Greg G. wrote:
Upscale said:

"Lee Michaels" wrote in message
Look for tests and opinions on 13" planers now.

Is 13" a new standard size?

My guess would be that 12" is a commonly used width when constructing many
projects and planing something of that width would require a blade a little
bit wider, thus the need for 13".

And marketing gurus are always looking to one-up the competition.
Thus we have progressed from 12" to 12.5" to 13".
And with cheap labor/offshore production, expect to see it rise even
more - to a point. The design limitations of uni-motors, aluminum
cutter-heads and such will restrict this width eventually. We're
probably very close... It will be exceeded on a few models, they will
be disasters, and the market will then back off and settle on some
reasonable industry standard for lunchbox portable planers.


Sears has the Craftsman 15" planer/moulder, steel head, belt driven,
that uses a universal motor. I've had one for a bit, and it works well
in light cuts (but none of these universal motor planers will take
anything approaching a heavy cut). It also hogs out some sizeable
molding patterns without any trouble, except for getting the alignment
correct. I would say, though, that 18" is not likely with a universal
motor.