Hl 850 E Planer sole plate length

[tiralie]

Any one know (or have one that can measure) what the length of the sole plate of an Hl 850 E Planer is?
I am planing on buying one, and can't find this info anywhere.
Currently I use an (10 yr. old) Makita planner which blows chips everywhere and creates significant snipe unless I set it to take 1/64" or less off.
Tim

 

[Tinker]

Fore  4-1/4"  Aft  7-3/4"  Over all  13-3/4"
I find that I need to thin don my depth of cut pretty fine where I want an even cut.
The depth is very easy to adjust and it stays put once it has been set.
I cannot speak for other power planers as the 850 is the only one I ever owned or used.
I use it mostly for bringing a surface or edge close to even and then finish off with hand plane or scraper.
But that is mainly because I am inexperienced with such a great tool.
I'm getting better as I go along.
Tinker

 

[tiralie]

Tinker:
Thanks.
I am planning on using this mainly for installing doors. New doors in old openings, conversions etc.
Tim

 

[Tinker]

It should work great for doors.  Again, I have not had much experience with power planes.
I have tried edge planing with mine, but I am still at a point where I don't get the feel for squareness for that work.  I learned many moons ago how to straighten and square an edge with a hand plane.  I can still do it with a little practice, but the power plane is a whole new experience for me.  It will take a lot of practice.  I would guess that for you, with experience with other planers (10 yr old Makita)  it should be a piece of cake.  I don't know how fine you can set the cut with makita, but with my 850, I can set to just barely thicker than zero.  I somewhat avoid too many mistooks that way.
Tinker

 

[woodguy7]

I use my 850 for lots of things, doors included.  I dont have the smaller 65 but i think that it would be better suited to doors as the 850 can be a bit cumbersome, especially with the 36mm hose attached.  I do use it to put my hinge bevel on doors but always finish it with a 5 1/2 lie neilson jack plane.  A 65 is on my list of tools to get.

Woodguy.

 

[tiralie]

I don't know how fine you can set the cut with makita, but with my 850, I can set to just barely thicker than zero. 
Tinker

Tinker:
The Makita is an OK machine and you can get close to a line fairly quickly. You can set it to a fine cut maybe a 64th or so but it really does snipe when set deeper than that. It's a bit like using an over powered car without rack and pinion steering, it torques all over the place. There really is no lateral blade adjustment so using it for jointing would be a waste of time but then again it is not meant to be a finish or smoothing plane. I find a power planner easier to use than a hand plane on hollow core doors because of the difference in density between the skin (mdf) and the (pine) stiles of the hollow doors. I do finish a hollow door with a hand plane, but hey that's just me. I use a hand plane to fit solid doors and if I have to trim the bottom I use a TS55 and a rail. Works like a charm. The hardest part is getting those big solid doors off hinges and onto my table without killing myself.

Woodguy:
I have the LN bevel up Jack plane. That plane is amazing, I probably use it more than any other. I used it recently to fit a cherry door on a wine cellar. That plane went through the cherry like butter.
I have my eye on a #5 1/2 bench plane to use to smooth large panels. That'll have to wait though.
Tim

 

[tDot]

The 850 is one of my hands down favourite Festool's (and yes, that's favourite spelled the Canadian way).  If you get the additional fence, there is nothing else in the market, that I've seen, that even comes close.  With a little practice you'll have zero snipe.  I've mainly used the 850 on big solid fir doors, including some old fir doors, which typically splinter easily.... with the 850, zero splinters, a touch of sanding to round over the edges and they're done.  I've recently used it on some hollow core doors, the 850 dealt with these doors just as easily.

I've started to loop the power cord and the 36mm hose  up over my lead hand, this way I never have the cords catch on anything and the 36mm hose doesnt try to control the planer in any way.

 

[Tinker]

[/quote]

Tinker:
The Makita is an OK machine and you can get close to a line fairly quickly. You can set it to a fine cut maybe a 64th or so but it really does snipe when set deeper than that. It's a bit like using an over powered car without rack and pinion steering, it torques all over the place. There really is no lateral blade adjustment so using it for jointing would be a waste of time but then again it is not meant to be a finish or smoothing plane. I find a power planner easier to use than a hand plane on hollow core doors because of the difference in density between the skin (mdf) and the (pine) stiles of the hollow doors. I do finish a hollow door with a hand plane, but hey that's just me. I use a hand plane to fit solid doors and if I have to trim the bottom I use a TS55 and a rail. Works like a charm. The hardest part is getting those big solid doors off hinges and onto my table without killing myself.
[/quote]

Tom, When I first started my masonry biz way back in the dinasaur age, one of my first clients was a spec builder who was building maybe a dozen houses per year.  I was doing his foundations, concrete floors and fireplaces and chimneys.  His carpentry crew were a bunch of Sweedes.  A rough bunch in many ways.  The foreman did all of the doors.  His tools of choice were his Sandvick handsaw for cutting the top & bottom.  In those days, Sandvick was the saw of choice for many carpenters as they held their tooth edge much better than any of the other saws.  I still have an old Sandy cross cut that I still use once in a while.  The surprising tool that he use for trimming the sides of the doors was a hatchet.  I don't know how many doors he would hang in a day, but I remember I had never seen anybody else hang them as quickly as he was doing them.  He could get those doors amazingly smooth with that hatchet.  Years later, I had occasion to work on several of those houses as owners had gotten to point of remodeling, or just plain ripping down and building anew.  I pointed out to several that their doors had been fitted with a hatchet and they would not believe me.  With casual inspection, it was not noticeable.  One had to look real close to see they had not been treated to an LN or a Stanley.  The edges were not perfect, but one had to look very close to see and roughness or undulations.  There was never any splintering.
I had always thought his work was unique to only him, but I have since talked with some of my "old timer" friends who told me they had witnessed the same type of work in their past.
Tinker

 

[woodguy7]

What is a "hatchet".  In my neck of the woods a hatchet is an axe  [huh]  He wouldnt of used an axe on the edge of a door, would he ?

Woodguy.

 

[fdengel]

Sort of like an axe, yes.

 

[tbellemare]

In the English I learned to speak, it means a short handled axe.

Tom

 

[Tinker]

In the English I learned to speak, it means a short handled axe.

Tom

Exactly
Tinker

 

[Tinker]

What is a "hatchet".  In my neck of the woods a hatchet is an axe  [huh]  He wouldnt of used an axe on the edge of a door, would he ?

Woodguy.

I did mention it was a rough crew, didn't I?
The guy with the hatchet could split a hair with it.
He was quick and could do a pretty smooth job.
In those days, there was no such thing as building inspector for much of anything but footings.

One day, i was working at top of a chimney when all of a sudden, my scaffold started rocking,
I looked down and they were starting to cut the legs to make room to start digging for a garage footing.
I came down fast and started yelling.
They moved fast when mortar and bricks started falling around them.
Tinker