| Review by Willowlane | posted 10-17-2015 11:59 PM | 9849 views | 0 times favorited | 9 comments |  |
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- Craftsman 21758 12.5 inch bench top planer
- Brand: Craftsman | Category: Planers
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Decided to purchase a bench top planer to use in my limited space garage (car, boat, mower, snow blower, kids bikes). My only experience with planers has been with grizzly and powermatic 220v units. I researched which bench top unit to buy for a few weeks. My factors were cost and availability. I make a lot of small projects and typically work with rough cut lumber in 2-4’ lengths.
The planer was easy to setup out of the box. Tables are small but have adjusters to help with snipe. If you don’t pay attention snipe is around 1.5” to 2.5” on the trailing edge. I found if I make the last few passes very shallow (sub 1/64th” I could get rid of the snipe on the majority of boards. Somehow I nicked the blade in the first 5 boards I ran, so I spun them around. The blade change and setup is really easy with great access.
The dust collection worked better than expected when hooked to my 1 hp grizzly dust collector. I quickly realized I need a separator when planing poplar!
So far I have run red oak, white oak, maple, cherry, ash, and poplar. It performs very well as long as you don’t try to take to big of a cut. This is especially true in the white oak and ash. The boards I ran were all in the 2’ to 4’ range and between 7 and 10” wide. So far I am happy with the quality and finish. If I need to run long boards I will just take them to process on my brother in laws grizzly or my cousins powermatic.
For the price (I had Sears points and a $35 off of $300 coupon) I am happy with the purchase.
9 comments so far
whope
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152 posts in 2960 days
#1 posted 10-18-2015 02:52 PM
Nothing fills up my 31 gallon separator faster than the planer.
-- Measure it with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, cut it with an axe.
bambam89
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13 posts in 1754 days
#2 posted 10-18-2015 06:38 PM
Got one not long ago and it plains the small amount of wood I need just fine.
Had one of the 10” Ryobis many years ago and it was one great plainer for the small shop.
I am always amazed how smooth these little planers can do the job.
Scott
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121 posts in 2738 days
#3 posted 10-18-2015 08:11 PM
I have the same one. Rating seems right. It definitely has some issues that can take some time to get through (snipe, non-parallel cuts) but it has the power to handle anything I throw through it.
Mainiac Matt
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9320 posts in 2843 days
#4 posted 10-19-2015 03:31 PM
Looks like a reincarnation of my old Delta lunchbox planer. Hope you like it for a long time because you just can’t kill these things…. and believe me, I’ve tried.
I keep looking at the new DeWalts with envy, but just can’t justify spending any add’l money on a planer, while the one I have runs perfectly well.
Another plus for these units is that the blades are really inexpensive. Search around on Amazon and you’ll find the aftermarket blades by Powertec are just as good as the name brand and quite a bit less expensive.
As I’m sure you’re realizing, softwood will fill your bag with stingy shavings as opposed to chips. I have to shut all my other blast gates to ensure I don’t plug up the flex hose whenever I plane softwood. SYP and Spruce are especially stringy.
Enjoy your planer, it will save you a small fortune before your done with it.
-- Matt -- I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam
dday
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172 posts in 1944 days
#5 posted 10-19-2015 04:36 PM
I’ve got a Ryobi AP1300 that I love. It makes almost a no sand finish on old pallet wood. I agree with the clogging of a DC. I just let mine shot the chips out into a big Rubbermaid tub and dump them in a garbage bag. I tend to do a LOT of planing all at the same time and stack my wood for future use…
mountainaxe
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153 posts in 3020 days
#6 posted 10-21-2015 05:25 PM
I purchased this planer several years ago and use it on all kinds of woods and projects. I agree with the comments in your review; your experience has been identical to mine. Definitely an easy to use, reliable, low cost tool. If you do your homework, you’ll find that there are still decent Craftsman tools out there worth buying…go figure.
-- Jeff, "The things I make may be for others, but how I make them is for me."
Bill1974
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132 posts in 3500 days
#7 posted 10-23-2015 02:03 PM
Looks just like the WEN 6550 I have.
I had a similar view on the planner, but mine needed a little more tweaking to set up. The granite base was not parallel to the blades.
Getting rid of the snipe was easy for me, on short boards I don’t have to anything. On long one I just need to lift them as they come out and no snipe.
Dust collection with a shop vac and mini clearvue CV06 works really well. The container does fill fast.
Bigibson
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1 post in 1023 days
#8 posted 01-03-2017 06:26 PM
Good luck finding parts for Craftsman planers, they no longer support them. I have a 12.5 that I purchased in Dec 2015. The bevel gear (made of cheap plastic) broke, Sears does not sell replacement parts and will not even acknowledge the model number of the planer even though I sent them a picture of the name plate. Sears is not the company they used to be.
WooDR67
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81 posts in 2827 days
#9 posted 11-30-2017 05:59 AM
I was able to get affordable replacement parts from Triton who still sells a clone. The plastic casing broke so I ordered a new one from Triton . My planer is orange and silver now but it works well. I plan on matching the color at some point.
-- "It is amazing what you can accomplish when you dont care who gets the credit"
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