lunch box or stationary planer: Chris Schwartz's take

[Ken Vick]

I received my Feb issue of Popular Woodworking yesterday. Schwartz has an article in there entitled "Why Portable Planers Are Better". About the only things he said that I agree with is that stationary planers take up more space and they are more expensive. Otherwise I think he was mostly off the wall. I don't spend all day changing planer knives or have to make many time consuming adjustments to bed rollers, infeed and outfeed rollers, parallelism, etc. My take is that he was having a problem coming up with an article to write. Is my take off? Ken

[PaulC]

I just moved from a 13" Delta lunchbox to a generic 16" stationary unit that I got a deal on because it required some work (full take-apart and de-rusting). It took a lot of work to set it up after re-assembly (just as listed). I hope I don't have to go through that again anytime soon.

[Tapper]

Don't take the magazine any more, but Chris can be a little "eccentric" at times. Having said that, I'm with you on the planer choice. I have a 15" ShopFox with the carbide spiral head, however, I did keep my Ridgid 13 incher and still use it for rough planing. Changing the knives in that machine is a snap and they are reversible.

Doug

[MarkSLSmith]

I agree with you. When I moved from my lunchbox to a nice 12" stationary planer (on wheels, of course), I was humming the hallelujah chorus for the next month. Quieter and more power. I appreciate the extra adjustments. It does take a while to adjust the first time, but after that the opportunity to tweak settings is great, e.g. no more slipping of the feed rollers.

The only advantage for the lunchbox was that the table was fixed, making it easier to set up auxiliary support rollers.

Mark

[cvillewood]

MarkSLSmith said:

---

The only advantage for the lunchbox was that the table was fixed, making it easier to set up auxiliary support rollers.

Mark

---

I agree, but I have come to realize that the machine is so stout that it in general it doesn't need wings.

Regarding the less footprint comment, I always had mine mounted to a stand on wheels. Took up the same space my 15" does.

[jteneyck]

Maybe a lunch box makes sense if you are really cramped for space and hate to do any maintenance. My Inca took about 30 minutes to change the knives and setting them was a bit frustrating but, OK, I'm mostly a hobbiest so no big deal. My "new" Mini Max J/P has a knife setting gage that's dead simple to use, as does your planer IIRC, Ken, and changing the knives now takes 5 minutes. Other maintenance? Not much, lube things once or twice a year, wax the planer bed, and keep it clean.

If you have space but hate maintenance get a full size planer with a segmented spiral head. I hear it takes years before you need to rotate the cutters.

John

[CARYinWA]

Can't get me to go back to a screaming lunchbox without a segmented head. I haven't had to rotate cutters yet.

[Pirate]

Maybe he has a line on a bunch of lunch boxes he plans on selling.
The 13" Delta Invicta stationary planer I now have is sooooo much better than the PM lunch box, I had before. There is no way, I would consider going backwards to a portable planer.
Another example of "don't believe everything you read" regardless of who got paid to write it.

[Alan S]

I like what Chris writes because he not only expresses an opinion, but he explains his thinking so you can evaluate whether it applies to your work or not. I definitely do not agree with all his opinions, but I do enjoy reading them.

[axlotal]

I think I prefer my Hammer J/P to any lunchbox planer. I put a shellix on it and I'm a very happy boy