I use my portable planer once in a while to plane a door or something
like that. I wouldn't choose it to plane a board wider than the knives.

For boards I prefer to use my 12" planer. Today I ran a couple hundred
feet of 5/4 birch through.

You'd do better by letting folks know where you are and perhaps someone
in your area on this list would run it through their planer for you.

If you have already cut the piece to 12 x 18 and want to end up with a
thinner 12 x 18 piece you will probably need both planing and thickness
sanding. I've yet to find a planer that can guarantee absolutely no snipe.

RB

Wilson wrote:
When you need it, it's great, but I rarely use mine. You can get a 12"
planer for almost the same cost, especially used. I saw a new Delta at HD
for $199. FAR more useful.
Wilson
"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? I need

to

plane a 12"x18" 2/4 piece of stock to 3/8" thick and all of the wood

stores

in town I've talked to won't do it unless I buy the wood from them and I
already have all the stock I need.

I don't have much money, so I figure I can put it to better use purchasing
a good quality portable planer as opposed to a very cheap 12" planer. Any
advice is appreciated. Thank you.