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this reconditioned Bosch planer is easily just like new. I would not hesitate to buy from this company again I saved money and the service was great.
The tool did leave tool marks where several passes went by each other, but they were not too deep to easily remove with an orbital sander. The finished product is shaping up great. I used the planer to shave off the paint and smooth out the knots and checks. The timbers are now enclosed indoors so I really appreciated the ability to hook it up to a large shop vac to collect the chippings. The adjustments could be made on the fly. I bought this planer for a slightly different reason than others have.
I had tried orbital and belt sanders but that would have taken weeks to strip the paint. The timbers are all 10 inches wide so it took several passes on each surface, but the Bosh did the work in hours what would have taken weeks. The tool never bogged down, never overheated and completed the job with the blades still sharp (I had expected to loose the set on unseen nails, but I managed to avoid them). I generally planed 1/32nd of an inch off and switched up for some knotted or checked areas. I am in the middle of a remodel project that is enclosing what used to be exterior space under our main living level on our house and the underside is supported with heavy timber that has been painted for over 30 years. Using the dust bag only left a mess.
As a bonus, I will now have that planer for use while doing my finish carpentry and other projects. With a vacuum there was almost nothing to clean up afterwards.The adjustments for the tool were easy.
Nice design, but the unit I got had too many problems, which rendered it unusable:1. The moving part of the sole was angled relative to the fixed part.This is inexcusably shoddy for a tool at this price and with the Bosch name on it. The fence wouldn't go to 90 degrees.2. When set to zero it still cut about 1/64".3.
using painters tape on guide works okay for about 2-3 passes and then you have to redo it. ordering from amazon.com was simple and great also. just be carefull you don't hit a screw/nail. only problem is that the guide should be made of white plastic as to not scratch the work your cutting. bosch planer model 1594k with bevel cutting guide is great.
comes in good carrying case also. very quiet, smooth cutting, and 95% of dust stays in bag. can't use any tape which will leave residue once you remove it. rob k overall tool performs great and has all the power you need.
To do this you:1. After all of this you should be able to get the unit to a point where zero does indeed mean zero, but if you check it against a good square you'll soon realize that the front shoe is not always in perfect agreement with the rear shoe across all depth settings. This means that absolute perfection is simply out of this tool's reach, and if you're planing at extremely shallow depths, you can generally expect your work to be off by +/- 1/64" on one side or the other.If you plan on squaring up surfaces that are thinner than 3" and will only be using a portion of the cutting surface at any given time, this shouldn't be much of an issue in real world use. The blades weren't adjusted properly before the unit left the factory and2. On the plus side, it's got oodles of power, spins fast enough to leave a very smooth surface, the included bevel fence is great (though again, not the paragon of accuracy so keep your Starret handy) and you can get replacement blades anywhere. Rotate the drum to the first group of three screws and remove them completely along with the retainer plate and slide the blade out (gloves are obviously a very good idea).Now you can see two hidden screws which have a small amount of yellow thread lock on them. An impact driver with a Torx bit might work better for you than the little hand wrench in the case. With those freed up, it should be obvious how the height of the blade is adjusted with these two interlocking plates.
Remove the belt cover.3. Roll over to the next blade and start again. The Bosch just can't compete. This is due to two things:1.
This will probably take a very long time as it's an awkward process requiring a lot of rolling back and forth that tends to throw everything off. You can fix the blade alignment problem yourself without voiding any warranties, and the Bosch tech assured me that while someone had obviously goofed, this is something I'd have to do eventually at some point during the life of the tool, especially if I ever hit a nail and threw the whole thing out of whack. I found myself facing the same problem as another reviewer in that a depth setting of zero did not actually mean zero on my unit, and it would in fact remove a very small portion of wood on the right hand side no matter how low it was adjusted. Secure the tool upside down in a padded vice taking care not to put too much pressure on the handle.2. If you can break them loose where they are, great. If you want to attack large, flat surfaces or do some incredibly precise rabbeting with a planer rather than a router, then I'd suggest you shell out the big bucks for the Festool.
Once you're happy with the alignment, tighten the two internal screws back down and reassemble the retaining plate the way you found it. The front shoe simply isn't capable of surgical accuracy. If not, lift the whole black plate out of there (it just slides in place) so you can get a better grip on it while you loosen the screws. Chip a Festool blade and you'll probably be waiting days for another one to arrive in the mail. Replace the plate against the drum and put the three larger black screws back in the holes to secure it in place, but do NOT tighten them down.Slide the blade back in, and lay a nicely squared block of wood over the rear shoe as you rotate the drum by twirling the belt assembly around, tapping it down until it just barely misses the wood by an equal amount on both sides of the blade.
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