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Power Planers (handheld)

Scroll to bottom for general advice on power planers.


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Rockwell 3 1/4" Pro-Grade Power Planer, 7.5Amp
The ROCKWELL® heavy-duty planer has a dual exhaust system for either left or right chip ejection. High-precision features include cast aluminum base, front micro-depth adjustment with ergonomic handle and two-finger trigger.
DeWalt 3-1/4" Planer Kit, Model DW680K
Heavy duty 5.2 amp motor provides a smooth, even finish in the hardest of woods. 3/32" (2.5 mm) maximum cut in one pass reduces the amount of passes on your material. Accepts large resharpenable high speed steel blades for straight edging or framing applications. Also accepts reversible carbide blades for more detailed, accurate woodworking. Calibrated Depth Adjustment Knob for accurate depth setting and eliminating the need to re-zero your depth.
Festool HL 850 E Planer
A handheld planer that can hog off more than 1/4" in a single pass, smooth rough lumber to a glassy finish and machine precise rabbets of unlimited depth. Unique cutter head runs completely flush with the housing, allowing it to cut into corners with zero remaining lip. Spiral blade cuts on the skew at 10,000 RPM for more efficiency and an incredibly smooth finish. Check out the jig that mounts the tool upside down for field use as a mini jointer.

Festool HL 850 E Planer

Festool HL 850 E Planer
Festool EHL 65 Planer
Conventional handheld planers with straight knife cutterhead are noisy and can leave chatter marks requiring additional sanding for a smooth surface. Festool planers feature a single-knife spiral cutterhead that sheer-cut material for a cleaner, smoother cut that is ready to glue or finish. This design also reduces noise levels associated with planning for less user strain and greater comfort. Designed for one-handed operations the EHL 65 planer is both ergonomic, as well as powerful featuring 720-watt (6 amps) motor and highly efficient dust extraction.


Power planers are very useful tools in certain situations. They make it easy to reduce the width of a door, or put a bevel on a door so it clears the jamb. In rough construction, use one of these to straighten the edges of 2x4s so drywall will lie flat.

Though these tools have the same basic mechanical configuration as a hand plane, don't expect them to do the same thing. You can't straighten an unstraight edge with a power plane like you can with jointer plane. Nor can you smooth a large surface as you can with a smoothing plane. But, you can clean up a rough face to see what the wood underneath looks like as you would with a jack or scrub plane. And no handplane will remove material as fast as one of these little power wonders.

If you only plan to use it a little, consider an inexpensive one. They work great (when the blades are sharp!), even if they don't have much guts to them. Get a better one if you know you will use it a lot, or if you want the faster cutting capacity.

Careful with these little devils. You have an exposed cutterhead, with no guard, that will cut whatever it contacts, including you.

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