hand electric Planers buying advice

[spannermonkey]

Should I go for depth of cut, Watts or price? Will be mainly planing softwoods?
MTA
SM

 

[Eric The Viking]

Don't get Freud :-(

The soleplates on mine are not parallel (i.e. you couldn't ever make them coplanar). The castings are very cheap rubbish, and the central 'spigot' part of the nose plate isn't at right angles to the sole, it's out by about 1-2 degrees, sideways!

It took me a while to work it out, because it's something that's not officially adjustable, and you'd expect better from Freud. I have a plan to fix it, involving a lot of elbow grease (and probably cursing), meanwhile it's as much use as... a pretty useless thing. I only wish I'd noticed it early enough to get the shop to replace it. As it was I spent a long time trying to improve my 'technique' before I did some checking. Goodness only knows what the factory QC must be like.

 

[OwenRS]

I totally agree. We once hand one with plates out of alinement. Rubbish and got bined. Either digged in at front or dropped in at end. Only adjustment was for depth of cut

A must have tho is the standard 82mm knives, far far cheaper than the 75 or 80.5mm items.

 

[Mike Wingate]

I would not bother. I have an Elu and it has so much starting torque, it spins your wrist. Heavy, noisy. Worst power tool purchase I have made. Limited use, I have trimmed doors and windows and planed down two mahogany bench tops with it.

 

[Shane]

I would not bother. I have an Elu and it has so much starting torque, it spins your wrist. Heavy, noisy. Worst power tool purchase I have made. Limited use, I have trimmed doors and windows and planed down two mahogany bench tops with it.

I've got to agree in part, I tend to use a saw and guide rail a lot of the time, if not hand plane. I do use an electric planer on rare occasions so I got my hitachi electric planer second hand from ebay for £50

 

[petermillard]

I have an Elu and it has so much starting torque, it spins your wrist. Heavy, noisy. Worst power tool purchase I have made. Limited use, I have trimmed doors and windows and planed down two mahogany bench tops with it.

LOL! I had one of those; bringing it to bear against the surface you were planing was like trying to moonwalk with a gyroscope in your hand! Great piece of kit though if you're trimming doors or kitchen worktops, but yes, limited use in a workshop I think. And yes, noisiest hand planer I've ever used!

Pete

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Always go for the best you can afford. I would take note of the 82mm blade tip.

The Festool one is really good, only used the small one. The width of cut isn't to great though but a really nice tool if you don't need to do more then around 2 inch at a time.

I have the Bosch GHO 40-82 (not the c version mine has 2 blades not one) Planer which is a cracking planer. 82mm blades and 4mm cut but costs close to the festools small one.

As your only planing softwood you will only need more watts if you plan to get one with a 4mm cut and plane at 4mm.

In your case I would probably recommend the Makita KP0810K so you can have power, width and depth £170.

 

[OPJ]

If you're after a 110v tool, I've got a Metabo HO882 that I'm looking to sell... :-" ;-) Nothing wrong with it; I've barely used it in the time I've had it. I would rather have a 230v tool (and, I've just bought a second-hand, single-bladed Bosch 40-82, which I've yet to try!), that's all.

 

[János]

Hello,

I have a cheap Makita 1902 (if I remember the number correctly) and use it to plane the surface of contaminated or lacquered wood, as carbide blades tolerate that much better than the blades in my wooden handplanes. It has its problem, tough. The frontpiece (the infeed) is not parallel with the back (the outfeed) of the sole, but "tips" forward. So it is suitable for rough work only.

The most important feature in an electric handplane is a spindle brake, for safety's shake. Festo tools have that feature, and some DeWalt tools too. But I am not a real expert on the offerings available nowadays.

By,

János

 

[Jacob]

IMHO they aren't worth the bother. The cheap ones are rubbish. They are no good for flattening boards. Smaller stuff you'd be better off with a good portable circular saw and finish by hand.
I've never tried the festool but if you could afford one I'd get a starter level planer (or just the thicknesser), and be prepared to do some hand planing where necessary.

 

[cambournepete]

I've got an old (20 years?), black B&D planer.
I rarely use it, but it was fine for stripping off paint of some wooden boards - not that it left them very flat though...

 

[Jacob]

I've got an old (20 years?), black B&D planer.
I rarely use it, but it was fine for stripping off paint of some wooden boards - not that it left them very flat though...

:lol:
Mine's 35 years (ish). B&D 80 pla. Nothing wrong with it except it's fairly useless just like all the others. That's why it's still around - doesn't get used from one year to the next.

 

[Woodielanger]

We have a dewalt planer and it's very heavy. As a few people have mentioned, the touque and weight of the thing makes it hard to use especially on edge with one hand, it has been extremely reliable though. I have used The small festool planer and it is great for it's small lightweight design, a pleasure to shoot doors in and one handed work etc.

We have only used our plane maybe twice in a year, better for the rougher construction work rather than finish work, we work with a plung saw and finish by hand plane all other times or possibly a belt sander as that can remove a fair amount of extra material depending on application.

All the best
Al

 

[Mike.C]

I would not bother. I have an Elu and it has so much starting torque, it spins your wrist. Heavy, noisy. Worst power tool purchase I have made. Limited use, I have trimmed doors and windows and planed down two mahogany bench tops with it.

Snap IMHO they are a load of rubbish.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Jacob]

Is that unanimous? They are crap - everybody who has used one agrees!

 

[AndyT]

I disagree!
I have an old Bosch that I bought about 20 years ago. I don't have a bench planer or thicknesser, so I find the electric plane useful for preliminary cleaning up of sawn timber, before using a handplane to get the proper finished surface. For example, I used it to clean up the oak for my Adirondack chair build.

I wouldn't call it a precision tool though, and it is noisy.

 

[RogerS]

I'm with Andy T...they definitely have their uses. It depends what the OP wants one for....for site work, I buy cheap since the chances are I'll find a nail or two.

 

[Anonymous]

in my opinion track saws have rendered the electric planer useless for all the applications i've ever used one for.

 

[Karl]

A track saw can only saw a straight line. An electric plane can folllow [shallow] curves.

Cheers

Karl

 

[studders]

Yebbut, Electric planers can be had for considerably less than the cost of a track saw. Despite their lack of precision, used carefully they can be useful for preliminary cleaning up or for jobs where accuracy isn't that important.