Hi Terry, Looking for a planer, huh? It's one of those tools that I bought early on and haven't regretted it. Starting out, without any real knowledge of what I was buying, I bought a Delta 12" portable planer. It's served me well, although it does tend to have a problem with snipe on the ends of the boards it's planing. I've compensated by running sacrificial boards of no consequence through directly before and after the 'good board'. I think the model is still available today for around $275 or so, maybe less on sale someplace. If I had to replace my planer, I'd be looking seriously at the Dewalt 12 1/2" portable planer. It's a little more expensive. If I remember, it was somewhere in the $375 range. But it's bigger and 'beefier' and heavier and has a locking cutter head (reduces snipe) and looks to be a pretty darn good machine. Would love to have one of those 15" floor models that weigh about as much as 4 of us put together, but being practical, I think I'll have to stick with the portable ones. Besides, you can tuck it away on a shelf (under the one wing of the table saw comes to mind...) when you're not using it, meaning that if you're shop space is limited, there's no need to permanantly dedicate valuable floor space. It's been a while since I've been "shopping" in a tool store so my opinions might be dated. And besides, the credit cards "can't take much more of this, Captain" (said in the Star Trek accent of Mr. Scott). :-) Good luck, and only take a credit card with enough room for that tool and no more! Otherwise,... See ya, Brian Trout Slidell, LA trouts_place@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
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