How much could a wood chuck plane, if a wood chuck could plane wood?
Need your wood shaved? I hope John Bobbit isn’t reading this. OUCH! There are three types of planers; flatbed types – good for planing wider areas or faces of wood. This is where you feed lumber through the machine and across rotating blades. These are either smaller portable or shop-sized machines. Home workshop-sized planers will accommodate up to 12 – 13″ widths while the larger and very expensive machines accommodate even larger widths. Please Note: The picture in this review is that of the HPL50K and NOT the HPL51. The only visual difference is the depth knob and top handle are separate on the 51 whereas the 50K has a large depth adjustment knob that doubles as a secondary handle. There are a variety of manual old-school planes – these are usually found in professional wood shops and are comprised of a (usually wood or metal) housing and a very sharp fixed blade and operate with good ol’ fashioned “elbow grease.” They’re best for planing edges of the wood since the blades are thin
