Possible EHL 65 EQ hand planer issues...

[KevHarrington]

Hi there,

I recently bought my first piece of festool equipment. I mainly use handtools apart from a few nice small Inca machines so this is a bit of a departure for me. I bought the small one-handed planer but my issue is not necessarily specific to this exact planer model.

I make and repair instruments for a living and also do the odd bit of furniture making around the house. I bought the planer mainly to help flatten wide boards, work I would usually use my old Stanley 4-1/2 for.

I was initially impressed by it's light weight and quietness but it was constantly digging in on one side and my runs were in no way making a flat surface. Treating it like a hand plane (maybe this is where I'm wrong) I took out the blade, brushed out the seat in the cutterblock and replaced it but no difference. It has a spiral blade so it's hard to sight down the sole and see if the blade is unevenly seated.

I thought it might well be down to my rookie technique but when I ran my straight-edge along the sole I was very surprised to see the two soles are not at all co-planar. If this was a hand plane I would send it back. I'm assuming that the physics is essentially the same as a hand plane and a jointer. Should I send it back? Did I get a dud?

I was going to buy the Makita planer but spent nearly three times as much on the Festool. Disappointed so far... Any ideas??

Kevin

 

[peter halle]

When you say not coplaner what are you referring to?  I am assuming that from side to side the front shoe isn't in the same plane as the rear sole.

Peter

 

[antss]

Send it back,  those beds need to be co-planer.

2. You're using the wrong tool for the job , 3 1/4" handheld electric planers aren't meant for flattening slabs.

 

[KevHarrington]

Good question - It's a tricky one to describe. I tried taking a photo but you'd need more professional equipment than what I have to capture it.

The front and back feet themselves are relatively flat. At the 0 depth setting the front foot is actually lower than the back foot. When you dial it up to 0.5mm you see the front foot is tilting slightly forward. When you run a straight-egde parallel to the side along the sole in full contact with the back foot, you can see the intial gap at the blade but then the front foot angles back toward the straight-edge...

And when you place the straight-edge like this at each side of the plane the gap is different, meaning it's crooked in 2 planes.

[blink] [blink] [blink] If you're still with me...

Sounds pedantic I know but it makes a big difference to the performance

 

[KevHarrington]

2. You're using the wrong tool for the job , 3 1/4" handheld electric planers aren't meant for flattening slabs.

I thought this might come up. You're possibly right but my thinking was if I can do this with a #4-1/2 handplane why not a handheld electric planer?? The boards are not huge and don't generally have massive twists in them.

 

[Doug S]

Never had much success trying to flatten things with my ehl65, as been said it is more suited to trimming door edges etc.

Doug

 

[Svar]

... you see the front foot is tilting slightly forward...

This is not right, the unit is defective.
The two beds (front and back) should be in parallel planes (but not co-planar, i.e. in the same plane, such as in hand plane).
I don't see a problem using electric planer for rough flattening.

 

[KevHarrington]

OK - tried a quick sketch to help illustrate what I'm talking about... Trying to explain it in words alone was making my head spin!

The first image is the view of the straightedge placed along the lefthandside of the plane and the second is along the righthandside

Thanks!

 

[antss]

Kev - your planer is not setup right.

It will be less frustrating just sending it back than spending time trying to figure out why things in the world are the way they are.    [blink]

May not be as fun or as educational, but will be more efficient.

 

[KevHarrington]

Thanks for the replies lads.

Fairly strong concensus there - I'll contact the retailer

 

[Coen]

They aren't supposed to be co-planar but parallel.

 

[antss]

At the extreme (in park) they are.

And at any rate , Kev's aren't right no matter what terms he used to describe the problem.