Planers Reviews

Sheet metal had to be rebent into the proper position to get it to fit. About a 45 minute job.

The editorial review @ Amazon states that this is a REPLACEMENT of the chip chute... THIS IS INCORRECT! The poor quality copy that serves as the instructions never states that you remove the existing chute--thanks to one of the Amazon reviewers for getting this right! It fits over the existing chute. In this configuration, the dust hood works well and is structurally stiff. Mine fit on the planer with no problems or modifications.

As far as performance is concerned, I even forgot to turn my dust collections system (1100CFM) on for one pass and the only chips that came out were towards the front of the machine; with the dust collection turned on the dust chute was every bit as effective as I thought it would be: almost no chips or dust in the work area.

The metal dust hood is a little flimsy for what I usually expect from Delta. The instructions were photocopies of bad photocopies and were nearly useless. The hood goes over the existing chip chute, it does not replace it. This was not clear in the instructions. If you remove the existing chip chute to add the dust collector, it leaves the blades exposed. However, it is easy enough to see how it fits on the planer. The holes, etc fitted well. It works well and collects most of the dust and chips. I hessitated before buying based on other reviews. I think it works well for people using a dust collector with plenty of air flow. It probably does not work well if you are trying to use a shop vac. Overall, it's OK for me. I would not have minded spending a few more dollars if the quality was better.

I purchased a JPM 13 and when I tried to get parts for it they told us that we could buy the planer but they did not carry parts for it. I hope you post this because I am disappointed that you cant buy parts for it even though you still sell it. James

I haven't used mine to cut molding yet, but the machine is under powered for rough cut lumber. If you just have a board or two to thickness plane it is functional, but for big jobs forget it.

My JPM-13 is about a year old, and is being used to restore an old house. I use 5/4 and 8/4 fir and 5/4 maple exclusively. I make the door/window trim (1 1/8 thick x 5 in wide) and have custom knives made. This is not a professional machine, but gives GREAT results on the maple molding, with no sanding needed! I would recommend it to anyone that would use it as a hobby machine.

The major problem I got with my planer is that it does'n have a base for stationary use. Bosch does! I would like to know when DeWalt will design one?

I have got a lot of use out of this tool. Used it to turn a bunch of construction grade lumber into dimensional lumber for about 60 feet of porch railing on a restoration house. Never could get a hand planer to work and this is my first power planer so my opinion is limited, but it does everything I expect. After planing four sides of a 2x2 you need to soften the edges because they are so sharp. It snipes 1-2 inches at the end of the cut -- ? This may be normal for power planers, I don't know. GREAT storage case. Manual/instructions only big complaint -- twenty pages and after the safety instructions (don't use tool in the bathtub) and five translations I still have no idea what I am supposed to do with a 1x3 piece of metal that came with the kit.

After reading the one and only review I can only assume that I got lucky with a square Dewalt hand planer. To start off I wish all my power tools (some of which cost hundreds more) came with the high class storage case the planer did. For flattening large areas or truing up and squaring long stock this planner makes loads of wood chips fast. I wouldn't use this plane for finish work on cabinets or furniture because it moves so fast that with one mistake your project would be toast. Norm probably wouldn't have this type of plane in his shop preferring the craftsmanship of the hand planes. However for those of us who work and don't have the luxury of spending hours making a large table top flat this is a real time and labor saver.

I bought a set of these using a amazon $20 gift certificate so I thought I would be getting a great deal. The knives I received were so dull I could run my fingers across them length wise and not even start to cut my skin. I returned them and ended up being charged for the return shipment. No bargan here. I ended up with no knives and being out $10.00 I don't know if this was just a bad set or they had been damaged at some point as they were out of their Freud box but still wrapped in the protective paper inside the Amazon box. I will be buying a set of Amana from a local supplier. They will cost more but at least I know that they will be sharp.

I ordered Freud co12 planer knives they came 12inch long not 13inch like the ads says. I called Freud Mfg. they said they don't make a 13"x7/8"x1/8" planer knives just 12inch long in that size.

They are as advertized very good knives and work well in my Belsaw planer.

I would not recommend this mobile base. The planer stand barely fits, the legs are 1/2" off of the base. Also there is no way provided to attach the stand to the base. It would seem to me that this base is made for a different application, or the engineer that designed it never attempted to put the stand in the base. At a price of nearly $100.00 I expected a much better fit. Personally I would recommend puchasing a universal base at around $50.00 and making it fit. The only reason I gave 2 stars is because it is well constructed.

The review is based on the Amazon's service rather than the knives themselves. The knives a the typical high quality from Freud, but I had to wait nearly three months for delivery. I got one message after another from Amazon about the delay with new expected delivery dates, but as the date approached I received another delay notice.

I have the same complaint. I've waited three months and just keep getting told, "there is a delay in shipment"...they are just a picture on a website..they don't really exist.

Ordered on May 5, 2003. It's now June 4, 2003. Only information available is "not shipped yet". If the item in fact is not available, let the buyer know so that the buyer has the opportunit to contact other suppliers.

Forget Amana jointer knives. Dull. Different width's in a set of three. One knife was ground out of parallel by 0.045 in six inches. I paid more for these than the competitor from my past experience with Amana. Highly recommend you stay away from these knives. Pitiful quality.

I foolishly ordered what I thought was 2 SETS of these knives. They are usually sold in sets of 3. I thought I was getting a great deal. The Freud set of three of the same size knives was $38. Nice price. These were only $34 though, even better. So I thought. I neglected to read the fine print. It was for only one knife. Not a bargain at all. Not to mention that I now have only 2 knives and need 3. I now need to purchase yet another knife to complete the set, putting me well over $100, a far cry from $38 for the Freud set of 3. BUY THE FREUD AND SAVE SOME MONEY!

I ordered 3 for my old Delta 12" Portable planer and for my new one, as they are the same belt. If your belt wears out apparently you are supposed to throw the machine away since I have had to re-approve my order with Amazon TEN TIMES to keep them from automatically cancelling it.
I am sure availability is a problem from Delta and not Amazon.com, as I have had experience with other Delta tools.
So far as rating the item, I don't know yet. If I ever get one I will let you know.( I had to rate it 1 star just to post this review)
The machine is a tough little bugger, although it leaves about 2 or 3 inches of snipe on the beginning and end of each board.
Elevate the tables a little out of level in order to make an improvement.
UPDATE une 18, 2005:
My planer is making a strange noise, so I may have to cancel my belt order after all !
A light at the end of the tunnel ?

My joiner is an old 4 1/8 inch Craftsman. It runs pretty good but the knives are not easy to set. This jig seemed to be just the thing but there are two short comings I found:

1. When the jig is lined up with the knife at top dead center, the screws holding the knife in place are not accessible. So the jig has to be moved forward enough to get the knives to rotate just a bit. By this time, the knives are to high. With this set up, no amount of tweeking got both knives parallel and at the same height.

The way I tested whether the knives were parallel was to join a piece of scrape (3/4 x 3 1/2). This joined edge (3/4) was placed on the cast iron saw table and a square was used to see if the 3 1/2 side was 90 degrees to the table. I never had a test run where this was the case.

Another way I came up with was a ruler. The ruler was placed on the infeed side with the "6" on the very edge, side closest to the fence. Then the cutter was rotated until the steel blade hit the ruler. The contact point on the ruler was noted. In my case, this was about 7 1/16 on the ruler. Then the ruler was moved to the other end of the knive and the process was repeated. Most of the time I could not detect a difference so maybe my machine is the real problem.

2. The magnets were not strong enough to pull up the knives every time. Sure, the jig would stick to the cast iron table but the knives would often stay put. I used a spare rare earth magnet to pull the knives up to the jig magnets. Once in place, the knives would stay put most of the time. I ended up making another little tool with the magnet screwed to a scrap piece of wood. This was used to pull the knives up to the jig magnet.

So, I'll keep the tool as it came by way of UPS and sending it back would not be free. But I would be very careful about recommending the jig.