Planers Reviews

I ordered this machine for two reasons. 1. To plane boards and 2. to make molding. I run a small cabinet shop and thought it would be nice to have the second ability. The planer performs its function as a planer poorly at best. There is very evident snipe on both ends of the boards that pass through. Being that this was the primary function of this machine in my shop it was very disappointing. After more than a dozen adjustments per the manufactures manual, through experimentation, and the recomendation (singular) of Jet tech support it could not be adjusted out. After further inspection it was found that the planer's table actualy had 1/32nd to a 1/16th of an inch movement vertically on the infeed end and outfeed end. I figure that is the reason for the snipe on every pass. The other major disappointment of this purchase is Jet technical support. Don't bother calling them for help. I asked about the snipe problem and they answered "yeah, all of these machines do that". When they were told about the movement in the table they had no response and had to go find an engineer to find an answer. I had no response in 3 days, and had to call them back to try to get an answer. But there was no answer except that the guy who knew about this was away from his desk and they would need to call me back. This was 2 days ago. Maybe I received a machine that was built on Friday right before quiting time? I would not recommend buying this machine to anyone at this point. If you want a planer, buy a planer. If you want a molder, buy a molder. But don't buy this planer/molder.

I just bought this at local wood hobby store, initials WC. Their price was $800; I called on phone and asked if any coupons were out that I should be aware of, and the manager yelled at the salesman to honor a 10% coupon coming out in late July. This is the third time they have done this for me. I planed about 150 feet of american cherry and brazilian cherry. This unit works GREAT. Other than adjusting the rollers, it worked just fine with no adjustments. The 3 inches of snipe others commented on can be eliminated by properly supporting on in feed and out feed. I did have 1 or 2 runs with some snipe throughout the piece, but I just continued to run it through with nominal cuts and it was eliminated. My guess is that certain wood characteristics come together on a piece of wood to make it more prevalent, but it can be eliminated. Highly recommend this unit.

great piece of equipment. sets up quickly, all fittings were cast very well. everything was tuned perfectly right out of the box. Base and wheels move smootly. Very fine adjustments on thickness. Dust port works great. Only thing I'd like to see change, if possible, is that changing speeds mean you have to reverse the gears manually which is easy, but greasy. I'd recommend wering disposable gloves

The machine is excellent. It produces smooth snipe-free boards. The out-feed rollers are cheap and out-of-round requiring you to adjust the outfeeds "lower" than the main table. The wheels in the bottom only allow the machine to roll in and out and are NOT a substitute for a mobile base. Be warned, that if you want to turn this machine in your shop, you will need to buy an mobile base. Jet could have easily added one outboard pivoting roller to solve this usability glitch.

I purchased the Jet 15" Planer after many trips to my local cabinet shop. After initially being up in the air over which planer to purchase, Jet, Powermatic, grizzly, or delta. I was able to obtain several excellent recommendation for the Jet and Powermatic planers (for those of you who may not know Jet bought out Powermatic) and not a single negative one. Everyone I talked to especially liked the way the planer knives were set using jack screws and the quality of the castings. This greatly reduces the amount of time changing blades. My local cabinet shop has been running the same set of blades for 8 months and they are still sharp and true. That's about 100 kitchens later. I did however find negative and postive comments about all the other brands. Some quite serious. My planer arrived via fed ex freight, in an OSB crate, within 7 days from the time I placed the order. The driver had a pallet jack and hydaulic lift gate and positioned the planer right where I wanted it. It weighs about 500lbs. It does have wheels so now that it is on the concrete floor I can move it easily. The crate was damaged in shipping but the planer was not. The instructions for setup were straight forward, I received everything including touch up paint in the package. Since I purchased the jet Planer I have also bought a Jet 6" jointer and 1 hp. dust colletor a serious must while using the planer, as without it, you seem to be regurgitating shavings expelled by the planer. All of the jet products I have purchased to date have been of excellent quality. I will definitely look at them for my future carpentry, and cabinetry needs.

The JET 15 inch planner was delevered approximatly one week after I placed my order. Be prepared to have a couple of strong friends when you unpack this heavy machine. It comes shipped on its side, so you must lift it up. In my case the truck driver was just as anxious as I was to see what we had. He helped me get the machine on its feet. I was missing one of the rollers, the extra set of blades was bent, and the pulley guard was also bent in the shipping. I called JET and had all the missing and damaged parts in one week. The first test was a piece of oak of a Morris chair I am constructing. The machine needed no adjusting and was true to square from the factory. The pieces I planned needed no sanding and no snipe at all. I am very happy with the machine and the Company in getting the parts I needed witin a week. I wanted a machine that was moble and having the JET planner already on wheels was one thing that interested me. My next purchase will be a cabinet saw and I certainly will lean to a JET saw over others.

I purchased the Delta 22-560 as my first portable planer in February of 2001. Prior to the end of the first year of use (casual wood worker) I had to take it in and have the cutter head assembly replaced. When I received it back from the Porter Cable/Delta repair shop, it sounded twice as loud as it did before I took it in. Today, as I was planing 2" red oak, I began to smell rubber burning and the unit quit cutting. (At least it did not spray the parts through-out the shop as one other user described.) Disassembling it, I determined that the cutter head assembly nut had come loose and could not be tightened without the pulley on the cutter head "throwing" the belt off because of a wobble in the pulley. I will not buy another Delta planer (even though I have been a Porter Cable/Delta purchaser for years) and am considering either a Makita or the Grizzly 15 inch.

I have always been a big supporter of Delta tools, However, I'm afraid I cannot give this product great praise. The fact is, the only reason I am giving them 3 stars at all is for the overall end product it can produce. Now I've used four different brands of planers and never encountered the types of problems I've had with this peice of equipment! Easily enough broken down, but jeeze I've had to take this thing apart 4 times this months... I've only used it 5 times this month! with moderate 1/16th cuts. Today the belt shredded to peices for the second time in 5 months. I'm about to find a Jet 15" planer online, The more expensive machine will pay for it self compared to all the time I lose trying to fix the delta!

Hope this machine was just a lemon, but prehaps this will help someone else.

When I bought this item I followed the advice of another review, that being to take the blades out and give the machine a clean. This was going along nicely until I had to remove the bolts that clamp the blade in place. The bolts were that tight that when they `cracked' sparks literally shot out.
Some bolts were that tight that I had to get a small piece of pipe to use as a lever arm. This problem was consistent for every bolt I tried. I had to give up trying when the tightness of the bolts damaged both the supplied wrench and the bolt head. I have informed Delta and am hoping they reply with an explanation.
Now after that little whinge the machine is quite good to use. The reason for not a higher rating is only due to this assembly error.

It does exactly what I expected. I am very satisfied. The only warning I would like to make is: make sure you have a way to place planer on stand. I used a hoist and did it by myself. However it is a job 3 people couldn't do manually. I had already placed the stand on the roller base before puting the planer on the stand.

This is a great planer. No snipe, works fast or slow (2 speed), Set-up was easy, manual is well laid out. Be prepared to clean off the shipping oil, this thing is covered in oil! Comes with a 5 year warranty, I doubt I will need it. This planer is well built. a little short, you have to bend over a ways to work. The mobile base is not the same as the open stand model, you will need the 50-324.

Since recieving this tool nearly five months ago I have run large amount of red oak through it. The results have been consistent and excellent. With the infeed and outfeed rollers adjusted I get little, if any, snipe. The two speed gearbox is nice. The fast speed is great for rough thicknessing and the slow speed gives an excellent final finish that needs very little more prep before finishing. It came with a mobile base and 5" dust collector. On the mobile base it is easy to move and I consider the base a must. I had no trouble adapting the 5" port to a 4" hose after a quick trip to the hardware store. However, it seems that it came with a 5" port for a reason, as it needs the extra inch to provide adequate CFM for chip removal.

Setup requires several people or an overhead hoist since it weighs in at over 400 lbs. I strongly suggest using this machine with the mobile base.

Overall it is a great machine.

This planer did a terrific job and it's first challenge was on Hickory. However, I found my self chasing the cord all the time. The cord is like a wet noodle and in fact within the first hour I cut the cord and had to splice and eventually replace the cord.
The machine worked terific but the constant keeping up with the cord made it uncomfortable to work with.
Yes, I would buy it again but I would hope that DeWalt can change the cord configuration and flexability to let the user concentrate on the work instead of where the cord is tracking

I sold my Porter Cable planer and bought this one as I didn't like the way the depth adjustment worked. The DeWalt has a much easier dial to use. It has somewhat of a positive click to the settings, and I have never altered the depth of cut inadvertenly while making a pass with it. My only gripe (with all these planers) is that they have the chips exiting the machine just below the motor's air intake. With heavy cuts chips get sucked into the air intake and have to be cleared on to prevent overheating. It would take a bit of enginering to get air flowing in the same direction for both the ejection of chips and the air for cooling, but it would be a nice addition. This tool gets a lot of use for tweaking cabinet to fit walls and floors during installation and other fine adjustments for products made. The hand(block)plane has been in semi retirement since I purchased this tool

Simply great, I have no complaints whatsoever. I have perfected this really goofy method of tapering boards now. You can rotate the depth adjustment while you're planing and get pretty good tapered boards. It works pretty good. Ever need a piece that's 3" wide at one end and 2 3/4" wide at the other? You guys that work on old houses know what I mean. I'm sure this is in the manuals list if things not to do....like don't use the planer in the bathtub. I only wish that they would increase the price $20 and include the dust bag. (Part# DW6656) Power planers spray shavings like confetti so you'll want the bag if you plane doors inside the house. I don't think anyone else even offers a dust bag. I loved the huge case. Dust bag fits inside the case.

I have a couple of these HTC machine covers. The material seems of very high quality and I'd expect it to perform well overtime. After a couple of weeks in my garage shop, in the South Carolin summer, my covered tools seem to be doing just fine - no collected moisture and no rust. The construction is solid. This size cover works ok on my Dewalt planner, though there's a lot of excess material. I'd just as soon have grommet holes for bungee cords than the magnets. They aren't particularly effective at holding the cover neatly in place. Overall, though I'm satisfied with my purchase.

After years of battling light rust powder due to condensation I have finally found the solution. I have tried every thing from canvas to plastic and rubber covers, all sweat to a degree. I bought a couple of these machine covers and have found that they really work well. I would strongly recommend these machine covers to anyone with a rust problem.

Not Big enough for Table Saws as pictured but it covers every thing else..... Jig saws Belt sander's my 18 1/2 Planer etc. Magnet's keep cover in place while I blow down my shop and cover keeps most dust, dirt and dampness of my machine tops......... worth EVERY Penny! Buy several!

I wasn't sure how many stars to give this since I have never used it. I ordered it and when it arrived I discovered that it is a one-bladed model. Bosch calls this an "electronically counterbalanced single-blade design." From the other reviews this seems to work well, however, I wish that the listing would have indicated this. Hence this little blurb. The extra blade "set" is just another single blade in a bubble pack.
Again, I have NOT used this machine, but have sent it back in favor of a two-bladed design.

I put this guy to the test with a project that should have been beyond it's limits and it performed like a star! Unable to remove the finish from some 85 yr old oak flooring by sanding or scraping, this planer saved the day. In a pinch, I actualy planed about 500 sq feet of oak flooring (in place) with this unit - a task greater than what it was designed for I'm guessing. Probably 40 hours of actual use on that project and the planer just kept going. Now, I did go through about a dozen blades in that process, but this planer (and my knees) took the beating and saved a now beautiful old floor. This is a great planer for a good price and while, yes, it only has one blade, it's worked great for me in everything I've asked it to do as a homeowner.

I purchased this planer hoping it would last at least a few jobs, and was pleasantly surprised. Lightweight, powerful, comfortable to use, and a smooth depth setting takes the guesswork out of it, unlike the Makita's, which I've owned, hated, and returned. A newly converted Bosch enthusaist, I have nothing bad to say, well, except for the lack of a case. Picky, picky, I know

This is a very good buy at the price. It has been being used by my one of my finish crews and is used almost daily. I have had it for about 2 months and have had no problems with it at all.

This is a great planer I inherited the one I own from my dad. Overall the one that I own is probably about 20 years old and it has never had any problems with it. The blades are easy to change and are realtively inexpensive. The nice thing about having solid steel blades is that they can be resharpened and reused, if you have the right equipment you can do it yourself or they can be sharpened by anyone you sharpens sawblades. It is nice to have several sharp sets of blades on hand. Compared to the makita n1900 make of similar size the plane compares well, when the blades are sharp this plane cuts like no other!

TODAY (7/11/00) I USED MY PLANER FOR THE FIRST TIME AND WAS REALLY PLEASED HOW VIBRATION FREE IT WAS AND WHAT A SMOOTH CUT IT MADE. THE FURNISHED GUIDE WAS A BIG HELP IN KEEPING THE PLANER AT A NINTY DEGREE ANGLE WHILE RUNNING A EDGE. THERE MAY BE BETTER PLANERS ON THE MARKET BUT FOR WHAT I PAID I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU COULD BUY ONE BETTER FOR THE PRICE. I HAVE OTHER HITACHI TOOLS AND NEVER BEEN DISPLEASED WITH ANY OF THEM.

It's a good idea and works fairly well. Would not fit snug on the pails I had but it did fit well on the cover of the pail so I left the cover on the pail and cut out the inside of the cover with a jigsaw. Once the pail was approximately 1/2 to 3/4 full the chips and dust start to go into the shop vac. The suction loss seemed to be minimal.

With the hoses positioned correctly, the separator and pail stayed put but they needed to be held down with something when I went to vaccum the floor otherwise they'd just topple over.

All in all it's a decent product but pricey considering that it does not fit snug on a standard size pail or the hoses I used with my craftsman shop vac. Maybe I should have given it three stars...?

It isn't a monster, but it does a good job on the heavier particles. The fine dust still ends up in the vacuum on the filter. I can usually get several buckets of sawdust without emptying the vacuum itself.
Where it REALLY worked well was in sucking up water. All the water ended up in the bucket, and none in the vacuum. Much easier to handle.

If you use a 5 gallon bucket that has a handle, the handle will hold the top snugly. I also mounted the bucket to two 2x4s for more stability, and have not had any problems with it tipping over. I can even tug on the hose when I need to move it, with no problems.

This works really well, and I have not noticed any loss of suction with my ridgid shop vac (8hp). Very happy.

I recently picked this planer up for a small job that involved squaring some pine. It did a good job but the weaknesses of the tool were fairly obvious after only a little use.

Background: I compared this planer to the comparable Ryobi. The Ryobi had a few features the B&D didn't, mainly a "kickstand" to protect the blade when not being used and a dust port that can be switched from left to right. The Ryobi also had a loose front plate, which didn't seem like a good idea to me. So I chose the B&D.

First the good: It did a very good job on the pine I was planing (which involved 4 pieces glued together that needed to be flat on 2 edges). It was very easy to use and the depth adjustment has very positive indents so you know how much you are removing. In general, I was very impressed with the results I got out of the tool.

The bad: I use hand planes a lot, so I naturally wanted to use the front handle on this power planer. Unfortunately, that is also the depth adjustment, and on my second cut I managed to turn it halfway through, making it deeper. I also wanted to use the fence to square the face I was planing. I was successful in this, but the fence is incredibly flimsy (mostly plastic). It may last fine, but I guess I would prefer all metal or at least thicker plastic. Also, I noticed the motor sounded like it was struggling a bit when I went to the deeper cuts. Maybe this is normal, but it seemed like there could be trouble if you try to do the same thing in hardwood. Finally, I can see why other brands include the kickstand (basically a blade guard, so you're not setting the tool on it's blades all the time). I didn't much like the fact that I would be resting the planer on it's blades every time I set it down (you also have to make sure the blades aren't still spinning, although in my own use this was not an issue).

So, basically, this is a tool that works well, but could maybe use a bit of refining. I returned mine, and I'm not sure what I'll replace it with. FWIW, in this price range, I think there's always going to be a bit of compromise, and I think the B&D's weaknesses are easier to live with than the loose front plate on the Ryobi.

i bought this planer to trim down some exterior doors and it worked great. I've used it on several other projects since then and it has been excellent.

I used my friends Dewalt 680 planer for a couple of jobs and liked its small size/weight and features. I didn't like its $150 price. So I went looking for and alternative and found this Black and Decker at Sears for $69.99 w/case and extra blades. It looks and performs like the Dewalt but at half the price and w/case, extra blades and wrench(uses dewalt blades), edge guide, dust bag, and vacumn attachment accessories.

The only differences I noticed is the rear shoe is a steel plate instead of cast. The front plate (adjustable for plane depth like Dewalt's) is cast aluminum like dewalt. Also, Dewalt has a
guard lever on its rear shoe that drops down to protect blade when setting planer down on its shoe after use. I actually found
this lever to be a pain when using the Dewalt because it would not always drop down when done with a plane, and it was in the way when you wanted to begin a plane run in the middle of a piece.

I was very impressed with this find and satisfied with this planer and its accessories so far.