Thickness Planer, Two Speed, 13-Inch Spiral Blade, Benchtop (PL1337)

I'm a retired professional with a Felder 741 combination slider, planer and shaper. If you know Felder, then I don't have to tell you they are one of the industry standards for accuracy. However, I'm sick of building a piece of fine furniture, only to discover that one last piece is too thick, or whatever. That means raising the jointer bed, cranking up the planer head, and in the process losing whatever was setup on the saw. Also, I've wanted a spiral cutter for the planer, but $1,000+ makes no sense when the Felder knives already do a superb job, and of course I would still have the changeover problem. I'v thought about a bench top planer, but that's also around a grand, so not happening. Anyway, I saw some reviews on the Wen 13" with a segmented cutter head. Odd looking cutter head, and the inserts are HSS instead of carbide, but at $400 for the one speed I decided to take a risk. I just unpacked and plugged in this morning. Connected to my 3hp Onida Gorilla using a 4" hose. I then ran a test using 1.5" air dried red oak. Results were a surprise, to say the least. Beautiful finish on both sides, even at the one speed, which is quite fast. No sign of of any cutters out of alignment. Almost no snipe - I did not adjust the tables. Dust collector gets most, but not all, chips. ( I also tried connecting a shop vac which was not that great, so I'd recommend a dust collector). Segmented cutter heads are supposed to be quiet, but brush motor noise makes it about as loud as a knife machine, at least in my opinion. Hearing muffs required. This is not a complaint. For $400 you can't have everything. Bottom line, I'm glad I bought this thing. Once the four sided cutters are dull I might upgrade to carbide, but we'll see. Sometimes HHS produces a better finish than carbide, so I might just buy another set of those, depending on how long the originals last. The question now is longevity. Machine seems solid and weighs 80 pounds, so for my needs it will probably be OK. We will see. Bottom line, doe a great job for less than half the price of a name brand. The machine turned out to be a pleasant surprise, producing an excellent finish.

Very impressed . Extremely well packed and packaged . Build quality is great. Set up was a breeze . There was not much to set up, attached the dust collection and adjustment handle. Thats about it . Checked the alignment on indeed and outfield. I was actually surprised at how quiet it is also ... quiet for a thickness planer anyway . Ive used several other planers before and honestly for this price point it is beyond worth the money . Smooth feed ,the cuts leave an exceptionally smooth surface . So far I have seen no tear out and no sniping to speak of .

Works nicely! It is loud, but I have never seen a machine that does this hard of a job this quickly or smoothly that it doesn't make a lot of noise. It draws the wood easily into and through the machine, the finish it leaves is remarkably smooth. The width is sufficient for many of my projects for wider ones I do it is sections and join them together after. All in all, a very nice machine that does a very good job!

I'm a weekend woodworker/hobbiest for no reason other than to change gears from my long hours behind a keyboard or in data and server rooms so my experience is "intermediate" but goes back to 1997. I have a woodshop full of tools and know my way around power and hand tools pretty well. Despite my years of woodworking, I had only electric and manual hand planers as I enjoy the manual process most but recently fell in love with trees. As such, I began harvesting trees about my wooded 10 acres so had to upgrade many tools. Upon months of research and two models I returned to Lowes, I discovered the following: When running a slab of Hickory through a 2 and 3-blade Planer, expect lots of snipe and a poor surface. A single hidden fence nail will destroy your blades and you'll have to replace all of them. Running cherry wood through, fares better but still rougher than I'd like on 2 and 3 blades. 2 and 3 blade Planers are cheaper for a reason. Upon returning both, I fixed my eyes upon a Spiral Bladed Planer. Why? Better surface obviously, but more important, a spiral blade is made up of many little square blades in a corkscrew configuration on a cylinder. A dulled blade is simply rotated 1/4 and it's good as new. Plus, you can do that 3 more times as each surface is sharp. -You don't destroy and replace the entire spiral. I intended to buy Dewalt but at 600+ I decided to try WEN's version instead. I have other WEN products in my shop and have never been disappointed so I took a shot. (See Pics) I chainsaw-slabbed a 24" piece of hickory with some wet-ish heartwood and ran it through the planer about 10 times on each side. Pignut Hickory has a Janka hardness of 2,140 lbf when compared to White Oak (1,350 lbf), Black Walnut (1,010 lbf) or standard Douglas Fir pine you'd get at Lowes (620 lbf). I found that planing off more than an 1/32 per pass was pretty taxing on the machine for Hickory but the Black Walnut planing (pic 4) handled 1/32 easily. Pine could pass 1/16 or deeper with little issue. The front gauge is my favorite feature as I only need to lower the blade mill onto the wood to see how deep I'm going. The gauge does go up to 1/8 but what kinda Psychopath planes 1/8th per pass? It's a planer, not a table saw. Additionally, remember that the softer the wood, the higher the probability of snipe so keep your depth low to save those ends. Still, snipe was far more reasonable than the 2 and 3 blade systems I tried previously. Let's talk support now. Mine came with a cracked dust collector. A very small and minor crack on this flimsy plastic piece but no surprise there. It still worked even with the crack but I'm not dropping 400+ on something that's got even the slightest blemish on it so I emailed WEN support at the email on the Owners Manual. Don't bother, they don't respond to emails. I called them the next day and spoke with a US Based Support Rep. He seemed annoyed to help but actually did his job and sent me a new dust collector. Friendly? No. Supported. Yes. This cost the product a star as I hate calling and waiting on hold despite the short wait time. Don't give an email if you don't respond to them, is all I'm saying. Overall, the Machine is a 5-star purchase for performance, ease of use and value. I don't regret saving 200+ on buying this WEN instead of Dewalt.

great tool, great price, easy to set up and use. Great buy!

Most excellent quality. Features are numerous. Spherical cutter superior to three blade units.

Very easy to use. I was pleasantly surprised with the finish. I was glad I went with the 13 inch spiracle cutter. It does have some snipe on the end after feeding through as many planets do, but by gently holding the wood up as it finished, I was able to pretty much eliminate it. Very happy with my purchase. In the two pics are a before and after of some Philippine Acacia I ran through. 2 different pieces from the same board.

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No es un Dewalt pero tiene lo suyo, la verdad es que para mi uso en mi pequeño taller está excelente. Anteriormente tenía un dewalt y puedo decir y comparar que este no trabaja nada mal, hace menos ruido, vibra mucho menos y en el acabado ahorita obviamente las cuchillas están nuevas y deja un excelente acabado en madera de parota ya el tiempo dirá cuánto le duran el filo a las cuchillas y con todo y eso los repuestos son muy accesibles por lo que no te costará cambiarlas por una nuevas. Sus materiales no son como un dewalt y haga mención y alusión al dewalt porque creo es como el referente de los cepillos de banco primero pesa mucho menos y eso me gusta porque lo puedo cargar yo solo en comparación con el ya mencionado, a sus costados en lugar de ser de plástico es lámina y la base es de fierro, la parte superior donde están los rodillos es de lámina, la manivela a mi gusto se siente pequeña y un tanto frágil en comparación al otro cepillo pero te acostumbras al agarre y después ya ni lo notas, el uso que le doy en el taller donde solo yo trabajo mis herramientas es leve en comparación a otros talleres donde hay 4 o 5 personas dándole duro todo el día así que para mi que trabajo cedro y parota y que en todos mis trabajos tengo que pasar la madera por el cepillo hasta ahorita te puedo decir que no ha fallado y que me ha dejado unos excelentes acabados. Este cepillo Wen es la quinta herramienta que tengo de la marca y por experiencia con l marca fue como me decidí ya que hasta ahorita ninguna me a quedado mal y ya llevo 3 años trabajando con una canteadora wen y sin problema la máquina y las cuchillas aún con filo(ya próximo a cambiarlas ) así que sino quieres o tienes para invertir en un cepillo de 14mil pesos esta es una excelente opción. Yo lo conseguí en $9,600 pero he visto que luego llaga a estar con descuento al rededor de unos 8,500. Recuerda que el rendimiento que te dé tu herramienta depende mucho del uso y cuidado que tengas con ella, es como cuando el taxista trabajo su propio auto y cuando se lo das a trabajar a alguien más, solo tú cuidas porque a ti te costo, por lo que tiempos de trabajo y rebajes los hago con cuidado y paciencia para prolongar la vida útil de la máquina y de las cuchillas. Sin duda esta es una excelente alternativa a un menor costo.

The product's functionality is excellent; however, its 120V voltage requirement renders it unsuitable for the UAE and potentially the wider Middle East. I incurred a $100 expense purchasing a converter. Product descriptions should clearly specify voltage requirements. Despite this, the equipment itself is high-quality. I give 3 stars because of the 120v missing information provided.

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