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​by Mark Newton

Choosing the right thickness planer

11/19/2017

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For convenience - Click any IMAGE or BLUE text for information or to purchase that item.

​Your first thickness planer will revolutionize your shop.

For the first time, you'll be able to thickness your stock at the pull of a button and I guarantee, you'll stand there and watch.

Make sure you're wearing hearing protection though, you'll need it.

Consider this though.

If you use your planer often/semi professionally/professionally, you could be spending hundreds of dollars each year buying replacement knives!

In which case it might be worth buying a planer with more stamina so here are our recomendations

If you're not going to use it regularly, be sure to work out how much you'll pay for a new set of knives and think about how often you'll need to replace them.

​Perfect starter machines for the weekend warrior/hobbyist:
DEWALT DW734 15 Amp 12-1/2-Inch Benchtop Planer
PORTER CABLE 15 Amp 12 in. Thickn
WEN 6550 12.5-Inch 15A Benchtop Thickness Planer with Granite Table
Delta Power Tools 22-555 13 In Portable Thickness Planer
Grizzly G0505 12-1/2-Inch Planer
If you think that you're going to be spending the price of a new machine each year on new blades, you should take a look at helical cutter heads.

You have a couple of options here:

1. Replace the 2 or 3 knife cutter head in your machine with a helical head like this one.
2. Buy a machine with a helical cutter head
Jet - JWP-15HH: 15-inch Helical Head Planer
A helical cutter head has many (sometimes hundreds) of 4 sided, hardened steel cutter heads. They're orientated so that the wood is always in contact with the cutter so your machine will draw more current yet it'll create a much smoother surface.

​If you start to see the usual signs of a chipped blade, just turn the affected blades around to the next sharp surface and carry on.
Disclosure - We provide shopping links to every product we write about so you can buy without needing to search for them yourself. The fringe benefit is that we get paid if you do. We only link to trusted vendors like Amazon and you DO NOT pay more for the privilege.

That's how we keep the lights on around here... Sometimes...
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