I've had mine now for about 3 months. I've run soft maple, pine,
cedar, and red oak through it with no discernable wear or nicks to the
knives. I know three other guys who claim to have run hundreds of
board feet through before fliping the knives. As for chip ejection -
look out. It pushes harder than your average shop vac pulls. That is
why they have the chip collector bag but the best bet is a 600 cfm or
dust collector. I have noticed a lot of people who have problems with
it eg. chiped knives, binding, broken belts, are not using the machine
properly. I had the machine bind on me once when I didn't see a 1/8"
crown on a piece of 8/4 maple. No one could expect any machine of this
size to take a 3/16" cut. When the machine bound I imediatly switched
it off (the belt will give to save the machine - a good thing) to save
the belt. Reset the depth and with a few extra passes it had done a
beautiful job.