13" Planer with Helical Head Reviews

5 Rating 7 Reviews

About Woodcraft:

Woodcraft Supply, LLC is one of the nation's oldest and largest suppliers of quality woodworking tools and supplies. You'll find Woodcraft stores in more than 70 major metropolitan areas across the U.S.; and Woodcraft annually distributes 1.5 million catalogs featuring more than 10,000 items to all 50 states and 117 foreign countries. The Woodcraft catalog is a standard among woodworkers as the most complete offering of first rate products for woodworking available anywhere. Woodcraft also publishes six issues of Woodcraft Magazine annually.

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Phone:

800-535-4486

Location:

1177 Rosemar Rd,
Parkersburg
West Virginia
26105

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“Minimal assembly , works like a champ as I expected it to . Easy to manage snipe (smaller slower passes at the end)”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 weeks ago

“I have used this planer for a few months now and would like to review it based upon my experience. I have planed about 150 board feet of black walnut. The quality of the cut is excellent. It is smooth even at the higher feed rate. I would liken it to 180 to 200 grit sandpaper. Very little tear out. The lower feed rated produces an even smoother finish. It is great having 2 speeds. The faster feed rate is beneficial when you have either softer wood or the boards are relatively narrow. It is a time saver. The slower feed rate is useful when you want the smoothest finish possible or when you are planing hard wood. The carbide insert cutters stay sharper much longer than ordinary knives. With my old planer that used knives, I had to sharpen the knives every other day whereas the inserts in the Oliver were rotated after 150 board feet and many days of planing. They are also a lot easier to change than knives and are self aligning due to the holes for the screws being counter sunk and the inserts fit into a slight depression. I spent far less time dealing with the inserts than I did with the knives. The Oliver is much quieter than a planer with knives. Chip removal is excellent. The fan does a great job in getting the chips and dust into the port for the dust collector to grab. I have noticed that a chip can be as much as 1 inch from the cutter head assembly and it will get sucked into the dust port. There is virtually no snipe. The Wixey digital readout works fairly well, although not perfect. I plane rough cut lumber that is about 1 1/16 inches thick down to 3/4 inch. Actually I plane down to .755 inches. When I get down to a thickness of .800, I recalibrate the Wixey. Then I can continue planing down until the Wixey reads .755 inches. When I check the thickness with a digital caliper, it will read .755 inches. It is a time saver to have a digital readout on the planer instead of having to check the board thickness with a caliper as I remove material. One important thing is that even if a machine is the best in the world and you can't get tech support for it, the machine eventually will become worthless. Oliver Machinery provides very good tech support. They are always friendly and happy to help. If they are not available and you leave your name and phone number, they WILL call you back.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Pete MacLellan

Unverified Reviewer

“This is my first planer, and so far in a month or two of usage I'm very pleased. I was surprised how solid this benchtop planer feels. Nothing flimsy about it which is great. The cut quality has been excellent right out of the box. I didn't have to do any adjustments to the indeed outfeed tables and get little to no snipe most of the time. I've never used a straight knife planer to compare, but one of the main reasons I went with the helical head Oliver was to be a bit quieter in my basement shop. It's still a very loud machine, but it does run a bit quieter than my jobsite table saw. From what I understand, straight knife benchtop planer are typically the loudest tool in the shop, so I'll count that as a win. I've also had decent success running the chip collection with a shop vac instead of a bigger dust collector (some day). I just have to run it straight into the vac with a shorter hose, bypassing the dustopper cyclone I typically use for the table saw and everything else. There wasn't enough suction with that setup. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

“Very nice planer. I am so glad I spent a little more money and went with the Oliver over the yellow brand. Easy set up, accurate right out of the box with no adjustment. Extremely smooth finish and I can’t see any planer marks and minimal snipe only once in a while (maybe even operator error). Highly recommend.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 3 months ago

“I give this 5 Stars only because 8 Stars is not an option! After about 45 minutes setting this planer up, it's incredible. Running figured maple, and forgetting to set carriage lock a couple of times, NO SNIPE....AT ALL. Smooth as 320. I have never written a review before, but this machine is incredible. For the price, you can't go wrong.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

“This planer is a little workhorse…small size and footprint, but great results. The helical head makes a huge difference over knives, so very little sanding is needed. And it’s easy to access the cutter head for switching carbide edges. The Wixby readout works well, as do the stops. And one more benefit…it’s much quieter than a traditional planer.”

2 Helpful Report

Posted 4 months ago

“This little machine has been great. It has a super smooth finish and is super easy to adjust micro or macro cuts with the digital readout. If you have a nice dust collector, it does a great job. It is heavy, which shows its quality, but so far, after about 8 months, that would be my only issue. I'm building a dedicated cart so I won't have to lift it. I really like this machine and it's way better than buying another brand that you have to convert to the helical head.”

4 Helpful Report

Posted 5 months ago