The planer that time forgot - Steel City 16"

[Jeff Hallam]

I'm pondering jumping on this Steel City 16" planer that is for sale in my area (model 40260H). However, I am surprised at how little information I can find on it. No reviews, very few hits on google and very little discussion on the message boards. I know it has been discontinued but does anyone have first-hand experience with this beast? I've emailed the company to see if they still sell parts for it and am waiting on a response.

- Jeff

[Rick Fisher]

Pretty standard machine. I suspect you could get parts from more than Steel City for that machine.

[Loren Woirhaye]

4 post planer marketed under many badges and with many minor variants. Probably used in pro shops throughout Asia and designed for that. Good, modern design that delivers good performance without weigh a half-ton or more. Go take a look at it and plane something.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on seeing it work, first.

There's no sense investing lots of "sweat equity" into a commodity.

[Jim Andrew]

Does the machine have a helical cutterhead? Only thing I see wrong, is that most planers similar to this machine are 15", and may make a replacement cutterhead expensive if you have a 3 or 4 blade cutter.

[Mike Delyster]

I bought a used 20" version of that planer the 40280 mine doesn't have the helical cutterhead though. I haven't had any problems with mine in the four years I've had it.

Here is a link to the manual. http://www.steelcitytoolworks.com/index.php/product-manuals/

[Earl Rumans]

I don't think parts will be a problem and with that Helical cutter head, it should do a great job for you.

[Myk Rian]

I don't think parts will be a problem and with that Helical cutter head, it should do a great job for you.
What helical cutter head? Jeff didn't say it has one.

[Jeff Hallam]

Myk, it does have a helical head but I didn't mention it in the first post. I'm leaning more towards making the purchase if I can figure out how to move it onto and off of my trailer.

[Mike Delyster]

The H behind the model number implies that the machine has a helical head. My 20" is model # 40280 mine is four knife cutter head if it was 40280H it would be the same planer with a helical head.

[Michael Yadfar]

It wasn't this specific planer, but I did look into tools from Steel City before. A lot of their new tools are "sold out", so I don't really know where this company stands. I couldn't even find out where it's made, but one things for sure, it's not from the "steel city". I believe it may just be another brand off Grizzly/Jet/Powermatics/etc production line in China. The only issue I see here is that a 16" is an unusual size