Oliver Machinery 15″ Helical Head Planer Review
Tool: 15″ Benchtop Planer with HCX Helical Cutterhead 10055 Shop Now Manufacturer: Oliver Machinery MSRP: $1869.99 For years, bench-top planers have been capped at around 13“. [...]
Grizzly G0999 15″ Planer Review
Tool: G0999 15″ Planer Shop Now Manufacturer: Grizzly MSRP: $1450 When I think of a benchtop planer, I’m reminded of Ryobi’s AP-10 “lunchbox” planer my grandfather had in his shop....
Go for the Big Stuff
I’m not sure if I qualify as a tool nut–machine crazy is more like it. I started out using a ShopSmith, but I now have 17 industrial-grade machines. It all...
Perfectly Square Edges Using a Planer
I’ve had trouble making square and smooth edges on face frame parts, but this planer jig solved all my problems. It produces accurate and consistent results. For the jig’s base,...
Precision Planing Jig
Achieving exact thickness is really important when making splines to reinforce box corners. The splines have to fit perfectly in the saw kerfs—a few thousandths of an inch one way...
Self-Cleaning Blast Gate
When sawdust got packed into the back end of my planer’s blast gate, I couldn’t close the gate all the way. I solved this annoying problem by cutting a notch...
Oliver 10044 Planer Review
Tool: Thickness Planer 10044 Shop Now Manufacturer: Oliver MSRP: $999.99 Oliver Machinery, a name recognized as a manufacturer of vintage woodworking machinery, has returned to the [...]
Universal Planer Sled
Let’s face it: running a twisted board through the planer doesn’t make it flat. The board will still be twisted when it comes out. The trick is to use a...
Block Plane Basics
This versatile hand tool should be every woodworker’s first plane purchase. As a “professional woodworker” I often get asked what’s the best bang-for-the-buck tool by people getting into [...]
An Unusual Retirement
In Conversation with Plane Maker Karl Holtey. Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. In 2015, acclaimed hand plane maker [...]
Moby Dick, the Great White Planer
Moby Dick, the Great White Planer The newspaper advertisement was brief: “PLANER, 24″, $450. Call.” My friend Charles Poth and I had been looking for just such a machine. We...
Snipe-free Planing
Like most planers, mine snipes, overcutting a bit at both ends of a board. Sometimes I’ll simply cut off the sniped areas if I can afford the extra board length....
