WEN PL1326 15-Amp 13-Inch Spiral Benchtop Thickness Planer & JT630H 10-Amp 6-Inch Spiral Benchtop Jointer

I'm a weekend woodworker/hobbiest for no reason other than to change gears from my long hours behind a keyboard or in data and server rooms so my experience is "intermediate" but goes back to 1997. I have a woodshop full of tools and know my way around power and hand tools pretty well. Despite my years of woodworking, I had only electric and manual hand planers as I enjoy the manual process most but recently fell in love with trees. As such, I began harvesting trees about my wooded 10 acres so had to upgrade many tools. Upon months of research and two models I returned to Lowes, I discovered the following:When running a slab of Hickory through a 2 and 3-blade Planer, expect lots of snipe and a poor surface.A single hidden fence nail will destroy your blades and you'll have to replace all of them.Running cherry wood through, fares better but still rougher than I'd like on 2 and 3 blades.2 and 3 blade Planers are cheaper for a reason. Upon returning both, I fixed my eyes upon a Spiral Bladed Planer. Why? Better surface obviously, but more important, a spiral blade is made up of many little square blades in a corkscrew configuration on a cylinder. A dulled blade is simply rotated 1/4 and it's good as new. Plus, you can do that 3 more times as each surface is sharp. -You don't destroy and replace the entire spiral. I intended to buy Dewalt but at 600+ I decided to try WEN's version instead. I have other WEN products in my shop and have never been disappointed so I took a shot. (See Pics) I chainsaw-slabbed a 24" piece of hickory with some wet-ish heartwood and ran it through the planer about 10 times on each side. Pignut Hickory has a Janka hardness of 2,140 lbf when compared to White Oak (1,350 lbf), Black Walnut (1,010 lbf) or standard Douglas Fir pine you'd get at Lowes (620 lbf). I found that planing off more than an 1/32 per pass was pretty taxing on the machine for Hickory but the Black Walnut planing (pic 4) handled 1/32 easily. Pine could pass 1/16 or deeper with little issue. The front gauge is my favorite feature as I only need to lower the blade mill onto the wood to see how deep I'm going. The gauge does go up to 1/8 but what kinda Psychopath planes 1/8th per pass? It's a planer, not a table saw. Additionally, remember that the softer the wood, the higher the probability of snipe so keep your depth low to save those ends. Still, snipe was far more reasonable than the 2 and 3 blade systems I tried previously.Let's talk support now. Mine came with a cracked dust collector. A very small and minor crack on this flimsy plastic piece but no surprise there. It still worked even with the crack but I'm not dropping 400+ on something that's got even the slightest blemish on it so I emailed WEN support at the email on the Owners Manual. Don't bother, they don't respond to emails. I called them the next day and spoke with a US Based Support Rep. He seemed annoyed to help but actually did his job and sent me a new dust collector. Friendly? No. Supported. Yes. This cost the product a star as I hate calling and waiting on hold despite the short wait time. Don't give an email if you don't respond to them, is all I'm saying. Overall, the Machine is a 5-star purchase for performance, ease of use and value. I don't regret saving 200+ on buying this WEN instead of Dewalt.

As an aspiring woodworker, I jumped on this purchase on Prime Day and boy am I happy! The only issue that I have is the difficulty of getting the wood chips out of the cavity …but I’m not using a vacuum or dust collector yet either 😳

Why spend $300 more on a “name brand” planer with 3 straight blades? This planer is a beast. As with any planer, take off very little each pass - max 1/32. I’ve run some fairly hard hardwood through this with no problem. Couple this with the Wen 650cfm extractor. I collect probably 95% of shavings. As with any planer you will have some snipe. But this planer when set properly has minimal snipe. Use a sled properly for boards that have not been jointed.

it's easy to use and it cuts great. but you are not buying the best of the best.1) cut quality: the cuts are great but you don't have enough vacuum to suck out the wood chips (i don't, apparently: Shop Vac 6HP) the wood shavings clog up inside the cutter head and you end up with little dents all over your work piece because the shavings are sitting on the cutter head. also, there is a slight gap between 2 of my cutter heads because sometimes i get a line of uncut wood on my finished product that is something like 1/64 to 1/32 wide. not a huge deal but i was expecting they could at least overlap all the cutting blades. that's like job 1 of the layout engineer who put this thing together.2) power: do not put this on the same circuit as your vacuum. i tripper the breaker every time i used this until i switched it out3) mess: this makes A LOT of shavings so if you have a shop vac hooked up to it and not a dedicated wood vacuum system check your filters often.4) depth of cut: i found that my tool is generous by 1/16th of an inch and i cannot find where it says how to adjust it. also the indicator is a bubble magnifying system and it is near impossible to determine where the mark is landing on the scale without standing on your head to look at it straight.i hope this helps

Does a nice job and very well priced

This replaces a blade planer, and it r0xxors my s0xx0rs. Smooth, even surfaces, speedy planing, and easy cleanup. The cutters on this one are HSS, but once those wear down, aftermarket carbide isn t hard to find. I'm getting to appreciate WEN tools; I find them on par with the pricier stuff in terms of quality, usually for way less money. Time will tell whether they last as long, but they work out of the box, and that is much.

I love the smooth surface it cuts. It needs a better chip control even with a vaccuum. A lot of chips flying out on the right side of the plank. Other than that it makes quality cuts leaving behind a very smooth surface. I will make the stand with proper dust/chip control.

I love it so far. I am a Wen loyalist, as I have had better results with them than most of the traditional middle of the pack brands.My only complaint is how much of a mess this thing makes, tho I may not be hooking up a strong enough vacuum.