Pro planer. Help on another forum

timster68 · Post by **timster68** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 7:56 pm

[quote="8iowa"]Getting back to the Pro Planer]

Interesting. I remember when I was reading about Planers, one of the "popular" ones was the Dewalt which I think you could get at Home Depot, etc. Of course some liked it, some didn't, etc., some had problems with it, and so on. But if I remember correctly the one thing that particularly stuck out at me was the inability to resharpen the knives - you had to buy all new ones and I think they were pretty expensive to boot.

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:04 pm

WOW!

Had no idea I was going to stir the pot. Just thought I would let anyone who cared to give their opinion the link to do so. No "ganging up" or anything.

One thing people need to realize about Sawmill creek. It is a Forum that is member supported. It is not run by a company trying to increase sales or anything. It is a group of woodworkers who give their time to make it work. They ask for a donation of $6.00 to keep it going but anyone is invited to join for free. Yes! It may take some time to be approved but like I said above it is run by people who have Jobs and family's and tend to them first. They have over 32,000 members to tend to. compare that to Shopsmith with 3,000

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 10:42 pm

I apologize, Cincinnati! It certainly isn't your fault that I have a problem! Maybe I should have let this sleeping dog lay! I realize a person can join simply by asking...

The Curmudgeon in me says: - - "Although, I haven't tried to register a second time, I am still waiting for any acknowledgment that I have been approved or rejected. I realize those hard working family folks administer the Sawmill Creek forum as a great gift upon the woodworking world and I appreciate all of their efforts. It's only been 7 months since my attempt to register. Maybe they will notify me today! (Talk about backorders!)"

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:37 am

dusty wrote:You can register on SMC if you want to. The registration process is the same as for this forum except that they review applications in an attempt to keep out unwanted members (commercial interests, porn, the like). The process takes several days because they are so large and growing so fast.

Thanks for the tip dusty! I usually do not join other forums, but occasionally I will. I already spend too much time doing this!

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:05 pm

cincinnati wrote:WOW!

Had no idea I was going to stir the pot. Just thought I would let anyone who cared to give their opinion the link to do so. No "ganging up" or anything.

One thing people need to realize about Sawmill creek. It is a Forum that is member supported. It is not run by a company trying to increase sales or anything. It is a group of woodworkers who give their time to make it work. They ask for a donation of $6.00 to keep it going but anyone is invited to join for free. Yes! It may take some time to be approved but like I said above it is run by people who have Jobs and family's and tend to them first. They have over 32,000 members to tend to. compare that to Shopsmith with 3,000

cincinnati

I don't think you stirred the pot but you did bring up some interesting points.
First Sawmill Creek isn't company ran.

That can be good in that you don't get company propaganda but it can also be bad you don't get the expertise of the company pro's (NICK and DREW! and even sometimes the Admin guy??).

Perhaps I'm just getting cynical but I'm quickly learning everyone has an opinion and nearly everyone will share it if they don't have any skin in the game. However let them become accountable and all of sudden the opinions are not as quick to come. On most forums all you get many times is conflicting opinions, one will do it this way another that. On this forum and a very few others people like Nick that do have real skin in the game can't rely on opinion they have to state facts.

At one time I thought Sawmill Creek was perhaps one of the best forums on the internet but as the membership has grown the content has suffered. Instead of people that had a real interest in helping one another it is quickly becoming a place where people that normally no one would listen to because they simply don't know what they are talking about now can climb upon their soapbox and spout their nonsense.

While we love to see growth, not sure why, I hope this Shopsmith forum never grows to point where you will find more half baked or totally wrong information that you do useful and correct info.

I will now crawl off my soapbox. ( as mentioned above)

Dusty how was that to totally derailing a thread and taking it off subject?
SORRY!

Back on thread: I have expressed my opinion of the SS Pro Planer they are in a league that many others never are able to attain.
I would love to have a SS planer, and if one were given me I would love it, care for it and feed it wood.

However for the amount I use a planer I could not justify the SS price, though the SS price is probably fair it was higher than I could justify based on usage. Therefore my planer is a Delta two speed that I picked up for $200 I think???
It uses replacable knives which I bought two pairs when Lowes had a sell for $10 a pair. Each blade has two cutting sides so I figure I have 5 changes of blades before buying a new set becomes an issue. PS my Delta planer is one of last built outside of China, wouldn't have bought it if it had been built in China.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:03 pm

Ed in Tampa wrote: Dusty how was that to totally derailing a thread and taking it off subject?
SORRY!

Ed, this thread has been off topic almost from the beginning. It was to have been about the Pro-Planer but somehow became more about Sawmill Creek.

But that doesn't matter anymore. I have dismantled that soap box. I have been convinced that the masses here prefer to free roam. I shall o longer attempt to instill my sense of order to these matters. I shall speak NO MORE of being off topic.

If it gets to bad, I'll just "log off".

pinkiewerewolf · Post by **pinkiewerewolf** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:39 pm

I'm going to try to spin this and still address the topic.
I would like a SS planer, yet the cost is inhibitive. I would need SWMBO online with this type of purchse. (she is the M.D., I'm the injured ex-firefighter going back to school).
How can I convince her that the SS is a better investment over a benchtop planer. Most of the woodworking mags. that I bring home feature the benchtop planers that will handle similar wood dimensions for about half the price. Which she still considers to be a huge amount of money.

Pros
Longevity, is the biggest point that I can use right now.
I've read in this thread that the knives can be sharpened and some (or all) of the benchtop models can not).
The Mark V powered planer is variable speed, how about the Pro? Feed rate?
Made in the USA.
Compatible with my present SS equipment. (Mark V)
Great customer service from the company and parts are available.
Resale: On EBay and Craigslist is awesome. I've seen used ones going for more than a new Dewalt 735.

Cons
It is a bit expensive compared to the plastic/foreign made models.
It is heavy. (maybe this should be in the Pro section).
Oh, and one of the complaints on the other forum was the thickness of material handled.

Can someone tell me what am I missing?
Granted, spend a few more dollars up front and it will take me years to redeem the capital expenditure, but the machine will probably out live me.

BigSky · Post by **BigSky** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:54 pm

If you are a hobbiest (not a professional woodworker), I don't believe you will ever recover the capital cost. I justify these to myself and SWMBO as entertainment costs. I think a hobbiest works for self satisfaction and the accumulation of items that he(she) is proud to have built.

I have a Pro Planer. It works great and it has been zero additional cost. Oh, I bought an extra set of blades up front. I keep a set resharpened so that I seldom have "downtime". It takes about an hour to change blades.

With variable feed rate and variable cutter speed, I have been able to surface everything that I have wanted to surface.

paul heller · Post by **paul heller** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:42 pm

dusty wrote:I have been convinced that the masses here prefer to free roam.

We are a funny lot, aren't we?

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:52 pm

pinkiewerewolf wrote:I'm going to try to spin this and still address the topic.
I would like a SS planer, yet the cost is inhibitive. I would need SWMBO online with this type of purchse. (she is the M.D., I'm the injured ex-firefighter going back to school).
How can I convince her that the SS is a better investment over a benchtop planer. Most of the woodworking mags. that I bring home feature the benchtop planers that will handle similar wood dimensions for about half the price. Which she still considers to be a huge amount of money.

Pros
Longevity, is the biggest point that I can use right now.
I've read in this thread that the knives can be sharpened and some (or all) of the benchtop models can not).
The Mark V powered planer is variable speed, how about the Pro? Feed rate?
Made in the USA.
Compatible with my present SS equipment. (Mark V)
Great customer service from the company and parts are available.
Resale: On EBay and Craigslist is awesome. I've seen used ones going for more than a new Dewalt 735.

Cons
It is a bit expensive compared to the plastic/foreign made models.
It is heavy. (maybe this should be in the Pro section).
Oh, and one of the complaints on the other forum was the thickness of material handled.

Can someone tell me what am I missing?
Granted, spend a few more dollars up front and it will take me years to redeem the capital expenditure, but the machine will probably out live me.

The pro planer has a fixed cutter head speed but the feed motor is verable speed. The Pro planer has a cast iron table. The MarkV mount does not.