OK Chris I'll give you my two pennorth. I've recently been using a Festool EHL65E to shoot in some American oak doors (20 odd in total) almost all of which required adjustment (*?!@$! site chippies!). My planer of choice for about 25 years has been an Elu MFF80 which I'd agree is probably one of the best planers ever made and just about unbustable. In comparison the EHL I used for this job is a dinky little beastie and much, much lighter. Because of the spiral cutter (a single one BTW) the surface finish is noticeably better than the Elu, not that the Elu is that bad, it's just that the Festool is better. The dust extraction is excellent with the vacuum attached and the light weight means that it really is a one handed machine. The depth of cut is more precise than the Elu being "click-stopped" in 0.1mm increments rather than the Elu's 0.5mm marks with click stops in between and remember where you are after 1.5mm - you'll know what I mean. And the machine is quiet enough to use without ear defenders for short cuts. I didn't use the fence, although it did seem somewhat better designed than the Elu's fence, which as you know is a bit Heath Robinson.
Overall I liked the machine a lot.
What I didn't like was the cost of replacement cutters (check that out!), the fact that it can (for me) be a bit awkward to use two handed - in fact it is actually quite easy to try holding it in a position which puts your fingers near to the cutters, something I'll have to watch. I also reckon that this is much more like an electric jack plane than a smoother, so it probably wouldn't be the best machine to shoot an edge (unless of course the edge was already straight)
One thing I did find was that the cutter tends to start "rippling" the wood as it gets to the end of its' life, although that will easily take-out with a cabinet scraper.
Overall I think it's an interesting machine and probably worth the £225 or so they seem to go for. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether or not it would be worthwhile spending an extra £100 to get the HL850EB, although that runs at 10,000 rpm as opposed to 15,600 rpm of the smaller machine
Hope that helps and if you have any further queries please post again or PM me
the_g_ster":31xo6p2i said:
By a LN or LV hand plane, far nicer.
Maybe so, but not a realistic approach for hanging doors (says the man who carries a L-N #62 in his installation kit :roll: )
Scrit
PS Unlike others on this forum I'm not sponsored by Festool or any other manufacturers, worst luck
:wink:
