I was inspired by cleanlines modification of the bosch 1594 planer to try modifying my own. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and it definately is a lot more comfortable to hold. I moved the handle, disabled the saftey switch, and filled in the shoe. Its a lot more scary looking than it really is, athough I was a little nervous hacksawing a new planer. The first picture is all the pieces cut apart. The second picture is one of the arms cut in half. It is really important that the edges line up or else it will not fit together.
To put it together I used 90 second epoxy form home depot to tack it together (it took a lot longer that 90 seconds to set up). Then I did 2 layers of 6 oz glass with 27 minute epoxy from home depot. In the first picture the fixed arm is all together and the wiring is in place. I needed to take off about 1/2 inch of both the fat black and white wires in order for them to fit. To disarm the safety I cut off a little tab (about the size of a grain of rice) from the bottom middle of the safety. The second picture is the whole planer back together again
The first picture is the nut that needs to be adjusted in order to make it move better (I’m not really sure if it made any difference but I included it anyway). The last picture is the base of the planer filled in with bondo. I rounded over the edges with a sander. Overall, I’m very happy with how it turned out. It is much stronger than I expected.
Sweet mods! Glad you posted it; I have a refurb coming from Bosch as we speak; 119$; couldn’t really go wrong! I’d imagine this mod will be one of the first things I get to.