WEN PL1326 15-Amp 13-Inch Spiral Benchtop Thickness Planer

Let me start by saying that amazon is awesome. That being said this plainer is not awesome, great, wonderful, good, or even ok. For the test piece of poplar that I ran through I was really excited, great finish, nice smooth sounding motor, feed was really nice and smooth, it had some snipe on the ends but I worked at a cabinet factory using a $50K plainer that sniped so I am used to cutting material a bit long. The problem is that when I was planning my first board for the project I am working on (a piece of spruce 3/4 thick and 1 1/4 wide) I made four passes when the machine started making a grinding noise from the motor and vibrating the entire workbench so hard it knocked tools off the wall, it also had that wonderful smell that we all know of a motor burning out. This was after about five minutes of it running. Now for the people who are still going to buy this machine, amazon was very easy to deal with because it was in my 30 day return period, so I would recommend when you get the machine unbox immediately and run it nonstop for a couple of hours so when it burns up (or explodes) you can return this one, get your refund, and order a different brand like I am going to. Hope this has been helpful.

This machine works great! I have a few other WEN products and have never had any issues. Also I have never had a need for customer support or to order a replacement part. On this planer I had zero issues. However, I got into a piece of wood that I did not see had a small piece of metal in it. shattered the blade and be the GIB that holds the blade. Now I did not see this and this was my fault. But for 9 weeks I keep getting told this GIB is on order. if I look at WEN's site most things for this machine are sold out even though it has 5 star reviews. You would think that a popular machine they would keep a stock of parts in. Customer service dont really seem to care and cant give you any info, they just transfer you to a supposed parts guy that goes to a message and never returns your call. This really hurts the little guy who is trying to make a living. Guess I will no longer be buying WEN products in the future.

This planner is just what I needed to complete my workshop. It just does not get any simpler or accurate than this. I've been working with wood for about a year now, so this review comes from someones who is just starting, a planner was on my wishlist but since I have limited space to work, my equipment is stored in a room and every time I'm going to use it, I need to carry it outside. So for starters I need it to be as light as possible and also as compact as possible. I had some planner in mind, including the DeWalt DW734 which is about $120 more expensive and also half and inch less capacity. It may sound like a small difference in capacity, but trust me that that half inch is a huge deal. I cannot be happier with this purchase, the day I got it home, it took me literally 3 minutes to start planning. I am fairly good following instructions but like I said before, I am a woodworking newbie. The results from planning that board on the pictures is a completely smooth surface, practically I don't even need to sand it, although I will cause I want it even smoother but really I could just leave it like that. Also I can confirm that the unit will plane a 13 inch board cause that is the exact size of this board. About the quality of construction, this seems like a very sturdy machine, no rattling or anything of the sort. I also own another WEN machine, a 6524 oscillating belt sander and that unit has not given me any issues after a year from purchase. So I am not worried about that. The way you measure the amount of material to cut is a very intuitive design. you slide the beginning of your board in the machine, the board will push a small button on the machine and that will give you the amount to be removed. You could remove up to 1/8" in a single pass, although I find that taking less material doing more passes is preferable. For me, 1/16" is the perfect amount. On top of the machine there is a crank that you turn to lower and raise the cutter, this crank is very sensitive, a 1/4 turn is what I do after every pass. The dust collection system works well, it is not perfect, there will be chips in your workshop, but overall it is more than adequate. Maybe if I used a more powerful vacuum, that could do the trick. the machine comes with an adaptor that will fit most vacuum hoses. I tested the level of the trays on both sides of the machine and right out of the box they were super squared, no need to fiddle with that. Finally we need to talk about Snipe, that is one issue that did had me worried. Some internet users were stating that the snipe was noticeable while others said it was almost non existent. I am happy to announce that for me that is not noticeable. As you can see from the pictures, there may be a small amount of snipe since that is just the way these benchtop planner work, but for me it is barely noticeable sometimes only. Like I said, weight was one of the most important factors to determine which machine to get, and they don't get any lighter than this one, partly because this machine does not have the granite surface bellow the cutter where the wood slide, this one has a metal plate that it may get scratched more but the weight savings are well worth it. Overall very impressed and very satisfied with this purchase.

I called Wen before I purchased this and asked about some of the issues that I had read about in the reviews (bearing problems, motor issues). I was told that the new 2019 version, the model 6552T, was an improvement over the previous 6552 and all of those issues had been resolved. So I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I set the machine up according to the instructions. I started it up and ran 2 boards through. I took only 1/32" off each time. Every board I ran was softwood only 6" wide by 20" long. They looked ok but had a large amount of snipe and chipping in random spots. I ran 3 more through with about the same results, maybe a little cleaner. I ran the 6th board through and about halfway in, the motor made a god awful noise, the board slowed down and sparks and smoke came out of the motor. The built in circuit breaker never even tripped. A friend of mine said "you should buy the DeWalt", I didn't listen. This is going back and I'm getting the DeWalt. It's absolutely worth the extra $100! Wen is total junk!