Craftsman 81158 opinion

[Rahul Varma]

In the market for a planer and am tempted by the Craftsman 81158: $600 9before any discounts) for a 13" with a spiral cutterhead-- sounds like a good deal....but I can find NO reviews anywhere. Anyone here have any experience with this planer and/or have an opinion-- would appreciate your feedback.

Thanks

:confused:

[David Nelson1]

No experience with this planer but it looks like a hybrid of a delta/dewalt model. Pro's you get a planer and a spiral cutter. Con's Its still a lunch box planer. 15 amp draw so you will want a 20 amp circuit. dust collector looks as if it takes a hard 90 coming out of the chute.. Funky 2 1/2 - 4 collection port??? And a granite bed. The bed maybe a good thing for rust prevention, but listening to the fellows that have the granite table saw top being carefully is of the utmost importance.

I would also look @ the model Sears Item# 00922310000 | Model# 22310. 100 bucks more and you can gain 2 inch's on your cuts, 2 speeds and RPM is 12,000 instead of 10,000 it also claims a limited molding capacity. Cons: no mention of how many cutters or Amp. draw.

I would go used but that's just me. If you don't do or think you will not be dealing with heavy stock, either one of these units would work well for you. How they hold up I don't know.

[glenn bradley]

Just a note on something many folks miss. This is a spiral cutter head but not what many of us are talking about when we use that term. Like the Steel City machines, this head has very few cutters, they are not carbide and are only two sided. As often as steel knives need to be sharpened/changed, I would not want to fuss with 26 little cutters on that schedule.

I have carbide insert cutters that I have run regularly for nearly 2 years and I have not had the need to rotated them even once yet. The point is, if you are going to go for an insert head, pony-up and get one that will last a decent duty cycle between cutter maintenance. If that (carbide) puts a certain planer out of range, consider a better knifed machine. I would rather put my money toward a better machine as opposed to toward a so-so cutter head using the "sexy" spiral name tag. This is only my opinion based on my experience with both types of machine and far from the final word. Maybe those indexed steel cutters last longer than other steel cutters ;-)