for what you are doing - it could be a time saver. OTOH, I believe that both this Bosch as well as Festool's blades are proprietary. In that sense, something like the Makita or DeWalt which use standard blades I believe, might be less costly to keep on the road. I would expect you would ding a fair few blades because you are not typically working in a controlled environment where many planer grippages can be avoided.
Not got personal experience of a Bosch planer, but generally you can't go wrong with Bosch, be it the green "DIY" or the blue "Professional". I've got a green 24V cordless drill, a blue jigsaw and a blue power drill, all excellent.
The Woodrazor refers to the blade I think, which may or may not be a gimmick, but at least you know the rest of it will be well built and will last.
I've just ordered the Bosch 40-82C, hang on a few days and I'll tell you!
Hi,
How did your Skil planer die?
cheers, Pete.
Ok - had time to play with it.
Core machine - excellent, really excellent. Smaller and lighter than I expected in the hand - don't be tempted to a lighter machine unless you're certain you only need to do very light planing. Depth adjustment fantastic, couldn't feel or be better to use. Chip ejection excellent.
3 chamfering grooves (different sizes) on the base work really well. Feels like a tool that will work well with left-handers (I'm right-handed, but the tool is symmetrical)Fence and rebating stop, cheap bits of pressed metal. They lock up reasonably solidly, but clearly Bosch intends them to be little used accessories.
Crate. Far too big. I don't know if this is some attempt by manufacturers to big-up their tools, but I would much prefer a compact crate (and one with a few built in little pockets for the accessory bits). But perfectly servicable otherwise.
Other things. Very nice little draw in the tool body for spare blade (supplied) and allen key. Blade replacement looks to be simplicity itself, slacken 2 bolts, remove/replace blade, use flat bit of metal to get blade end level with drum end, tighten bolts. Long and good quality mains lead. Neat little pop-down fit to save the blade if you put the tool down before the drum has stopped spinning.
I paid =A3135 (incl delivery) on ebay.
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