"Alan Witt" wrote in message
...
I hope someone could teach me a few things about those portable electric
planers like the Dewalt DW680K 3-1/4" portable planer.

Are these only for use on stock that's the same width as the blades, or can
it be reliably used to plane down something as big as 12" stock?
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It'll plane down but you won't end up with a finished item. It'll be covered in
82mm wide tracks. It may be far from square to the edge and will likely look
like hell. I speak from experience of my own attempts to plane down stock wider
than the blades. It you just want to get to almost the desired thickness then I
suppose it's OK but you'll need to finish with a hand plane or sander to get it
about right. The portable electric planers are not up to task, IMHO, as they
weren't designed for it. However I have thought that if the blades were reground
to knock off the edges we could get something close to what we want. But I
haven't tried it yet. If anyone has then please let us know the results.