Overview and demonstration of the planer, model#. PL1326 Extra teeth for the cutterhead are part# BP510H and new carbon brushes for the motor are PL1326-189. This planer will fit stands 6588T and MSA658.
I was good to see you've kept up in the comments years later for the inevitable longevity question. Glad to hear it's still good after a few years. I may just go for it.
Thank you for going over all the settings and adjustments. It really helps when I'm about to make an investment in a new tool. Definitely a great review.
This is one of the best informational/instructional videos I've seen. Clear and simple explanations on every aspect of the planer made my buying decision comfortable. If Wen didn't pay you for this, they should.
I got a Cutech 40600 13" planer...its identical to this WEN. The rollers on top, the handle, the bed, the spiral head...they are all made by Shinmax OEM and rebranded by various companies.
I got mine with the 26 inserts made of carbide. 10 packs of carbide inserts are $25, so, for around $75, you can convert this to all-carbide cutters - I don't even scrape off hardened glue anymore - with my old HSS straight blade planer, I got nicks in the blade from hardened glue and hard knots. the carbide inserts pretty much are indestructible !
First time hearing about Cutech. Ty for mentioning them. Kinda fallen in love with wen since a great customer service experience, but will consider looking at them direct in the future. Seems the cutech planar is $20 more expensive. Have you ever had to deal with warranty issues with cutech?
I am still using it and just put a lot of rough sawn oak through it for a workbench and planed the wood great. The blades will probably need to be turned soon as they may be getting dull.
Normally wen tools have a place to store the allen keys. Do you know if the jointer has one? I can't seem to find it. My planer had a pretty obvious spot for it.
13:25 is that the correct direction to feel as per the direction of the grain? I always thought the grain direction on the face of the board was the direction the grain color difference points. As simple as that, the point points in the direction of the grain. What I'm unsure of (new, just got the prior model 13" 3 straight blade version) is the rotation direction hitting the board, that direction is the direction the grain should be pointing. So if the rotation as viewed from the right side of the machine is CW then this is correct, but if it's CCW then it's wrong?
I had the board planed downhill in the grain which you cannot see in the video because I read it from the side of the board. From the top, the grain is pointing to me, yes. I find with softwoods, I get a some nicks from tear out no matter how I face it, especially when grain changes direction mid-board. In the last two months, I ran a lot of red oak and walnut through this planer with little regard for direction and had no issues with the oak and minor tear out on the walnut.
@@steveva7591 thanks for the reply. So if the grain has pronounced points then feeding with the grain the points face away from the planer during feeding? I'll need to find more sources on this but I do understand that it's not all-ways, no pun intended, cut and dry.
Also, what's your best setting on the infeed and outfeed table to lesson the snipe. You mentioned 1mm higher than the center table. So "exactly" 1mm any difference required, like 1.2mm outfeed and 1mm infeed? Thank you.
I have it set to roughly 1mm on each side. I still get snipe. I always plane my boards 4-8" longer than I want them to be. I also find when grabbing the outfeed board, if I press down somewhat on the end coming out as I am supporting the board, I get no snipe. It takes some finesse.
@@steveva7591 ah thanks for the reply. I'm new to this...doing some 2x10 pine boards yesterday that were about 3' long I would actually "lift" just a tad on the outfeed because my thinking is that they sag with gravity, resulting in the last bit of board lifting up into the blades. I'll have to try pressing down, seems counter-intuitive but I will try. I'm also trying to determine the safe minimum length I can run into this planer?
I appreciate the comment about planing dirty lumber. With the price of lumber I don't blame people trying to reuse boards though. Perhaps pressure washing the boards first would help mitigate the risk??
Pressure washing would introduce water into the wood, and then your wood will be prone to moving and warping. A steel brush, sand paper, and a scraper will do much better.
I hope they are around for awhile. I might buy extras a few years down the line just to have on hand. I dont see any WEN tools on PartsWarehouse so that's not the best sign
Fine, I was just using it to rip old paint and stain off some boards and its operating fine. The only maintenance I've done so far is wax the table occasionally. Teeth have stood up fine so far.
@SteveVA that's good news! I was set to get a Dewalt, but I discovered that the dw735 (type 12) has had a lot of problems compared to my old one (type 1). But that's been pretty much everything Dewalt over the past few years. One thing that concerned me was the nylon roller chain sprockets on the underside. Cheap sprockets always seem to be the first big issue to break on many tools.