Stationary Planers Reviews

A nice Planer from Jet...Arrives assembled, ready to use within minutes after arrival. Cuts efficiently, I like the top rollers for moving your stock quickly back into feed. We milled Log Slabs one afternoon, taking just a few minutes from "chainsaw cut" down to "ready for final sanding".
I have been very pleased with this planer, although it is not a daily use tool for me, I feel it has performed well.
The only thing that causes any problem is that the feed table raises and lowers with thickness adjustments (Rather than the cutter assembly)...So I cannot easily build an outfeed table, since it too, would have to move with the planer table. Therefore, it is necessary to have two people planing large pieces.
But, a good planer for the price...and free shipping! That makes it tough to beat.

Fortunately this beast comes fully assembled except for the infeed and outfeed table and arrived in excellent shape due to the good crating at the factory. It is already setup at the factory and I did not have to make any adjustments. Operation is intuitive and fit and finish on the machine is very nice. The only problem I saw was on my first use. A large chip of wood flew up and hit the outbound chip deflector and broke it because it is made of plastic. Personally I think it should have been made of metal to avoid this problem as I think it will happen again. On the plus side, I called JET and they were very helpful and happy to send the replacement part without any argument. Even with the plastic chip deflector I would highly recommend this machine for several reasons. First, it does a great job as a planer with a full 20" planing width (the blades are a little wider than 20"), second, I find it well assembled and a heavy duty machine, third, obviously great support after the sale, and fourth, I couldn't beat Amazon's price anywhere and you can't get any better deal than free freight especially since we are talking over 700 lbs.

The machine is absolutely heavy duty. Although, there are a few things that I have found issue with:

1) machine doesn't work well with wide poplar boards. I have a heavy duty dust collection system connected to it but the poplar creates long strands from the wide boards. These strands clog up the exhaust chute causing the shavings to back up onto the outfeed roller and stop the boards from continuing through the planer part way through a feed. Basically have to lower the table and pull the board out to clean the strands out. This binding of the strands has tore up the outfeed urethance rollers to the point of no return. ***update: I was able to take the rollers off the machine and turn the urethane down on an engine lathe to straighten the urethane after much use. (note: high rpm, low feed rate and a touch with sand paper when finished) Works better than new now. I should be able to do this a few times before having to buy new ones. By the way, the new rollers are pretty cheap to replace.***

2) Wish the table length was longer or adaptable to adding an extension. Would be nice.

The machine is very easy to work with and work on. The molding feature is great and works well. I've done all the trim in my new house with this machine. Hope to have a long future with it in my business.

About eight months ago I purchased the powermatic PM-15 from a local tool supply store. I have loved using this fine machine for planing and moulding, and it has preformed flawlessly, that is until I got my first paying customer. A gentleman that lives near me brought me a load of roughsawn birch to plane down and run 50' of crown and 50' of panel moulding for him. While most of it (80 percent) came out nice, most of the pieces had some tearout, and 1 piece of crown was completly trashed. What a nightmare! I was suprised at this because I've run poplar, red oak, and pine through this machine with very little tearout (mainly around knots and hard areas). I can't fault the machine, I suppose, but I wrote this to warn any future millwrights about working birch.

When this planer arrived at my shop I couldn't wait to get it out of the crate and plugged in. I was pleasantly surprised to see how heavy the machine was built, its beefy stature screamed, throw anything at me I can plane it, and after some adjusting it did. I ran pine and white oak threw it, and it produced a wonderful finish on both. The one problem I have had is trying to plane exceptionally wide boards. For some reason if I plane a board 10" wide or better it machine has some trouble feeding the board threw. I found that with some adjustment of the spring tension on the urethane infeed and outfeed rollers this can be reduced but not completely eliminated. Other than this the machine runs great. It is easy and safe to operate, and fun to use. This planer is another fine example of Powermatic's expertise in building heavy-duty home shop machinery.

I also found this planer for a very good price, and 24 inch capicty is useful, and a great time saver because it allows you to plane 2 or more boards at once. I just wish there were more speed rates like on the powermatics, but it is good and for the price supurb. Its a very solid tool with plenty of power and well worth is especialy for rough stock, and also saves alot of money.

Have purchased and wore out the first set of knifes. The knives are hard to find and buy. They wear out quicker than I expected. You cannot cut as deep with these spiral blades and the boards seem to stall while the lumber is feeding. Be careful that the speed control does not get stuck in the middle position as the wood will not feed and you might not know why. When the blades are sharp and the cut is not agressive the finish is top rate.
Sid Sutherland, Brush Prairie, Washington

I have owned this planer for about 4 years now. I have modified the machine to include a Byrd Tool Shelix cutterhead which has made life much easier. I haven't had to even rotate a single four sided carbide cutter insert after over a year. The planer is quite particular when it comes to precesion adjustment of the infeed roller, chip bars, pressure bar and outfeed roller. I have purchased a micrometer "Z-axis" setting tool (commonly sold to setup CNC routers) to make these precise adjustments with very good results. In addition, the bed rollers are quite difficult to adjust precisely, and the use of the micrometer feed/beed roller adjustment gauge is a blessing. The bed rollers would be far easier to adjust if the had used a fine thread adjustment bolt (like is used on all the rollers above). I guess my next modification will be to find a way to enable an easier, more precise bed roller adjustment. If you want to get a 20" planer that doesn't require all this attention, be prepared to spend to spend several thousand more $$. The only manufacturing flaw I have found was that one side of the outfeed pressure bar was tight in it's sliding fitting which caused it to stick sometimes. That resulted it occasional feeding problems when the pressure bar was stuck. I had to disassemble it and polish the mating surfaces to get a good sliding fit: problem solved. In comparison to the generic 4 column powermatic/general/grizzly/etc Taiwanese (hobby) planer, this thing is easily worth the extra $$. My brother has the 20" generic Powermatic (with a solid infeed roller) and he would like to turn it into a boat anchor. He said it is "IMPOSSIBLE" to accurately set the bed rollers, which renders it useless for precision work, and for preventing snipe.