I can’t vouch for the internals such as motor windings and bearings, but other than color, the Sunhill SM-346 and the Woodtek 115-946 appeared identical in my tests. Both have plenty of power, provide a good surface finish, and allow easy knife changes. The crank handle for depth-of-cut control can be located on the left or right, and dust collection is good. These machines rely on a headlock for snipe control. Rollers on the leading edge of the infeed and trailing edge of the outfeed table add some convenience, but the feed tables are lower than the planer bed where they meet and can’t be adjusted flush with the bed although they can be adjusted for tilt. These are a good value, though the Sunhill was too far out of parallel.

Photo: Anissa Kapsales

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