Thanks, by the way. It's not a question of if but when with the planer, but the weight will probably make it surface shipping unless i get extremely unlucky and get stuck sending it via some method that costs over $100 due to suspension of surface shipping. Happened before. At any rate, there are so many used planers for sale for almost nothing in japan that it takes little effort to get one in pretty good shape. I guess traditional construction there begins with beams, and not just temple kind of traditional stuff.
If I run a 100V japanese tool on 120V US electricity
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Thanks, by the way. It's not a question of if but when with the planer, but the weight will probably make it surface shipping unless i get extremely unlucky and get stuck sending it via some method that costs over $100 due to suspension of surface shipping. Happened before. At any rate, there are so many used planers for sale for almost nothing in japan that it takes little effort to get one in pretty good shape. I guess traditional construction there begins with beams, and not just temple kind of traditional stuff.
Funny coincidence but before reading your thread here I watched an episode of "the essential craftsman" on youtube. Entitled " a total stranger teaches me about timber framing" or some such it is a video tour of Sweet Timber Frame's workshop up on the edge of the Arcadia national park in Maine. Part way through a Makita portable square chisel morticer shows up on the bench. Like a huge plunge router with a square, hollow chisel cutter and a vice on the underside to clamp this thing straight onto a beam. Awesome tool. I'd never seen one of these before but the use is instantly obvious. One of many episodes worth watching.
I actually learned a tip from him that might help me, but unrelated to woodworking. I've had trouble with snoring for years but can't "pass" the sleep test. I'm exhausted all the time, and grouchy because of it. Sleep interruptions are only 3 an hour or something, so nothing actionable.
He had a video about taping his mouth shut with stretch physical therapy tape - not sure what it's called. Kinesio or something. Suddenly, I have dreams that I can remember because I'm asleep long enough.
That wasn't important to share, but well, I'd have to use the backspace button a lot if I thought too much about that.
Back to the planers- when I looked up the KP312 to see who it was aimed at given that it's a horrid $2500+ here vs. $1300 in japan (more like 1200 before consumption tax), I saw reviews from timberframing sites. I'm in the burbs - no such construction method is popular here. The videos of planers look like many from eastern europe, where that must still be popular.
it also clues me in as to why none of these machines have any real dust ports on them- they just have a discharge - all of the videos show people either in wide open spaces in large shop areas or outside where the chips don't matter.
as much as these things bog down, they must have a pretty close set back iron on them. Which would make sense as anyone using them probably won't have a way to plane out tearout.
Homeless Squirrel
Established Member
Running that on US voltage should be fine i'd be more worried about spikes as most of yours is carried above ground!
Remember say's 120v but so often your not getting that as like in UK we was 250v .240 but often only 220 had it on meter at 215 before.
Less volts can be more damaging that higher as can arc the brushes with current struggling to overcome the resistance of the load on drive
Decent Jap stuff is well built
Remember say's 120v but so often your not getting that as like in UK we was 250v .240 but often only 220 had it on meter at 215 before.
Less volts can be more damaging that higher as can arc the brushes with current struggling to overcome the resistance of the load on drive
Decent Jap stuff is well built
I "won" an auction this morning for an 1805N with wooden box (they come in a wooden box, japanese tradition, I guess) and two sets of unused spare blades. Seller says confirmed functioning properly, which I try to get on listings as the honesty level there about something being fully functional is a little better than it is here on ebay.
Not that it matters, but this is a similar planer to the 1806, just 155mm. For what I'd like to do, it makes no difference if it's 170 or 155, just a matter of which one I'd "win" first.
I feel a little bad for the picker who is selling it, but the used market over there just isn't the same as it is in europe and the states. They don't really like used stuff, and there's some superstition around it from what I understand (not just a random comment, but explained to me by someone who lived in Japan for a decade - if the unknown user was a bad person, there's some concern that their items may be tainted with bad vibes).
Now the gamble will be with whether or not the proxy shipper is allowing surface shipping. If not, the shipping bill will be hefty.
Not that it matters, but this is a similar planer to the 1806, just 155mm. For what I'd like to do, it makes no difference if it's 170 or 155, just a matter of which one I'd "win" first.
I feel a little bad for the picker who is selling it, but the used market over there just isn't the same as it is in europe and the states. They don't really like used stuff, and there's some superstition around it from what I understand (not just a random comment, but explained to me by someone who lived in Japan for a decade - if the unknown user was a bad person, there's some concern that their items may be tainted with bad vibes).
Now the gamble will be with whether or not the proxy shipper is allowing surface shipping. If not, the shipping bill will be hefty.
I realize I forgot to mention the price, which will illuminate why I felt sorry for the seller. $37.40.
It's not uncommon for stuff to sell for almost nothing there, though, and the seller has thousands of feedbacks (similar to yardsale or flea market flipper in the US), so I'm sure they're not unfamiliar with poor sale results.
Low sale price is a nice thing, though, in case there's a snafu with shipping and you get stuck now and again with limited options that are all high price.
The current chart says surface shipping is open. It did the last time that I shipped lot of similar weight (sharpening stones), but the option was grayed out back then and shipping them cost $110 or so, including the in country shipping (which is cheap in japan - maybe $10 of the $110).
It's not uncommon for stuff to sell for almost nothing there, though, and the seller has thousands of feedbacks (similar to yardsale or flea market flipper in the US), so I'm sure they're not unfamiliar with poor sale results.
Low sale price is a nice thing, though, in case there's a snafu with shipping and you get stuck now and again with limited options that are all high price.
The current chart says surface shipping is open. It did the last time that I shipped lot of similar weight (sharpening stones), but the option was grayed out back then and shipping them cost $110 or so, including the in country shipping (which is cheap in japan - maybe $10 of the $110).
through a third party, I received a response from a group of EEs that basically said "if the factors that would cause the motor to fail occur, then it will fail. If they do not occur despite the higher voltage, then it will not".
I found this humorous because the answer of what will or won't happen with my work product often has an if like this in it, even if the situation is complicated, and the if can't be known ahead of time. It drives people bonkers. And because of that, the answers in this case don't bother me at all.
Within a couple of days, I'll know if surface shipping is available, which will effectively make one of these $100 or less shipped. If that is the case, I will order two. Treat one nicely and beat the other straight up at 120v. And we'll see. I think it will probably be fine. I just don't want go learn whether or not it will be on the only one I have.
I found this humorous because the answer of what will or won't happen with my work product often has an if like this in it, even if the situation is complicated, and the if can't be known ahead of time. It drives people bonkers. And because of that, the answers in this case don't bother me at all.
Within a couple of days, I'll know if surface shipping is available, which will effectively make one of these $100 or less shipped. If that is the case, I will order two. Treat one nicely and beat the other straight up at 120v. And we'll see. I think it will probably be fine. I just don't want go learn whether or not it will be on the only one I have.
whole effort fell a little flat so far. Package 1 at the warehouse. 14kg, no problem.
Look up the shipping options and surface j-post is listed as "not available, oversized".
this doesn't make any sense, and the gamble with customer service there isn't a good one. As in, in the US, if there was something wrong with the system, it would get fixed. Culturally in japan, if the system isn't working right, most of the rank and file folks will be afraid to do something that they're not sure of and defer on looking into it. This isn't a baseless comment - I've run into only one time that I was able to convince buyee to open an auction (they were afraid that mahogany items were limited by CITES. In this case, a simple guitar. I sent them the CITES rules, which their internal counsel agreed made the auction OK to bid on and ship. then when their warehouse received it, they refused to ship it outside of japan and it was like talking to robots).
so, simple question - is the package actually oversized for surface mail? No, it's under half the size and half the weight of J-post's surface mail limits (1.5 meters, 3 total with for a height width calculation, and 30kg).
I knew there was a chance of this only from prior experience and will probably suck it up and just pay the $120 or so to ship the package DHL air, and will have a month to battle it out with them before the free 30 day warehouse period ends.
This kind of trouble is new in the last 3 or so years (starting before covid) - I have no idea why. it started first for me when i got a standard guitar after getting half a dozen and they said it was oversize and could only ship DHL. A $300 surprise vs. EMS.
At this point, i don't actually know what the size limits would be because I've gotten two maebiki much bigger than this planer through surface mail in the past. I think they don't want to ship certain things for fear of them breaking so they just don't allow it, and the rank and file have been told not to tell customers that, so they don't.
As stu tierney (toolsfromjapan) told me years ago, if boss tells someone to do something in japan and they could tell you the truth but aren't sure if the boss would allow it, they will stonewall and give answers that make no sense for fear of disappointing or crossing the boss.
Figure on ebay, this thing becomes a $200 planer, so the savings for using buyee kind of goes away other than that you can pick among about 20 listings instead of four. the hobby flippers on ebay over there do OK because they aren't having to go through a proxy shipper and can probably ship something like this economy air for about $50 instead of $120. But buyee won't allow that.
all that said, if it's a working 6 inch good quality japanese made planer and ends up being about $180 total with all fees, it's still better than anything I can find here.
Look up the shipping options and surface j-post is listed as "not available, oversized".
this doesn't make any sense, and the gamble with customer service there isn't a good one. As in, in the US, if there was something wrong with the system, it would get fixed. Culturally in japan, if the system isn't working right, most of the rank and file folks will be afraid to do something that they're not sure of and defer on looking into it. This isn't a baseless comment - I've run into only one time that I was able to convince buyee to open an auction (they were afraid that mahogany items were limited by CITES. In this case, a simple guitar. I sent them the CITES rules, which their internal counsel agreed made the auction OK to bid on and ship. then when their warehouse received it, they refused to ship it outside of japan and it was like talking to robots).
so, simple question - is the package actually oversized for surface mail? No, it's under half the size and half the weight of J-post's surface mail limits (1.5 meters, 3 total with for a height width calculation, and 30kg).
I knew there was a chance of this only from prior experience and will probably suck it up and just pay the $120 or so to ship the package DHL air, and will have a month to battle it out with them before the free 30 day warehouse period ends.
This kind of trouble is new in the last 3 or so years (starting before covid) - I have no idea why. it started first for me when i got a standard guitar after getting half a dozen and they said it was oversize and could only ship DHL. A $300 surprise vs. EMS.
At this point, i don't actually know what the size limits would be because I've gotten two maebiki much bigger than this planer through surface mail in the past. I think they don't want to ship certain things for fear of them breaking so they just don't allow it, and the rank and file have been told not to tell customers that, so they don't.
As stu tierney (toolsfromjapan) told me years ago, if boss tells someone to do something in japan and they could tell you the truth but aren't sure if the boss would allow it, they will stonewall and give answers that make no sense for fear of disappointing or crossing the boss.
Figure on ebay, this thing becomes a $200 planer, so the savings for using buyee kind of goes away other than that you can pick among about 20 listings instead of four. the hobby flippers on ebay over there do OK because they aren't having to go through a proxy shipper and can probably ship something like this economy air for about $50 instead of $120. But buyee won't allow that.
all that said, if it's a working 6 inch good quality japanese made planer and ends up being about $180 total with all fees, it's still better than anything I can find here.
conclusion - the proxy shipper (which is a large company, not like a mom and pop) finished the protective packaging quickly.
they also responded to my question about lack of surface mail. they don't usually respond like that on the weekend. The result is again stuff that doesn't make sense:
* "you can't ship packages over 2M" (longest part of this package is 600mm, with nothing else even half that)
* "we can downsize your package and see if it can be shipped (the original box didn't need downsizing - the larger packing after protective additional packaging is 600mm long)
* after asking the question, and getting the status update on protective packaging, they changed the status of surface from "oversized package" to "not available"
So I'm stuck with DHL now at $140, which isn't that unexpected. Brings the total all cost amount to about $200, which isn't what I was hoping for when winning the auction under $40, but if you asked me if I'd pay $200 for one of these planers instead of springing for some plastic heap like a triton at near twice the cost.
....absolutely.
there is a reason they won't ship this surface, but they won't tell me. japanese people are not dishonest, they're just company loyal and nobody is going to go out on a limb and give me an exact reason.
It could be because I had paypal chargeback them a couple of years ago. they shipped a guitar in a box shorter than the guitar (i ordered protective packaging and no insurance). It wasn't horribly expensive ($550 with fees included), the guitar arrived broken. I sent them a picture, asked why they didn't use a regular guitar box and requested they refund the protective packaging fee ($14) and I'd eat the rest. they told me that they couldn't refund the protective packaging fee because I didn't buy insurance. I requested a second review, they got a little mad, and I sent the pictures to paypal and said "I'd like to get the fee back on principle" and paypal forced them to refund $550, which I wasn't immediately happy about for fear of losing access to services entirely.
so, I think they may have marked my account and they make judgement decisions, because they've shipped maebiki without any protective packaging surface mail, and they're bigger in dimension.
So, if you're looking at this and thinking about japanese chisels or something (which are often very cheap there), is it a problem? No, they're never heavy enough for air shipping to be very expensive. it's just seemingly inexpensive stuff like this that should be eligible for shipping services and then the system pigeonholes you into only one or two options that are expensive.
Is it better if you purchase insurance? Not in my experience - they will double the protective packaging, make things even bigger to avoid the chance of a claim and you'll be stuck with the insurance fee plus higher shipping.
they also responded to my question about lack of surface mail. they don't usually respond like that on the weekend. The result is again stuff that doesn't make sense:
* "you can't ship packages over 2M" (longest part of this package is 600mm, with nothing else even half that)
* "we can downsize your package and see if it can be shipped (the original box didn't need downsizing - the larger packing after protective additional packaging is 600mm long)
* after asking the question, and getting the status update on protective packaging, they changed the status of surface from "oversized package" to "not available"
So I'm stuck with DHL now at $140, which isn't that unexpected. Brings the total all cost amount to about $200, which isn't what I was hoping for when winning the auction under $40, but if you asked me if I'd pay $200 for one of these planers instead of springing for some plastic heap like a triton at near twice the cost.
....absolutely.
there is a reason they won't ship this surface, but they won't tell me. japanese people are not dishonest, they're just company loyal and nobody is going to go out on a limb and give me an exact reason.
It could be because I had paypal chargeback them a couple of years ago. they shipped a guitar in a box shorter than the guitar (i ordered protective packaging and no insurance). It wasn't horribly expensive ($550 with fees included), the guitar arrived broken. I sent them a picture, asked why they didn't use a regular guitar box and requested they refund the protective packaging fee ($14) and I'd eat the rest. they told me that they couldn't refund the protective packaging fee because I didn't buy insurance. I requested a second review, they got a little mad, and I sent the pictures to paypal and said "I'd like to get the fee back on principle" and paypal forced them to refund $550, which I wasn't immediately happy about for fear of losing access to services entirely.
so, I think they may have marked my account and they make judgement decisions, because they've shipped maebiki without any protective packaging surface mail, and they're bigger in dimension.
So, if you're looking at this and thinking about japanese chisels or something (which are often very cheap there), is it a problem? No, they're never heavy enough for air shipping to be very expensive. it's just seemingly inexpensive stuff like this that should be eligible for shipping services and then the system pigeonholes you into only one or two options that are expensive.
Is it better if you purchase insurance? Not in my experience - they will double the protective packaging, make things even bigger to avoid the chance of a claim and you'll be stuck with the insurance fee plus higher shipping.
got the planer today. It works as it said it would. I did get a picker's trick pulled on me, though. It has undamaged but dull knives in the powerhead. I'll sharpen them.
The spare sets are 135mm, though - this planer is 155mm.
Amazon delivered a dimmer, too, but the interesting thing about the plug is that it's two prong with equal size (known), but it also has a little green ground wire out of the plug to clip to something if you so choose. Kind of nifty.
A massive machine and at some point in the next couple of weeks, I'll wire up a cord with the dimmer and then give the whole thing a better look over while sharpening to see if the two sole parts are coplanar (hopefully).
The spare sets are 135mm, though - this planer is 155mm.
Amazon delivered a dimmer, too, but the interesting thing about the plug is that it's two prong with equal size (known), but it also has a little green ground wire out of the plug to clip to something if you so choose. Kind of nifty.
A massive machine and at some point in the next couple of weeks, I'll wire up a cord with the dimmer and then give the whole thing a better look over while sharpening to see if the two sole parts are coplanar (hopefully).
raffo
Established Member
I can help you wire up the dimmer.
I'll give you a heads up if it didn't come with a diagram.
if I had something to waste with it (don't) I'd plug it in the kill-a-watt and see if it would draw more current than expected as-is. it is a jointer proportion tool compared to the jack plane or short jack kind of format of current planers. No real reason other than feel, but I would be surprised if it were harmed materially by running at 120V.
Exactly the machine that someone would use at a bench to get big wood materially flat, though
I'll check back in here so far - I took the blades out of the planer and sharpened them freehand on a diamond hone and then chased the burr. they are some kind of inlaid SKH blade, as in, there is a laminated super hard insert that isn't quick to hone. A gorgeously made piece of kit.
I ignored the whole electrical thing so far and edge jointed a 2 1/4" limba board. it's like using a plane, it feels like using a plane, and is unbelievably stable.
I think got a 12 year old piece of dried quartered beech out of my stash, which over it's life had moved quite a bit and it planed it beautifully. if you have a feel for hand planing with a try plane, it is like pushing around thor's try plane. the weight and stability is so good you can walk forward and then literally go backwards down the face of the same board. Keeping in mind the width of cut is over 6", you can with care face most boards going up and back.
Climb cutting by walking backwards with it is probably bad policy, but it doesn't at all give you a whif of wanting to run, kick or tug - it's like riding a bike with the wind behind you.
it leaves a surface that needs nothing more than a smooth plane.
the adjustability of the blade gives you the ability if you want to use the entire insert length or close to it (about 3/8"), meaning I will probably never need another set of blades.
i'm stunned. It's something like 11 1/2 amps and running with 120V here - plenty of power. I'm not sorry I paid the mint to have it shipped. it'd be lovely to have the US version with the proper wiring, but not for $750.
no funny smells or anything. I guess I'll make a jig to sharpen the blades, but as long as they're straight, the adjustability makes it so they don't even have to be even depth from left to right - you can set the projection to make up for uneven amounts on each end.
the sole isn't aluminum, but rather a precise thickness piece of spring steel screwed to the bottom of the casting, so it doesn't have the sticky feeling that aluminum sole planers do.
I ignored the whole electrical thing so far and edge jointed a 2 1/4" limba board. it's like using a plane, it feels like using a plane, and is unbelievably stable.
I think got a 12 year old piece of dried quartered beech out of my stash, which over it's life had moved quite a bit and it planed it beautifully. if you have a feel for hand planing with a try plane, it is like pushing around thor's try plane. the weight and stability is so good you can walk forward and then literally go backwards down the face of the same board. Keeping in mind the width of cut is over 6", you can with care face most boards going up and back.
Climb cutting by walking backwards with it is probably bad policy, but it doesn't at all give you a whif of wanting to run, kick or tug - it's like riding a bike with the wind behind you.
it leaves a surface that needs nothing more than a smooth plane.
the adjustability of the blade gives you the ability if you want to use the entire insert length or close to it (about 3/8"), meaning I will probably never need another set of blades.
i'm stunned. It's something like 11 1/2 amps and running with 120V here - plenty of power. I'm not sorry I paid the mint to have it shipped. it'd be lovely to have the US version with the proper wiring, but not for $750.
no funny smells or anything. I guess I'll make a jig to sharpen the blades, but as long as they're straight, the adjustability makes it so they don't even have to be even depth from left to right - you can set the projection to make up for uneven amounts on each end.
the sole isn't aluminum, but rather a precise thickness piece of spring steel screwed to the bottom of the casting, so it doesn't have the sticky feeling that aluminum sole planers do.
before (filthy with metal dust in this shop, of course)
after planer
after a norris panel plane to follow it up
I could give up complaining so much about the weight of planes if all they had to do is follow this thing. it neatly shoots the shavings against the wall and behind the bench, too.
after planer
after a norris panel plane to follow it up
I could give up complaining so much about the weight of planes if all they had to do is follow this thing. it neatly shoots the shavings against the wall and behind the bench, too.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
Glad it worked out for you. I imagine it's 20% smoother on 120V.
Against_The_Grain
Established Member
Quite a while ago now you could get the Ryobi DM-20 here, quite a rare machine to find secondhand but brilliant for morticing out door locks and other jobs where it’s more practical to take the machine to the work rather than vice versa.
could be! I think it'd be great on 100V and will eventually feed it the diet that it likes. and if I don't and it ruins it, I'll buy another one and treat it better.
it has the feel of something created to appeal to people who have used a lot of hand tools - intuitively how its proportions are and how it works.
Would highly recommend for almost anyone were it to actually be the $37.40 locally that it is in japan.
The results look great. I'm happy to learn that it worked out and to follow the adventure 
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