Harbor Freight Wood Planer

[ed101]

Does anyone have experience with the Central Machinert Model 97040 15" planer. The manual says the minimum it planes to is 1 1/2", which seems strange. Thanks

 

[Mark]

Not familiar with that model 97040, I did look through the manual, and it does state pretty plainly 1-1/2" minimum planing thickness. That seems kind of silly.

 

[Taggart]

My only experience with a planer was in wood shop back in high school, but I agree that a minimum thickness of 1 1/2 inches would seem to limit the projects that you could use that particular planer for.

 

[Larry Norton]

Ed, there's an old adage, "Buy a cheap tool, buy it twice, buy a good one and it will last a long time".

Although I have no Grizzly tools, from everything I've heard, they are very good for the price. My wife and I went to their Pa. store and was very impressed.

There's also Ridgid (Home Depot), and one the better side, Delta and the Dewalt 735, which is the one I've had since it came out probably 3 years.

 

[golfdad]

Lots of Grizzly tools here...great stuff

 

[Larry Norton]

My bad. I misred that it was Grizzly instead of Harbor Freight. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[robdelman]

Grizzly makes great stuff, at a great price. Harbor Freight (central machinery, chicago) is almost universally junk. Tolerances are off, and the parts are cheap - but you get what you pay for.