Shop Fox Spiral head planer model W1718 (20"), 5HP 220V

[Dave Cohen]

Shop Fox Spiral head planer model W1718 (20"), 5HP 220V

Anyone own one of these, how is it?

[Philip Johnson]

I have the shopfox w1754s I preferred the built in mobile base and the cast iron extensions, I don.t remember the price difference. I also have the 12 inch jointer and a dust collector, no problems or complaints with any of em.

Phil

[Jim Andrew]

How much material can you take off in one pass using the full width of the planer? These are listed at 1/8" max cut, can they handle that on oak or other hardwoods?

[Warren Scott]

I have the grizzly version (I know it's not exactly the same, but....)
It has the grizzly second generation spiral cutterhead. Pretty much a byrd head with 4 spirals of cutters instead of 6 spirals.

I really like it. I routlinely take 19" wide glueups of 1" strips of mixed exotic hardwoods (wide pizza piel / cutting boards) and take off 1/16" at a time with no problem at all.
Personally, I'd never try to take off more than 1/16 at a time regardless of what the machine is rated for, more because of higher risk of tearout even with the spiral cutterhead. Just my personal preference.

Dust collector hooked up is a must. It took a little time to adjust the plastic baffles around the cutterhead to get the dust collection to work better.