I've got a stationary table Rockwell Invicta, and the one up at the school
is a stationary table Grizzly. In a small shop the stationary table is a
nice feature, as you can build your own tables, stands and such to allow
operation with minimum rearranging. In a large shop, not so important, as
you can allow a permanent two foot by say 24' area for the planer.

As to return rollers, I've never used them much, even on the planers which
have them. Best lay boards on sawhorses on one side, table on the other as
the passes are taken. Unless you lower the feed to an uncomfortably low
level, you'll screw up your back hefting the long and thick to the top for
return rollers, which, BTW are for one board at a time operation, not one
project's worth at a time.

Any planer with an honest-rated induction motor and bed rollers beats a
lunchbox type.

"Steve Turner" wrote in message
.. .
I've been thinking about dispensing with my portable planer and moving
up to one of the larger stationary models, probably a 15 inch. If you
have experience using these animules, I'm curious as to whether you
think a stationary table offers any significant advantage. I like the
fact that the Jet and Powermatic planers both have the motor mounted in
the lower cabinet, but that means the head is stationary and the table
moves up and down when you adjust for thickness. Problem? I can
imagine that it would be handy to have auxiliary stationary infeed and
outfeed platforms, but not with a planer of this design.

I'm kinda leaning towards the Delta 15"; comments on this model?

And what about those "return to infeed position" rollers on the tops of
the stationary-head models? Those look kinda handy, and you can't do
that with the Delta; you have to carry the board back around to the
front of the planer to refeed.