Power planer recommendations?

What on earth _for_ ? I'm hardly slow to buy myself new toys, but I've really never found a use for one of these things -- at least not that wasn't better served by either a hand tool, or a big heavy piece of florr-standing machinery. I just don't ever need to shift timber this quickly, with this lack of precision.

Quite agree. I have a small Bosch permanently set to zero depth of cut for cleaning up, but have never seen the need to use it for stock removal. That's what saws are for.

I use mine to take less than 5mm off doors. It even leaves a smoother finish than a saw.

Christian.

Well thanks guys for your help - not.

I did say it was for joinery, and yes first choice is to put it through the planer/thicknesser if that's feasable.

But that isn't going to happen with jobs that I can barely lift or any job that's far to heavy going for a hand plane and well away from my workshop.

Anyone got a suggestion that might be *useful to me* ?

Recommendations Christian?

Don't bother IMHO. I've had one for years and hardly ever use it as all the alternatives are better. e.g.door trimming; portable circ saw (with saw board) dead accurate, easy and quick, if necessary finish with hand plane.

cheers Jacob

I got a cheap 10 quid PP job and it works really surprisingly well. However, I suspect you are in the market for something more expensive, although I can't for the life of me think how it could be that significantly improved. It just works, is easy to control, easy to adjust and leaves the surface very smooth. Even the vacuum waste attachment works well.

Christian.

I'm with Christian, cheap ones seem to work well enough. Fitted 6 doors (cheap panel type) and used it for these. As long as you work to a line and lead in and out with a bit of care they work fine for the lighter tasks. Not tried mine on railway sleapers yet!!

Phil

The suggestion(s) of using a circular saw instead isn't useful?

Aldi have one on sale from the 5th for =A314 !! at that price you cant go wrong !! I've got a Bosch one with a 1.6mm max cut, used it to fit the doors in the house five years ago and dusted it off again for two doors into the extension. so not overly used :-)

I have a good (Makita) circular saw but still find my old B&D power plane very useful occasionally for giving a fine finish - eg to the casement windows of my house, some of which which need planing every so often as the frames (or what holds them) settle a bit.

In message , " snipped-for-privacy@gglz.com" writes

I actually use one but it is a Wolf acquired 20 years back. One point nobody has mentioned is the quantity and distance from the job that wood chip will be dispersed:-)

The Wolf came with a jig (essential) for holding the blades during sharpening. You also need a very large oilstone as the blades overhang anything DIYish.

regards