homefixated.com: Our house, just outside of Pittsburgh, is roughly 130 years old. As with most houses this old, our home has a lot of character. Like most people who own these older homes, we spend a fair bit of time – and money – rectifying this “character.” One example of this is the old wooden six-panel doors. They look great, but varying humidity, and the untiring efforts of that old rascal Gravity,
6 comments:
I’m generally a fan of DeWalt tools, and this one fits right in. I generally don’t have a need for a portable planer, but this seems like a great one to have. As someone who lives in an aging house in Michigan, I understand all to well the difficulties of swelling and sinking doors. The idea of using the planer to shave the doors down is a little scary to me – I know how little material there is in a hollow core door (though you’re not removing a lot of material). I know the article is about the planer, but after giving the door a shave, it probably has to get painted and/or stained as well. I can see where a cordless planer would be great. Whether you moved all of the doors outside, to the basement, or garage this tool would be ideal for not having to shuffle cords around while working. And, not that I’d recommend it, but if you just went room to room with the planer, you wouldn’t have to deal with the cords and could probably hit all the doors on one charge.
I like DeWalt tools. They have always been my preferred go to when given the option of purchasing new tools. What I didn’t see in the article and perhaps I overlooked it, was the cost. I went to Home Depot’s Website and looked. 179.00 online and not available at my local store. I like the idea of going cordless on tools because it means that I don’t have to worry about the cord getting in the way or causing a precision cut to be off because the cord got stuck on the material or trying to find the extension cord or even a place to plug it all in. My issue has been and still is, battery life. Something also that I did not see in the article was how long the battery lasted on a single charge. Nothing is more annoying when working on a project than to have to stop mid cut because the battery died or to have the cut take longer because the battery is weak. A feature I find far too often when testing out cordless circular saws. I’m not as concerned about the overall look of the tool either. My areas are always about functionality, durability, and lifespan. So DeWalt, when do we get a better battery?
As others have stated, I massively prefer DeWalt tools to that of the many other brands out there. In using the 20v max batteries, I have been able to run long hours with the most power hungry grinder or circular saw and had yet to have any lack of power issues that some have mentioned. When you buy the right battery for the right tool, you should have an issue. People often buy the 2 amp hour ones instead of the 5 amp hour and run short because of it. In looking at this tool, it would most likely want to use the 5 amp hour and shouldn't run into any issues. Like most tools I see that fill very specific needs, I question the need to have it in the standard shop setup. Sure it would be nice and fun to have but the day to day use with how we currently build makes it feel a little unneeded. I could see shop money spent in a better way that would have a more significant impact first.
So as others have said I am a pretty big fan of DeWalt tools. That said I kinda like the idea of having a portable planer in a shop for a lot of those jobs where you often find yourself sanding for ever because a door swelled after you hung it or something just is not going flush. That is really see the cordless planer really excelling because while it will spit it's fair share of chips it will go through material faster than a sander when you are needing to make adjustments in the space for a load in. Do I honestly see it as a tool the will be used regularly in the shop itself, but used for more often in the theater so that you can run through a job and get to the next job. Is this the most exciting tool ever, no, but I do think it will a good tool to add to the arsonel.
Generally speaking, I will always grab a hand tool over a powered one if there is no pressing reason for me not to. Call my old fashioned, that is just how I like to do my wood working. And that is what I had in mind when first reading this: Why would I need this when any hand planer is sure to work just as well with more control? But now I have changed my mind. This looks insanely helpful. The V groove on it for chamfering seems super useful. I would love to see that on a hand planer. And how easy it is to dial in the height of your cut is great. I pride myself in my ability to set the blade in a planer to the right height for the right job by eye, but being able to dial it in like this would be exponentially easier. I do not think I will be running out to buy one any time soon, but it certainly is tempting.
I am a big fan of the DeWalt's brushless line. They are fantastic consumer tools that are reasonably priced and have a long duty cycle. That being said, I have never actually used a hand planner before. I feel like they only have a few applicable uses and many of them were discussed in this article. The only time I have ever seen one being used was on my bathroom door and it only took off a 1/8th of an inch of material and left enough mess to make a whole other door.
One of the great features of this tool is the dust collection system that is built in. Judging by the pictures in the article it does a very good job of cleaning up after itself. All in all, I think this tool would be a great addition to anyone’s bench and I hope I find a project in the future that requires me to use one.
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