Terry, I've been using the Ridgid brand portable thickness planer for about a year now and it's done extremely well so far. Most of the major brands (Delta, Makita, DeWalt, etc.) make good products and they're almost always improving them. One of the main things to look at is how the machine decreases the amount of snipe at the ends of the board. Another point is the sturdiness of the adjusting mechanism. One of the big differences you'll run into is whether the machine uses disposable or sharpenable (is that a word?) knives. If you're set up to properly sharpen and have the shop time available, then lean toward the ones you can sharpen. If you just want to use the machine and aren't set up to o fine sharpening, then go with the disposable. Since one of the main things we look at in our work is precision, I think I tend to lean more toward that tan just brute power. Having said that though, be sure to have enough headroom in your motor to avoid bogging down when gutting hard maple. Be sure to take really thin cuts to get a smoother surface. Allan Allan L. Gilreath, RPT Assistant Director - TEAM2001 July 11-15, 2001 - Reno, NV agilreath@mindspring.com http://www.ptg.org/conv.htm Director: Laura Olsen, RPT Assistant Directors: Allan Gilreath, RPT - Gary Neie, RPT - Dale Probst, RPT -----Original Message----- From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf Of Farrell Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 7:42 AM To: pianotech@ptg.org Subject: Thickness Planer Looking for recommendations for purchasing a thickness planer. I am in the midst of rebuilding a keybed on an old Knabe grand and the keybed ends were constructed like a sandwich - hardwoods on the top and bottom and softwood on the inside - and I gotta do some exacto planing on my replacement lumber. I have only a small shop and have no significant plans of expanding. I would have only occasional use for the planer. What do ya'll recommend regarding size and quality. Will a Crapsman do for me? What size should be sufficient (I believe they are sold by the width of board they will plane)? How does quality affect the cut surface of a piece of hardwood? Obviously I need to be able to send a piece of oak or hard maple through it. I want to get what will work properly, but of course, I don't want to spend more than I have to. I will not be going to Reno this year (boo-hoo-hoo) because of a budget shortfall - so you know money is tight.
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