On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:26:22 -0400, Tom Watson
wrote:

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 15:03:12 -0400 (EDT), (T.)
wrote:

I've got a project in mind I think one of those hand-held electric
planers would work out well with, what with their depth of cut
adjustment, and all. And, no, a belt sander won't work.

I'm looking at my old Porter Cable 653 EHD Versa Plane as I type this.

In an earlier incarnation I used this beast to plane down the edges of
many doors.

It has a helical cutterhead with carbide tips, which is essentially
new, since a buddy of mine borrowed it and wound up having to buy me a
new cutterhead after fragging the original one.

It used to be thought of as the best of its' type.

I'm guessing that you can look up the specs on this thing.

I don't have much use for it anymore and haven't for donkey's years.

If interested, email me and make an offer.


Regards, Tom
Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker
Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
http://users.snip.net/~tjwatson

Joat,

I've actually, recently that is, used one of the Porter units that Tom
speaks of. The inclusion of a true helical cutter turns a simply OK
tool into a great one. It was actually my buddies tool, and I used it
to plane down 9 floor joists. We were redoing the kitchen, expanding
into an adjacent room that was not part of the original kitchen
footprint. My house is old, and the room we expanded into wasn't part
of the original configuration; the subfloor was almost 3/4" higher and
sloped the wrong way.

After removing the subfloor, the Porter took care of those not so
minor differences in about an hour and left me with an 8" deep pile of
shavings. Not to mention, the final surface was glass smooth. No
tearout whatsoever. Had to take off the side guide plate to get it
into tight spots though. Also used it to correct some 100 year old,
out of plane wall studs. In old houses, they never worried about the
studs being coplaner; that was taken care of by the plasterer.

The downside of this unit is cost, around $450, and if you screw up
the cutter, you have to buy a whole new head at over $100. Despite the
cost, I never did nick my buddies cutter in all the abuse I put the
Porter through.

Cheaper units just use inexpensive linear carbide inserts, but don't
leave near the finish. They also can't eat wood like the expensive
Porter. Really wish they made a 2/3 sized unit. The shear size of the
unit makes it difficult to use on smaller items.

David Glos