Help me spend my money

[Bruce Lowekamp]

For those who prefer the combination machine, AFAIK they don’t have dual-speed planers, whereas I think that’s a standard feature on all of the (higher end) stand-alone planers. Do you feel that’s a drawback, or once you have a helical cutting head is it no longer an issue?

Bruce

[Erik Loza]

For those who prefer the combination machine, AFAIK they don’t have dual-speed planers, whereas I think that’s a standard feature on all of the (higher end) stand-alone planers. Do you feel that’s a drawback, or once you have a helical cutting head is it no longer an issue?

Bruce

1.) The higher end combo machines are generally available with two planing speeds.

2.) Never personally missed the second speed (fast) that you get with these higher-end machines if a home shop/weekend warrior. That's a feature more for shops that are just doing dimensioning in high volume but seems to have found its way into the hobby market more out of "want" than "need", IMHO. In my experience, most garage ww'ers are more concerned with finish quality than being able to stuff wood through the machine as fast as possible.

Erik

[Jim Becker]

For those who prefer the combination machine, AFAIK they don’t have dual-speed planers, whereas I think that’s a standard feature on all of the (higher end) stand-alone planers. Do you feel that’s a drawback, or once you have a helical cutting head is it no longer an issue?

Bruce

I've never felt a need for multiple speeds when thicknessing...the feed rate on my J/P seems reasonable. I also do not have a helical or spiral cutter head...just Tersa. The finish is great and in the rare circumstance that I do get some tearout, it's pretty much the piece of wood that's to blame along with my poor choice of said material.

[Bruce Lowekamp]

I actually wasn’t thinking about planer speed in terms of speeding up production, but in terms of slowing down to improve smoothness. I thought it would be interesting to do some math and spent some time looking for specs this evening.

DW735 on slow with 10000rpm cutterhead does 179 cuts per inch. If I replace the 3-knife cutterhead with a byrd with 4 overlapping rows, that’s now 2 cuts per revolution, so 120 cuts per inch

PM 15HH has a byrd cutterhead (still 2 cuts per revolution) at 4500, feeding on slow at 16fpm, so 47 cuts per inch

Minimax fs 30c if I understand correctly the xylent cutting head has 3 complete rows, so 3 cuts per revolution running at 5200rpm with 23fpm feed = 57 cuts per inch

Hammer A3 I think is basically the same spec as the Minimax.

Which I think explains why I’ve seen people say shops even with high-end planers keep a lunchbox planer because of cut quality.

Now maybe this is picking a planer just so you can skip a pass with 100 grit sandpaper, but I think it’s interesting the variance in cuts per inch here.

Bruce

[Alan Lightstone]

I've never felt a need for multiple speeds when thicknessing...the feed rate on my J/P seems reasonable. I also do not have a helical or spiral cutter head...just Tersa. The finish is great and in the rare circumstance that I do get some tearout, it's pretty much the piece of wood that's to blame along with my poor choice of said material.

I've never turned the dial on the speed change on my Felder. Never needed or wanted to. FWIW.

[Jake Elkins]

Just thought I would update my journey - after weighing the decisions, pro/cons, and tiring of looking for used big jointers, I got the Laguna 16 in J16. Thing is a beast, and works like a dream. Very pleased with the fit and finish. Based on some (older) comments on customer service, I was a bit timid, but I have nothing but good things to say about them. The few times I've called, the experience was pleasant. While the European combo machines are very nice, having already assessed my work flow, I am glad I went for separates. First project - a big, long workbench. Should be fun.

Soon I'm sure I will begin the solicitation for advise regarding a big bandsaw, but from this experience, the Italian Laguna 24 is really high on my list. Thank you again everyone for you help.