Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Apr 18, 2010 04:55pm | #1

   On down, two to go.

   There are three very common causes for the problem you are experiencing.  You fixed one of them, by replacing the blades, but feed hesitation is usually caused by a combination of dull blades, dirty feed rollers, and a sticky bottom table.  Clean the rollers so that they aren't slippery and clean the table, and wax it so that it is slippery, and you'll probably find that the problem is solved.

2. 
   joespehar | May 03, 2010 09:42pm | #2

   I have a story.  I had a Craftsman planer, the 13" one with the digital readout.  It worked very well for almost two years.  Then it started doing exactly what you describe.  Fresh blades didn't help.  I took it to a Sears repair center.  They said I would have it back in 2 1/2 weeks.  They got it to me on time.  The first board I tried planed fine.  Then the planer started doing the gouges again.  I took it back to the repair place.  Every week or so I would get a call from a very nice lady named Alice. She would tell me something else that it needed and that the technicians were waiting for parts.  This went on for two months. 

   Finally Alice called me and said they had given up, and I would be given a brand new planer.  The one they selected was a Craftsman 15" planer/molder.  My old one cost $500.  This one was $800. That sounded good until I looked up some reviews.  Two mediocre and one terrible.  It seems that machine tended to do the same thing as my broken one. 

   So when I went to a Sears store to  arrange to get the new planer, I asked if I could have a DeWalt 735 instead, since Sears' price for that one was only around $650.  They said yes, and I was thrilled, since the 735 is generally evaluated as the best of the benchtops.  Also, there is a Byrd head made for it, if I ever decide to go down that road.

   The interesting thing is that Sears insisted that I had bought a 3-year service contract, which is why they were replacing a planer that would normally be out of warranty by the two-year mark.  Now, I have the original invoice.  I bought it online and did not get the extra coverage.  But I could not argue them out of giving a brand new one with the extension tables and another three-year service contract for what I had originally paid for the repair (if I really had had a service contract, there wouldn't have been charges for the first repair--it didn't show up on my account at the repair center) and a little extra for the tables, about  $175. 

   So I used the Craftsman for about two years before it started acting weird, and then got a new DeWalt 735 for a reasonable price.   You should go bug them about yours.  It could be that they've had this problem with a lot of their planers and decided to either do the right thing or save themselves a lot of arguments.