"Dave" wrote in message
news:YgZld.225864$%k.192568@pd7tw2no...
As you are all aware, benchtop planers have come down in price
dramatically. I am considering buying my first planer, and I want it to be
the last planer I buy. I plan to make home furniture as a hobby, probably
low volume over a few decades. Portability is not an issue, and I do have
220v access with a good size shop. Is there a steep improvement in final
product quality with larger floor models? Do you think I should buy a
benchtop model, or save the dough and buy a floor model? If you had to do
it over again, which size would you buy?

If you are only going low volume, the portable should serve you well. Mine
is 15 years old. That said, I wish mine was a stationary planer with larger
width capacity. I in fact am seriously considering going back to s4s as the
last batch of s4s lumber saved me several hours of preparation. The cost
was higher but my time is worth more. The stationary is not much bigger
than a portable foot print wise so the portable does not really save you any
room in many cases. If you are going to use the planer weekly you will
probably come out cheaper with a stationary planer as the portable will
probably have to be replaced before the stationary will with regular use.
As far as quality of out put, typically the portables feed slower and
produce a smoother finish although that finish still needs to be followed up
with a sander, scraper or smoother plane. I would not consider any surface
out of any thickness planer good enough for final preparation of the
surface.

So to answer your question, get a portable if you think will not use it
weekly or will not need to plane boards wider than 12-13". If time is more
important and you will use it regularly, get the stationary.