…Wait, you can change the blades?
If I had known before, that the 300 ben franklins i thought was "pricey" for the dipped spiral barrel I finally broke down and ordered, I can honestly say that the 300.00 will outway the unknown future costs of signs of tendonidas and numb finger tips from all those years of those two standard blades screaming and vibrating right up into your elbows.
so can you use a everyday standard planer on the foam without shanging the barrel or bearings. will th efoam clog and melt into anything?
You don’t need a “shaper’s barrel”, but there are times when it helps. I have had one of the original barrels made by Stan Pleskunas for well over 20 years on my skil’s. It vibrates a bit and puts more stress on the motor, and bearings. Changing bearings is not difficult on the skil’s- if you have a bearing puller, and it comes in handy. Go to your local bearing supply house with your planer and buy one and you’ll be stoked, and buy a few extra bearings.
I hardly ever sharpen professionally sharpen my carbide blades; I just take the drum assembly out and run a diamond sharpening stone over them by hand, and they’re fine for production and 100’s of boards.
If you have the money burning a hole in your pocket, get a “shaper’s barrel”, and if you don’t whatever. Another reason to shape with a skil 100 is that when bearings fail they can heat and melt the cheaply made plastic planer housings, and I have seen it a few times with the hitachi guys stuff; That’s the truth…
Right now what needs replacing are my shoulder, elbow, and wrist, but a little iboprophen seems to work for now; it could have something to do with my planers.
I bet something like this would work great. http://www.hermance.com/cutterhead.asp