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I purchased this to plane flat surfaces, with the expectation that it would do just that. - There is not way to adjust the front and back shoes to be parallel or level with each other Given the other reviews it appears maybe I have received a defective tool - I will be calling Dewalt about this. The good is that it is very powerful and will create a clean cut on most any wood.The bad is that it cannot plane consistently. I fhould that:- the front and back shoes are not parallel, which leads to a constant tapered cut - every cut has one side deeper than the other side, no matter where I put pressure.- The planner cuts EVEN WHEN SET TO ZERO - I suspect this is because the cutter extends below the back (and front) shoe so that the planer cuts wood even if the setting is 0 -- the back shoe to be aligned with the cutter and the front shoe to be aligned with the cutter when at the 0 setting.
The problems I encountered are: 1) back shoe is not ground flat, 2) cutter extends past the back shoe, 3) front and back shoes are not parallel. The front and back shoes are not parallel - when the front shoe is at the 0 setting it slopes away from the cutter. I expect the back shoe to be aligned with the cutter and the front shoe to be aligned with the cutter when at the 0 setting. What I got was a poor quality tool that can't plane consistently. I bought this to plane some doors to size.
AFAICT there is no way to adjust the shoes or cutter to align them. I expected that I would get a good quality tool that had reasonable adjustments to make it accurate. Maybe I'm expecting too much from this tool but I expected the front and back shoes to be ground flat but the back shoe was not - this leads to a tapered cut since the cutter is raised up when the back part of the shoe reaches the wood surface. I expected that the front and back shoes would be parallel similar to the way the front and back tables of a jointer are parallel.I don't know if these are problems with all portable power planers but it seems to me that you cannot reasonably plane when the tool is this misaligned.I previously bought and returned a Bosch planer where the cutter extended even more beyond the shoe than the DeWalt so maybe most planers are equally poorly built. The cutter extends below the back (and front) shoe so that the planer cuts wood even if the setting is 0.
I cant believe I havent had this tool before now never again will I hand plane another door again. Love it. This planer is very easy to setup and with dial control made it real easy. The planer didnt even slow down going through paint.
I'm a supervisor of a furniture factory, and we are in a plain process of renewing tools, we are buying almost all branded DeWalt and it's been great., and the planner wasn't the exception, tought it was a small machine, it works perfectly and very clean shaped. the only critic I make is that this product was sent without any long trip shipping consideration, just in its plain original box. very recommended.
It has not let me down. Light. Take the case if you can get it, you don't want to store it anywhere else. Compared to the Maketa, I would say this is a little easier to adjust and hold on to durring use. I tend to research this equipment very much.
After two years I'm glad I made the purchase. No problems at all. I like good tools, this is one of them. Feels well built. This one I didn't, just picked one up due to the good price.
Had the Makita version prior to this but had to give it back to the owner and buy my own. A solid 4+ in my book. Blade change is easy.
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