Problems with a thicknesser.

[Stan]

I have had this planer (sorry about the poor photo) for a bit over 2 years now. It has been a pretty constant source of headaches. From chain master links breaking, to stripped sprockets, to not having the knives parallel to the bed..... parts constantly falling off of the tool, etc.

Today I was trying to thickness some 4-3/4" wide Red Oak and was only able to take off around 0.015" at a time without bogging it down. To the point where I finally fried the motor in the thing.

I mention this as it is another of those tools that is made and branded with various names such as Jet, Grizzly and Ryobi from my looking at others.

Below is the picture of mine.


Here are some links to thickness planers that I believe are duplicates:

Grizzly
Jet
Sears carries a 12-1/2" planer under the part # 23378 that I believe is the same.
Guess the Ryobi version was not sold in the US, USA markets had a different model.


I'm not going to say that this is not a good planer to get -- I may have just had a lemon, well actually two as the first one was taken back after just over a month and was replaced with a new one of the same type off the shelf.
Just wanted to give a 'heads-up' if anyone is looking at these planers.

After burning mine up today, it was replaced with a Dewalt. BIG difference, rather than being limited to 0.015 depth of cut, I was taking off a bit over 1/16" without bogging down the machine in the least.

[JSCOOK]

Here's a few more that I've seen:

Craftex by Busy Bee Tools (Canadian)

MasterCraft by Canadian Tire (Updated Model)

[cabinetman]

Good sharp knives. set up properly help a planer work efficiently. What is amazing is how little a part of the whole package can be off that will affect the performance.

On a regular use basis, I would check my planer that not only the knives were right, but rollers, tables, just about anything that could be off. Never forget that Murphy guy.

[Stan]

Good sharp knives. set up properly help a planer work efficiently. What is amazing is how little a part of the whole package can be off that will affect the performance.

Thus the 3 sets of knives that I have for that planer.

On a regular use basis, I would check my planer that not only the knives were right, but rollers, tables, just about anything that could be off. Never forget that Murphy guy.

Yep, sounds like a normal maintenance list to me.

[LCHIEN]

Maybe the blades were in backwards - bevel facing the wrong way.
If it came bfrom the factory backwards, it would have been easy to keep doing it backwards as you replaced the the same way.
That could affect the efficiency of the cut greatly.

[Ken Massingale]

Come on guys, this is Stan. He didn't just fall off the cabbage truck!

[mater]

That sucks. Two new planers and both of them being duds. I am sure you will love the Dewalt.

[Stan]

That sucks. Two new planers and both of them being duds. I am sure you will love the Dewalt.

heh, Let's just say there is a big on my face now.

[Ken Massingale]

heh, Let's just say there is a big on my face now.

So that's what the glow in the N.W. sky is?!! ;-D

[Stan]

heh, yeah -- that's either me grinnin' -- or it's the glow from that daggum Dewalt yellow....

[AZDude]

heh, yeah -- that's either me grinnin' -- or it's the glow from that daggum Dewalt yellow....

Well not to talk bad about that Dewalt yellow, but I have went through three, yes 3 of them in about a month. At the first of the year, I bought one. I brought it home and ran my first board through only to find that one of the blades were chipped. I decided that I did not spend over $600 for chipped blades so I took it back and they replaced it no problem. Picked up planer #2. Took it out of the box and glaring back at me was a bed sooo warped, it was unbelievable. I stuck my straight edge on it to find it had a bulge in it about 3/16 ish . Took it back also. Then it was onto Dewalt #3. Brought it home and anxiously went to using it. I knew something was wrong when I would run a board through the right side of the planer, and then without lowering the cutter head, run it back through the center and it would cut off a tiny bit more. I quickly found out with the straightedge that this bed was warped also just slightly enough to be noticable. This time, the guy at BORG wanted to see for himself, so I pulled out the straightedge and he agreed.

Well all this to say, I really loved the cut the Dewalt gave me, but I could not work with the warped bed. My lesson learned, check the planer bed first for dead on accuracy.

After three, you would think that I could get a good one, but I just gave up. But all is not bad, I did get two ROS out of the deal - mail in rebate :-)