That feeling you get when...

[Rod Dilyard]

... your new tool arrives way sooner than you expected.

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I took advantage of Woodcraft's 15% off Jet tools sale to upgrade my lunchbox planer to this 15" helical head. My youngest son and I put it together last night but it was too late to wire up. We'll do that tonight. I knew it was time to upgrade when I found myself dreading the thought of planing lumber for a project but actually smiling with satisfaction when using my DJ-15 that was recently upgraded to a helical head. What a difference that made! I'm hoping this will make me want to plane all my rough lumber just for the fun of it.

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That's not my son, by the way. He's 15 and a freshman in high school, although he was almost as excited as I was to help put it together and run something through it.

[Tim Bueler]

Congrats! Nice upgrade for you. Thought I'd died and gone to woodworkers heaven when I got my helical head planer. Hope you like yours as much!
Tim

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Don't take it personally, but I hate you. :-) (Not really) My track saw finally arrived, but the tracks are still on their way, and my Veritas Plow Plane is on back order until Feb 2. I need both for a current project.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Nice!! I know the feeling, I just received the same one earlier this week but by Powermatic. Still sitting in the garage until I can sucker enough people to come over and help me carry it to the basement shop.

[Rod Dilyard]

I wired it up last night and WOW! What a difference! Quiet enough to talk over even while planing. Tim, I don't know if it's all the way to woodworker's heaven but it's certainly a couple steps closer. I'm pretty sure woodworker's heaven has better dust collection than I have.

Hoang, I gave a lot of thought to how I was going to get mine into my basement shop. I don't have an outside entrance and 475 pounds is just too much to safely wrestle down a flight of steps. I would strongly recommend separating the planer from the base/motor before attempting it. It's very easy to do - only four bolts hold the planer to the base and the drive belts are easy to access for removal. Even after doing that, you're left with a very heavy cast iron assembly to deal with. I placed mine on an upside-down carpeted dolly and with two men below to guide it down the steps and two teenagers above with heavy straps secured to the planer we slid it down without any fanfare. Once down, the four of us lifted it up and my wife inverted the dolly and we rolled it into the shop to be reunited with the base. Easy-peazy-lemon-squeezy as they say.

Good luck with yours!

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Thanks for the tip Rod. I was thinking of pulling the head off the base as well until I realized the pulley was already installed, I didn't want to mess with it until it was my last resort. Interesting enough, I had the GC overlooking the construction around the neighborhood stop by to take a look at my roof when he saw the planer in my garage. We got to talking about how I was going to get it in the basement and he said his landscapers have a bobcat with a fork attachment on it for when they need to move pallets of sod around. He said he'll talk with them on Monday and see if they can come by to just lift the whole pallet and move it to the basement. I had them put in a double door in the basement so I think they can just drive straight into the basement and I can roll it around from that point.


I wired it up last night and WOW! What a difference! Quiet enough to talk over even while planing. Tim, I don't know if it's all the way to woodworker's heaven but it's certainly a couple steps closer. I'm pretty sure woodworker's heaven has better dust collection than I have.

Hoang, I gave a lot of thought to how I was going to get mine into my basement shop. I don't have an outside entrance and 475 pounds is just too much to safely wrestle down a flight of steps. I would strongly recommend separating the planer from the base/motor before attempting it. It's very easy to do - only four bolts hold the planer to the base and the drive belts are easy to access for removal. Even after doing that, you're left with a very heavy cast iron assembly to deal with. I placed mine on an upside-down carpeted dolly and with two men below to guide it down the steps and two teenagers above with heavy straps secured to the planer we slid it down without any fanfare. Once down, the four of us lifted it up and my wife inverted the dolly and we rolled it into the shop to be reunited with the base. Easy-peazy-lemon-squeezy as they say.

Good luck with yours!