Tips from a Shipwright: Louie Sauzedde unboxes an electric planer as only he could

[Roger Feeley]

you guys gotta see this. Ryobi noticed that Louie uses their electric planer a lot. So they sent him a new one hoping to get a shout-out. I bet they didn't expect what happened next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a1HCqK5i-A

He conducts a master class in how not to make an electric planer. He acknowledges the pro's of the Ryobi planer and lists off all the others sitting on the shelf. Then he proceeds to tear the thing apart and re-engineer it.

Kickstand: Pain in the butt. Back into the box
dust diverter: Doesn't work. Into the box. Uses a cork on the side he doesn't want the dust to come out.
dust bag: never came out of the box. he found that a piece of pipe fits perfectly over the dust port. It ejects the dust better and makes a spiffy side handle.
some gizmo on the side: pffft... Into the box
Knives: Too wide and they gouge the work if you tilt the planer a bit. Grinds a bevel on the corners.
Dust ejection: demonstrates how it clogs and shows how to fix it.

He does all this without saying anything in a mean or condescending way.

I wonder what was going on at Ryobi.

He also mentions some old Porter Cable planer that is some kind of death trap. I wonder about that too.

Anyway, if you haven't watched Tips from a Shipwright, it's educational and he's very engaging. This one is just particularly entertaining.

[Walter Plummer]

The Porter Cable he mentions was their electric block plane. People kept getting their fingers in the cutter. Then PC tried a sanding drum instead of the spiral cutter but while it worked, it was slow.

[Frank Pratt]

He is a joy to watch & listen to. I agree that the planer video was particularly entertaining.

[Bill Carey]

His vids are some of the best on the web. A no nonsense, what works guy. And this was a great example of his practical approach. Thanks for posting it.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

That guy Matthias Wandel who makes wood machinery got a bit of kit from Dewalt in exchange for marketing, and he ended up dumping them and did a video as to why he did so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SToyIb9tNiY

[Walter Plummer]

I found it interesting that the Ryobi has jack screw under the knives so you can adjust them. I wish my Dewalt had that.

[Robert Hazelwood]

That was a great clip, one of my favorite channels.

It does seem like manufacturers of electric hand planes are rather indifferent to the finer points of what would make these tools actually useful. Ryobi is no exception from what I have seen. And yeah, the jack screws seem like a nice detail.

[Ole Anderson]

Waiting for his next project. And he uses an electric plane in a way I have never seen before, back and forth like a block plane rather than a long sweep to take off a certain thickness.

[Mike Cutler]

Yeah, I'm not sure that Ryobi is going to like a video demonstrating that their "out of the box" hand planer is unusable as is.

Got admire the guy though. He makes the tool work for him, and not the other way around.

[Mike Cutler]

Waiting for his next project. And he uses an electric plane in a way I have never seen before, back and forth like a block plane rather than a long sweep to take off a certain thickness.

I think that's just the nature of his work.
I cracked up at the cork modification.

[Lee DeRaud]

Yeah, I'm not sure that Ryobi is going to like a video demonstrating that their "out of the box" hand planer is unusable as is.Then again, the Bosch/Dewalt/Porter-Cable/whoever people probably aren't thrilled about him talking about their planers that he likes even less, modified or not.

And I'd love to see the look on the face of the Festool rep when he gets around to hacking that one. (I didn't even realize Festool made a hand planer, but I suspect it's 5X-10X the price of the Ryobi.)

[Lee DeRaud]

I found it interesting that the Ryobi has jack screw under the knives so you can adjust them. I wish my Dewalt had that.Well, then you're gonna love this: the $38 planer from Harbor Freight has them too. And it comes complete with the "cork" to change the chip ejection direction. :)
https://www.harborfreight.com/3-1-4-quarter-inch-electric-planer-91062.html

[Roger Feeley]

Yeah, I'm not sure that Ryobi is going to like a video demonstrating that their "out of the box" hand planer is unusable as is.

Got admire the guy though. He makes the tool work for him, and not the other way around.

I wonder if the Ryobi engineers were taking notes. He did some clever stuff with chip ejection by partially blocking one of the ports inside. Ryobi should have engineers out there taking notes.

[Peter Kelly]

He also mentions some old Porter Cable planer that is some kind of death trap. I wonder about that too.
https://youtu.be/JDUprNyYlfM?t=64

[Malcolm Schweizer]

https://youtu.be/JDUprNyYlfM?t=64

I'm not usually one who cries about safety violations, but wow- that circular saw blade in an angle grinder sent chills up my spine.

[Roger Feeley]

Yeah, an OSHA guy would just have a coronary. When I originally saw this episode, I had to keep telling myself that Louie is pretty old and still has all his fingers and eyes.
But....Yikes!!!!!

[Roger Feeley]

I love woodgears. Look for the link that takes you to his dads camp.

http://woodgears.ca/cottage/nr2.html (http://woodgears.ca/cottage/nr2.html)


some of the work his dad did was really neat. Check out the handmade door latches.

[Frank Pratt]

He does all kinds of things that at first seem just insane, but when you look at how he uses the tool in relation to the work it isn't that bad. I'd never do a lot of those things though, including the above.

[Peter Kelly]

I'm not usually one who cries about safety violations, but wow- that circular saw blade in an angle grinder sent chills up my spine.I think the "blade guard" is made from an aluminum pie pan.

[Lee DeRaud]

I think the "blade guard" is made from an aluminum pie pan.Thank god, I thought it was a frisbee. :)