First off, I’m new to this forum… I’ve lurked over the majority of posts made (including the archives), and all I can say is ‘wow’! Many thanks to all the builders who have posted such a wealth of info.
Back to the topic… I just finished modifying a Bosch 3365 Planer and thought I would share. I wanted the angle of the handle adjusted, but I just couldn’t lop it off and epoxy it on, too sketchy looking. So I went for a way different approach, making a handle from scratch!
I constructed the handle from Mahogany ply, shaped specifically to fit my hand- one side is removable for electronic access. The biggest task when building this was fitting the switch and wiring; to do this I routered out cavities in both halves, poured in a bunch of bondo, then sandwiched in my trigger (trigger was wrapped in saran). The bondo process worked great… just like a one-off mould! I glassed the handle with a layer of 4oz., and the bases with 3x 4oz. I joined the handle and bases with a lot of fin rope and epoxy= very sturdy. Coated the entire handle with some marine spar varnish. I attached the complete handle to the planer body with rivets.
Of course, I did the usual mods as well- 20ft. cord, beveled and filled foot, and permanently disengaged safety.
If any of you have a ton of time kicking around, I suggest the wood handle mod on any modern planer- It’s functional and pretty to look at!
Sweet job indeed, but why position your hand so far from the working edge? I’d think the tactile feedback and eye-hand-blade coordination would be better if they were as close as comfortably possible.
I modded a 1594k and was really happy with how it turned out but I must admit the lopped off handle is not beautiful to look at. Yours is a work of art!
I find the wood has better dampening qualities over the stock plastic; I do believe this handle takes out some of the vibrations that were previously found in the original. Of course it also has a much nicer, heftier feel to it.
In response to the handles position… I didn’t even think about the hand/eye/blade response, I simply placed the new handle in the same base mounting position as the stock one! I suppose if I ever do another one, I could do some experimenting to find the optimum responsive position. Good idea…
Aloha! I’ve been using my personally modified Hitachis for a few years now with great results. A few thousand blanks. When I re-designed the handle, I set the handle at approx. the same angle as my old Skil. The hand position is like on a car’s steering wheel, you can just drive the thing. Get a grip and motor it. I just got a new camera, and I’ll post some shots of my tools soon as I can get to it. My custom vac attachment is unique, and far superior to the re-designed Clark version, I think. Aloha…RH
Nice looking handle. I just ordered a 3365 and was wondering if you could expand a little on the mods you made to it - particularly the beveling and filling of the foot/base. Did you make any mods to the depth-adjustment mechanism?
If you notice on the Bosch the cutting settings are all preset. You “click” through them as you go from zero to deeper and back. You can remove the preset cutting settings to make it a smoother adjustment through zero to full by cutting a slight notch in the base of the knob, turning the planer over and giving it a smack with the flat of your hand. Look from the case and knob at the tension pin. Cut there. The spring loaded tension pin will fall out. There are two of them (rotate the knob until the second pin is at the notch). It makes the movement more like the Clark-Hitachi or Skil otherwise you might get a ladder like effect as you adjust your cut along the blank. Slipped a piece of paper under the notch cut and just gave it a little silicon to cover the cut.
