Hi all, looking for some advice on purchasing a used planer. I am setting up my shop, and trying to purchase quality tools for reasonable prices. It is a three car garage shop, so space isn’t too much of an issue. One of the remaining pieces is a floor standing planer. I know I would like at least 15″, with 20″ being preferred. There are several available near me between $2,000 and $3,000 CAD. They are a Magnum MI-31250, Craftex CX15HC, and a Craftex CX20. The CX20 is the cheapest, and helical heads are available. I am wondering which way makes more sense. I love the idea of 20″ capacity as I makes lots of larger panels, but the helical 15″ planers obviously have a cut quality advantage.
I haven’t had a planer up until this point, so I am used to doing all planing work with hand planes. Would you purchase one of these models, assuming they are in good condition? Or would you wait for something else to hopefully pop up?
Money isn’t there for a brand new helical, and I don’t mind doing some tuning and repairs to a used machine if the price is right.
Replies
I have the CX20 helical bought 5 years ago, been going through a few thousand bf of lumber and still have not sense the need to rotate the carbides. The width is a nice thing to have but you will need good chip collection system to keep up with it, if I had to choose between having a helical head or a wider 4 knives planer, I would choose the smaller helical head, you seldom need the extra width. If buying used helical ask if there is still life in the carbide inserts, you may be better buying new .
Craftex, King, Jet, Gryzzly, Powermatic, ShopFox are the same machines, different color.
If you are thinking of buying a used straight knife planer and then upgrading it to helical, watch the costs. It may be cheaper to just buy the helical new.
And helical requires more horsepower .
The two most important things to focus on, IMO, are helical head and the most heavy duty, rigid bed and feed system you can afford. The first will allow you to do hardwoods without constant sharpening and the second will give you a shot at snipe free planing.
There are now some carbide head planers that are not helical (straight rows of cutters). These don't give quite as good a finish as a rule, but since you are unlikely to use them straight off the planer, it's one way to economize and the difference in finish isn't that much. But there could be a catch there, too. Some insert-head planers only let you use two sides of the insert, not four. So in the long run, you buy more inserts. But as someone said, that's in the very long run -- unless you hit some weird stuff, these inserts can last for years of ordinary hobbyist use. If you have a commercial shop, might be a different story.