Festool or Bosch hand planer

[LDBecker]

Hi, Scott  -  I was thinking about the 850 planer but was stopped in my tracks because the bench unit is no longer available... I still may go ahead on it because of the spiral design of the cutterhead. I have an old Makita planer, and a cheap Bosch planer I actually won in a drawing - and they both seem to beat the crap out of wood- lots of tearout and poor cutting for the kind of work I want to do. I am currently redoing some cabinets with hard maple that has some funky grain that is prone to tearout. I even upgraded my Dewalt 735 to a spiral head to help with that (works great). I have some cabinet work that the spiral head on this would be great for that my stationary joiner doesn't really do a good job with.
I know you posted this a few years ago - any further thoughts on the 850? Did you ever get the rustic head? Anybody out there have a used one with the bench it, or just the bench unit for sale? And why was the bench unit discontinued. No one seems to have an answer... hmmm...

Thanks!
Larry

The 850 is one of my favorite tools. I bought it to level a bunch of studs in a remodel and it worked really well. Very, very smooth. But this tool is amazing in the bench unit. I set it up and use it all the time -- perfect for lots of quick smoothing and leveling tasks on smaller pieces. I am going to be using it with the angle fence to put bevels on several pieces for a coopered seat. I think 24 - 30 inch lengths is about its limit, but it works so well for these smaller pieces and I do not need to fire up the large jointer for quick passes. I did a couple of video reviews of this tool a year or so ago that shows the bench unit and some of the cuts it can make.

I have not tried the other heads yet, but will like buy the rustic head for an upcoming project where I want to add a little texture.

I still really like the planer and think the tables are useful. It is a shame they discontinued them. You can still find some at dealers, but it is not a guarantee. I did buy one of the rustic heads as I want to explore adding more texture to some of my pieces. I think it is a nice option to have. I got the fine undulating head to start, but will likely add the others in time.

I have my dealer looking for a table, but his normal contacts don't have any. Do you (or anyone else!) know of a dealer I can point him to for ordering one?  I will likely move on the planer in the next week or so. I won't need it on my current project for about two weeks.

Thanks!

Larry

 

[LDBecker]

So, I picked up the HL 850 E planer and the WA-HL angle stop today. I am very pleased with the surface that the planer gives. You can just take off a HAIR to clean up the saw marks or whatever, or straighten out a board so easily. The surface reminds me of what I'd get using an old school hand jointer plane (though I know the sole of the 850 at only 13.5" isn't long enough to be truly good at jointing a long edge). Funky grain patterns are cleanly cut and, though it might not be as good as a true smoothing plane, it's pretty good. Trying this wit other planers, i got chatter, funky grain tearout, and was not happy at all. This is a completely different animal. The dust collection is phenomenal. Using it with both heads of my Vac Sys, i have a quite stable platform for working the wood. The angle stop gives enough beef to adequately hold the planer to the wood, and as it's movable, you can cover the unused portion of the blade. 

Thanks all for the advice... still looking to give an unwanted bench unit a good home (hint, hint!).

Larry