My local Sears has had a Craftsman 13" planer tucked away in the clearance corner for a couple of weeks now. Originally $399, then $349, now $279.
I stopped by today to check the clearance corner, and examined it more closely. Opening up the outfeed table, I saw the next sticker in line: $179.
Hmmmmm.... Even if it *is* a Crapsman . . . :-)
Any thoughts on this?
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Kevin
Get it. You could do better, but you clearly haven't so far. The great thing about planers is that they pay for themselves by giving you cheaper timber. It's not as good as getting a better planer, but it's cheaper and better than none.
Depends on how much you like Delta... The ones that I looked at last week, like my craftsman biscuit jointer, appear to be delta..
I haven't bought a Delta product in years, except for occasional bits and things, but they used to make very good power tools..
This doesn't look like any Delta I've ever seen (although I certainly haven't seen them all).
I don't know who makes this one. It's a big and solid casting; the weight per specs is 105 pounds. It has a power driven height adjustment (something I've never seen in this class), as well as a manual crank. Two pin-indexed, reversible blades, 16,000 cpm, feeds at 26 fpm (by my math, that's 51 cpi).
I'm definitely heading back in the morning to see if we can come to terms, and find out if the stand, bag, etc., are available.
Kevin
$179!!! Not sure you could go to far wrong with that unless you are too technologically dependent.
This particular planer (the one with the built in dust collection system) got very good review in WW mag. earlier this year. I almost bought one, but went with the Ryobi for pricing reasons.
The main problem my Craftsman had (a 10 year old one inherited from my dad, recently replaced by one of the discontinued DeWalts) stemmed from its two support post design - it worked fine on cherry and walnut but oak - forget it. The 4 post design in the one you are looking at probably eliminates this (problem was that the head could rock back and forth visibly when the load got heavy). I think the price is right.
JK
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