looking to upgrade my planer

[Zachary Hoyt]

I had a Woodmaster 18" planer that was a real dog, and would never buy another of their machines. It is a poorly designed multi-function setup that does not work well as a planer because the rollers are so far from the head. I also had an off-brand 15" planer that was similar to early Grizzly machines and worked great, aside from being rather worn out.

[Ron Selzer]

Bought a Woodmaster 12" planer in 1988. 5hp, quick change head, drum sander head, molding shaft. Has variable speed feed. Only planer I have any time on, so it is what it is. Variable speed feed is great, use it all the time, does snipe bad UNLESS boards are feed thru butted tight. Don't use the drum sander head, tried and tried just don't like it. Bought a drum sander and used it for a couple of years before selling it. Guess I just don't get along with drum sanders. Woodmaster works great for molding knives, don't have factory dust collection on it, do have homemade dust collection on it. Won't get rid of it. However, looking forward to trying out a MinMax Jointer/planer I have once I get a new motor for it. Don't regret buying it as it has planed thousands of bdft of hardwood for me over the years.
Ron

[Zac Martin]

hijacking this thread a bit here:

I have an old Jet 15 inch planer. I have the shelix head, seals, oil, etc... but after watching a few videos on how to swap them out, I feel like this project is out of my league. Does anyone know of either A)anyone specifically who I could hire to come out and do the replacement for me or B) what I should be googling to find a person with the skills to be able to do this.

[Joe Jensen]

Here are a couple considerations. First as others have mentioned, the larger the cutterhead diameter the better the finish quality. This is real, has to do with the cutter arc through the wood. Small diameter makes up upward cut greatly increasing tearout. With a large diameter the cutter runs in a much larger arc. Second, industrial planers have both a pressure bar and a chip breaker. The pressure bar holds the wood down to the bed with the pressure rollers and the chip breaker sits on the wood ideally very close to the cutter arc. Most cheaper planers don't have both. Share your budget. I am in the market for an older Euro planer. 24" wide sell for like 2X what a 20" planer sells for. Buy one with a tersa head, probably can find one for under $2K. Then later if you need upgrade the head.

[Michael Elliott]

I have an Oliver 15" spiral head, and love it. $2699.99.

[Kevin Jenness]

When I was a rep in the architecture and design field, there was this meme I often used to use in my powerpoint presentations. It basically showed a client coming to an architect with the idea of this giant mansion and by the time everyone takes a slice of the client's pie, it was this mundane little sticks-and-bricks house, with a depressed human figure standing next to it.

Erik

Qualifying the customer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9hIXiM-yrY&t=2s

[Jeff Roltgen]

Zac,
I had to remove cutter head for bearing and seal replacements. Not too tough. Grizzly produced a decent video about it that gave me the confidence to tackle the task:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D00DdhbR9Rk

Should be very much the same as your Jet.

I'll leave the content, perchance it helps someone else, or perhaps you hadn't seen this video yet(?)

jeff

[Thomas Wilson]

When I was a rep in the architecture and design field, there was this meme I often used to use in my powerpoint presentations. It basically showed a client coming to an architect with the idea of this giant mansion and by the time everyone takes a slice of the client's pie, it was this mundane little sticks-and-bricks house, with a depressed human figure standing next to it.

Erik

I hate it when the salesman qualifies me on the basis of looks alone. Clothes, tools, cars, bicycles, I get escorted to the “economy” version. I usually walk out. If you make a mistake on sizing a customer up, you will lose a sale.
,

[Gordon Stump]

I like my HSS knives in my Grizzly 15" 4 post plainer. In general, I like the quality of HSS over the cut of carbide. When they get dull I have to use 80 G to remove planer marks. When they are sharp I can start with 100 G. In my small production shop this time of year that can make a real difference in time, consumables and energy.

[Mike Kees]

What Joe says. Except the Tersa head would be the upgrade.

[Warren Lake]

you cant size a person up. Im old and could tell you stories for hours. People have made that mistake with me and others as well. Years ago a guy down the road said his father a real estate agent said the people that bought homes the most were not the people in the fancy car but the ones in the old cars with good tires. I have friends worth 100's of millions and friends down to living in a school buss on someone else's land even though they are brilliant.

You might be right some amount of the time judging people but you will be wrong enough times as well. One classic example was a US musician living in Toronto. Walked in a Rolls dealer got treated like he was a country bumpkin. He left came back with a bag of 40k in bills whatever those things cost at the time and dumped the money on the floor and said ill take that car and that salesman gets no commission.