WEN Thickness Planner 2-Speed 13" Spiral Blade Bench Top (PL1337)

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The only thing I would advise is that you get carbide cutters for it . The steel cutting inserts get dull after a while . Although I was running dry ash ( hardwood ) planing around 1/2" off , with multiple passes of around 1/32" . I ran about 3000 board feet before flipping cutters . The dual speed does give a finish that doesn't need to be sanded afterwards . Highly satisfied with this planer . Well built, steel construction. I'm still running the stock cutters after flipping them , and have run cherry as well with unbelievable results. I have nothing bad to say about this unit , only wishing it was wider as I have some 24" cherry live edge slabs and don't want to buy linear rails for flattening 5 slabs . If you're a hobbyist like myself and want premium quality being a perfectionist you can't go wrong with this planer. I purchased carbide cutters and as soon as these are spent they will be changed out , although I don't think I can get a better finish, the carbide cutters should last longer than the steel cutters .

Great entry level planer.leaves surface so smooth you almost don't need to do much sanding.when hook3d up to my wen 600 cfm dust collector almost no dust comes out the planer so it's got good dust collection as well.as far as wen products go this planer is made from mostly metal which is important to note bc alot of wens orange parts are plastic on many tools.the only plastic on this is the knobs I believe

For an entry level planer, I was quite impressed with the functionality and build quality of this unit. I have not seen WEN with two speeds, so that was a very welcomed addition to the planer when purchasing. It is heavy, so it's best to mount it to a mobile cart to move it about the shop. The cutter head being a spiral cut is a step up from the stock Dewalt's and others that ship with straight blades. The 13" cut is also another great feature to it for planing cutting boards or other material of varying sizes. It says in the manual that the wings are adjusted from the factory, but I had to adjust them after receiving the unit to remove snipe. After doing a very slight adjustment, leveling the infeed and outfeeds to being level instead of the "v" adjustment, I have had no issues. Dust collection on the unit could be better as the shroud does not seal very well and blows a lot of the chips/dust out onto the feed table and around it. Great size unit for 13 inch and very competitive with the more expensive brands.

For the record, my only point of reference is the WEN 6552t, the 13" 3-blade single-speed. It was serviceable on softwood, not so much on hardwood. Even on pine, it struggled if the board was wider than 8" and the snipe was inevitable. It saw heavy use for 2 years, mostly on cherry, and still works fine. So enter my new upgrade, the 1337, 2-speed spiral cutter, and so far I am very happy. In the first few days, I have been running pine, cherry, oak, and epoxy through it, snipe is VERY minimal (few passes with an RO sander make it disappear), and it handles actual 13' boards with an ease that the old one simply never could. Wood surfaces come out really smooth, and just a little bit of machining lines on epoxy inlays, but nothing compared to what the straight blades did. My only complaint is that dust collection seemed to work much better on the older model for some reason. This one sprays copious amounts of shavings out the feed side. I feel like more is ending up on the floor than in my shop vac or vortex bucket. If this stands the test of time/abuse like the old one did, it is an awesome planer for the price.