How To Setup Hand Held Power Planers?

[John Carmack]

I have an older model Dewalt DW680 electric hand planer from a pawn shop. It's never worked with much precision. The old blades on it had a little nick in them from a nail or something. I would use it experimentally on rough wood and logs/branches. I put some new blades on it awhile back and recently tried to tune it up. The blades spun about 0.014" below the back plate and would cut 0.02" when the front plate was set to zero. I also discovered the blades aren't really in alignment with each other. One was about 0.03" higher than the other. Does that mean one blade does all the cutting?

I've looked online and haven't found much on adjusting/fine tuning hand held power planers. People just slide the blades in and go "that's all there is to it!" on YouTube. I watched a few interesting videos on jointer table and blade setups, but don't know if that really applies to planers.

When reading reviews for hand held planers, I found that lots of people are dismayed that they still cut when set to zero on the depth adjustment knob. Now I think that the depth of cut is set by a combination of how much the blades cut off the front and back plate; and the blades most likely have to be a hair below the back plate in order to keep the planer moving!

I just ordered a Makita KP0810 Planer. I figure I'll use the old Dewalt for nasty stuff and the Makita for tidier work. Just wondered what else I could do to get all the fine tuning out of a power planer that I can.

[Tim Bueler]

I have an older Makita plane but it has the double edged quick set blades (which are awesome). I've never had a problem with the blade alignment or parallel BUT the rear table was not properly set, as you say. This lead to a very aggravating snipe at the end of the cut. The table is removable via 4 screws so my solution was to shim it down. It's been a while now but I either used a cereal box and some tape or a business card (or two or ???) and some tape. It's run true for over 10 years now.
Tim

[Wayne Lomman]

John, I have occasionally had a power planer that ran true but never for long. I don't expect them to be a precision tool. They are more a power spoke shave than a power planer. That being said, Tim has a good plan for set up. Cheers

[John Carmack]

I have an older Makita plane but it has the double edged quick set blades (which are awesome). I've never had a problem with the blade alignment or parallel BUT the rear table was not properly set, as you say. This lead to a very aggravating snipe at the end of the cut. The table is removable via 4 screws so my solution was to shim it down. It's been a while now but I either used a cereal box and some tape or a business card (or two or ???) and some tape. It's run true for over 10 years now.
Tim

That's funny, I tried the same thing. When I removed the back plate, there was a small piece of black foam between the plate and plastic body. I guess that's how they adjusted it. I tried some mouse pad material, but it was too squishy and it'd have play as I applied pressure to the planer. Then I got a feeler gauge and was gonna cut pieces of it off to shim it up some, but thought I'd keep it and just used pieces of paper to adjust it. The paper registered about 0.04" thick with a gauge. It's still tough to judge how to get some harmony between the back plate, front plate and blades. How much should the blades stick up from the back plate? Should the bevel of the blades be installed flush with the support bar that goes under the clamping jaw?

[Tim Bueler]

How much should the blades stick up from the back plate? Should the bevel of the blades be installed flush with the support bar that goes under the clamping jaw?

John, I viewed the portable planner the same as I would a jointer. The outfeed table on a jointer is flush with the cut of the blades, so that's how I set up the outfeed end of the power plane.
Tim

[Matt Day]

I think of a power planer kind of like a bandsaw cutting a bowl blank close to shape. It's a rough tool Not for precise work.

[Kevin Jenness]

A power plane can do precise work within its limits if set up accurately as Tim describes. The most use I have made of one over the years is for scribing cabinets- with a vacuum hookup it is the fastest and cleanest way (for me) to get close to a perfect fit, followed by a block plane or sanding block for fine tuning. Mine doesn't see much use in the shop.