Buying a Used Delta 22-560 Planer

[Bill George]

I am headed out this afternoon to look at a used Delta 22-560 planer. It looks to be almost like new and in fact has new cutter blades installed. I've done some online research and know this model is prone to nut loosening issues on the motor shaft and other things.

So what's it worth? Comes with the roller stand and I can try before I buy. Seller seems honest and is selling only because he has upgraded to a larger, better unit.

[cody michael]

I had a ridgid 13 in model that looks comparable, i think i bought and sold it for around 200$. I am not sure what your main purpose is, but for me I was cleaning up rough sawn boards and the ridgid was not nearly powerful enough, it would struggle planing a 1/32 off a 8 inch poplar board. so if you want to be able to remove a significant amount of wood this is not the best route (if its performance is similar to ridgid) I bought a grizzly 3hp planer for 500$ it is night and day, planes 1/16 off 12 inch wide maple board without struggling, feeds through all by itself, planing was something I hated, now its quick and easy

[John Donhowe]

I have a 22-560, and have been really happy with it. I'm a hobbyist, so it doesn't get a lot of rough use, and I've never had any problems with it. Blades are easy to replace, and readily available (~$30/set). My only concern over the long run is that other parts are getting hard to find- Delta doesn't seem to support it (much) now- I had to make my own dust hood.

I bought mine used (almost new) a few years ago, for ~$150, IIRC, which I think was a really good price, but that was at the height of the recession, with a motivated seller. I think up to $250 tops is fair, if it's pristine, but try for $200.

Good luck- if you get it, and want to know how I made my dust hood, let me know.

[Bill George]

Well I decided to opt out for now. Not really sure I need it with my new Grizzly 12 inch drum sander. I will work without it for a few days and see how it progresses. Thanks for all the replies.

[Curt Harms]

Well I decided to opt out for now. Not really sure I need it with my new Grizzly 12 inch drum sander. I will work without it for a few days and see how it progresses. Thanks for all the replies.

Drum sander and Planer are different beasts IMO. For example, yesterday I needed a spacer for a drawer slide 1 1/16" thick. A piece of 2X4 run thru a Jet Combo machine a few times and done. Took less than 5 minutes total. A drum sander would have taken far longer. If I'd wanted to remove a very small amount like <1/16" a drum sander would have been my preferred machine. I would think twice (or more) about buying Delta right now. Who knows what the parts availability will be in the future?

[Bill George]

So is Delta out of business or the name purchased by a Chinese company and being designed and made over there? I do a search for Delta and Porter Cable sometimes comes up?

[Mark S Robinson]

John - I am getting ready to make a dust hood for my 22-560, could you post or email me pictures of the dust hood you made?

Thanks,

Mark Robinson



I have a 22-560, and have been really happy with it. I'm a hobbyist, so it doesn't get a lot of rough use, and I've never had any problems with it. Blades are easy to replace, and readily available (~$30/set). My only concern over the long run is that other parts are getting hard to find- Delta doesn't seem to support it (much) now- I had to make my own dust hood.

I bought mine used (almost new) a few years ago, for ~$150, IIRC, which I think was a really good price, but that was at the height of the recession, with a motivated seller. I think up to $250 tops is fair, if it's pristine, but try for $200.

Good luck- if you get it, and want to know how I made my dust hood, let me know.

[cody michael]

I had 2 of the lunch box style planers, a 13 in ridgid which I hated (way to wimpy) a 15 in craftsman (slightly better still wimpy) now I have a 20 inch grizzly, its a completely different experience planing, after I adjusted my grizzly I am super happy with it, bought it used for 500$

[Jerry Olexa]

That is a decent planer..Be sure to test it with some hardwoods..I'd say $150-200 would be fair price....Test and then enjoy.

[Malcolm McLeod]

Delta planer :: Run! RUN AWAY!!! RUN FAR AWAY!!!

I had the misfortune to own same for about 2-3 months (4 yrs ago). I rebuilt the drive twice (nut cam off). Milling black walnut resulted in bent blades (4 times if memory serves); the blade would deflect out and a chip would get driven in behind it. Result was a 1/8"D x 2"W rebate in the surface. ...I invented a number of new words when I was on last pass and this happened.

I finally threw the Delta in the trash, got my father's Belsaw out of storage, installed 220V service in my garage, and life was good.

[John Donhowe]

John - I am getting ready to make a dust hood for my 22-560, could you post or email me pictures of the dust hood you made?

Thanks,

Mark Robinson

Here you go. The one I made is nothing fancy at all, but it works well. I used a scrap of sheet metal I had lying around (from a discarded washing machine panel) ~1/32" thick to make a mounting plate, using the chip deflector that comes with the planer as a template. Where the deflector starts curving, I mad a simple 90 degree bend, and extended the vertical portion of the plate downward to cover the front of the casting. The steel cut pretty quickly with an angle grinder, but there was a bit of fiddling and filing to get the plate to fit nicely: 1/8" narrower on each side at the back; the slots for the thumbscrews to fit, and holes to match the tapped holes at the bottom corners on the front (or is it the back?).

I then cut a rectangular hole in the plate so I could mount a 10x3-1/4" to 4" boot (I think it's called a stack boot, since it had some flanges, which I used to help connect to the edges of the cut out. Again, it took some fiddling (trial and error) to get the boot and cutout to fit. The cut extends about 3-1/2" horizontally back from the bend, and about 1-1/8" downward on the vertical part, and the boot is angled about 45 degrees. I was able to fit the boot flanges over the long sides of the cutout. Since the short sides of the boot straddled the bend in the plate, I couldn't use the flanges, so cut them off. I made cuts meet the bend, and folded back the excess on the inside as tabs. I put in a several pop rivets through the flanges and side tabs, then just covered all edges of the cutout with Gorilla tape, just to make more airtight and to add a bit of strength to the joint.

The plate is held on to the planer by the thumbscrews on the top, and screws (3/8" M5-1.0 metric, I think) that hold the bottom down. I also added a strip on thin foam weatherstripping across the bottom.

In hindsight, I'd change the angle of the boot from about 45 degrees to more horizontal. After the fact, I discovered that the cutter ejects the chips horizontally. Doh! Making the cutout larger on the vertical part of the plate would allow a more horizontal boot mount, but you can't go down more than about 1-1/2", which is where the part of the casting covering the outfeed roller lies. If you could find a narrower boot, say 2-1/4" by 10", it might make construction easier.

Also, I got hung up on using the flanges to mount the boot, which restricted the geometry. If I had to do it again, I would forget fitting flanges to the cutout, and instead get a fairly close fit, and use just pop rivets and tape to connect the boot.

Contrary to the experiences of others, I have had no problems at all with my planer. I haven't really used it as much as I would like (lack of time), and I've planed mostly softwoods, and take multiple thin cut passes. I hope this helps; let me know if you have more questions, and good luck!

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[John Donhowe]

323436FWIW, here's another picture, than I don't think uploaded :confused:

[Curt Harms]

John touched on point that I think applies to any benchtop planer. Don't try to do it all in one pass unless the cut is really shallow. Several passes will likely result in a better surface and a less stressed machine.

[Jerry Olexa]

Good advice from Curt!!