WEN 6534 8-Amp Electric Hand Planer, 4-3/8-Inch

Very good at price. Quick and undamaged delivery. Used quickly for 4' oak slab edges, cutting shallow. Did great. I have long arms and strong, so could hold heavier pieces firmly and not wobble. Easy to set up, easy to store on shelf when not in use. I especially like the cylinder cutting blades.

Easy to setup and use on rough cut lumber. Good quality plastic, doesn’t feel cheap

This is a decent planer for the price. The cost is its biggest attraction. For under $60 you get a good quality tool that compares to hand planer prices, if not lower. Pros: -Price -Decent quality for the price: And no it is not that difficult to adjust the blades. Just use the set screw along with the clamping screws. It's not rocket science, just common sense. -Wide cut: 4-3/8" -Power Cons: -No collection bag -Entry level tool, NOT for commercial use. -The prop foot under the tool does not seem to retract very well. EXPLANATION: If you are starting your cut off of the end of your work piece it is OK. If you are starting a feathered cut in the middle of your work piece you basically have to manually put the foot into its locked and upright position, otherwise it will bind and not retract itself. -FINALLY THE BIG ISSUE: BEWARE of the wrench they send you to adjust the blade clamping screws!!! My first unit came with a wrench that was improperly tooled. It had way too much play and rounded off the screw heads. (BTW, WEN calls the clamping bolts SCREWS, they are actually little bolts.) When I called the company for replacement SCREWS they replied: "I DON'T HAVE ANY AVAILABILITY FOR THOSE SCREWS. THE BEST THING TO DO IS RETURN IT TO AMAZON FOR A REPLACEMENT. THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING WEN PRODUCTS." This is the manufacture that claims their product has a two year warranty!! They have no access to replacing a tiny bolt? WOW!! When I asked them about how they would honor their two year warranty, since they can't even replace a tiny SCREW their answer was this: "YOU ARE FULLY COVERED, IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US AND WE WILL TAKE CARE OF ANY PROBLEMS THAT YOU HAVE. ​THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING WEN PRODUCTS" How, If you can't even send a replacement SCREW? My only conclusion would be that you would need to ship your unit to them for warranty work (at your expense, there and back) just to have them replace a 10 cent SCREW. This is how most manufacture's keep you from using their warranties. It costs you more to ship the item both ways than just purchasing a new tool. Not saying that this is WEN's policies but how would you know until something went wrong and you needed to exercise a warranty claim.

would recommend - budget friendly and performs well!

Plenty of power, gets the job done

I bought the big version to get a little extra weight and length along the sole for flattening longer boards. The longer the the sole is, of course, the flatter the resulting plane created by the cut. I'm using this as an initial cut on a woodworking bench that I'm making out of multiple 2x4 boards. This helps knock off high spots before going to a hand plane or drum sander where more refined removal is necessary to achieve a truly flat surface. My thinking is that with a $60 tool, I'm saving in expensive drum sander sand paper rolls and more importantly, effort. A couple of caveats: 1.) Don't buy this if you don't have a shop vac with reasonable capacity. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/RIDGID-50353-1610RV-Stainless-16-Gallon/dp/B011KF547M/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1535039347&sr=8-3&keywords=shop+vacuum+rigid 2.) The adapter that comes with the planer is not all that great; fits a bit loose. You may want to get an adapter that fits your shop vac hose to the 2" OD of the bidirectional dust chute outlet on the planer. 3.) Set your wood/workpiece on sawhorses or on a bench so that your planing is done ergonomically and safely. 4.) Apply pressure to the front of the planer as you enter the cut (with no pressure on the back). As the planer works through the middle of the cut, let the weight of the tool apply the pressure. As you exit the cut (likely at the end of a board) retain pressure at the back of the planer (with no pressure on the front). This will ensure a flatter cut. 5.) If, like me, you're working on long boards, it may help to get a straight edge to check your work. You can spend more on more accurate straight edges, but this is probably good enough for government work: https://www.amazon.com/Swanson-SVE480-Straight-Non-marring-Laser-Etched/dp/B0083SGRT4/ref=sr_1_6?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1535039703&sr=1-6&keywords=straight+edge You may also want to use winding sticks to check for warp/twist. Note where the winding sticks rest, ideally on the outer edges if not a flat surface. 6.) Start off taking only small amounts of material, and dial up to a cut that feels comfortable. 7.) Empty your shop vac before using the planer. Then when you (rapidly) fill the shop vac with wood chips, you can save them. Let them dry out for a while. They should make great kindling if you have a fireplace. Alternatively, it could be used for mulch or yard waste. The only con I can mention, and one that WEN should consider adding as a feature, is that it's missing "Hold" button. They probably assessed that this was a safety risk, but when you're planing large sections for long periods of time, your fingers and hand get fatigued from holding the trigger. It would be nice to have a feature that enabled a press-once for "on"--my SKIL belt sander has this and it really makes a difference.

works good no problem

Really enjoy using this hand planer. Haven't put it through too much use to comment on durability, but so far it feels solid, easy to use, leaves a nice clean surface (though the cutting marks can be seen, even if not felt). The tool is quite heavy however, so keep that in mind. One really strange thing is that the guide surface (i.e. flat piece of metal on the bottom) is not smooth, but instead has a circular pattern etched into it. I don't know why they would do that, as it prevents the tool from gliding along smoothly and forces it to stick to the wood. I know some reviewers had issues with the front plate not being aligned properly. Can't say with 100% certainty (I had some doubts in the beginning) but it seems to be properly aligned on mine. Other than that, would be great to see an easy way to turn this into a jointer (see DIY videos on this on YouTube), but that might be wishful thinking. Overall I would definitely recommend this tool, especially at this price. PS: Can't comment on how it compares to the more expensive brands, but I don't imagine those bring 3-4x performance improvement, especially given the width of the planing surface with this WEN.

Maybe it's a good blades, some were little bit rusty, but ok. The main problem is that it's hard to set blade level on tool, blade holder is hard to adjust.

Fit the tool

Mi primer cepillo electrico, tras pasar la curva de aprendizaje (es muy diferente a un cepillo tradicional), de hecho me ayude, al ver videos en youtube, inicialmente... hasta pensaba que llego defectuoso, pero no, he logrado buenos resultados, sin duda mucho mas rapido que el cepillo manual, ya lo probé con trabajo intenso, y todo bien no se calento. Pequeños detalles en plasticos, la perilla y la base plástica, de profundidad, un poco torcida, algo estético pero no afecta nada funcional, resulta bastante bueno en calidad precio.

I bought this planer back in late July for an upcoming projected. While everything initially looked okay with it, the planer had a defect, which I didn’t discover until past the return date. The front shoe simply wouldn’t horizontally align with the rear shoe and blades, resulting in tilted cuts. I thought it was due to a faulty spring, but even removing that to test the shoe, the tilt remained. While quick in their responses to try and resolve the issue, WEN informed me that they DO NOT COVER SHIPPING FOR INTERNATIONAL ITEMS UNDER WARRANTY. The shipping cost to replace the unit was $4 CAD less than buying another directly from Amazon - and if there was an issue with the replacement unit or the motor dies in 6 months, I’d be in the same situation. There’s an old saying, “If you buy cheap, you buy twice.” In future, I think I’ll stick to the bigger brands, due to the warranty situation.

Initially tool was working almost ok. But blades get dull in 30 min. And I decided to change blades. Blades are reversible, so I put same blade just other side up. That was the bad idea. It's almost impossible to make blades even on both sides. Blade holder is wobbling and tool cuts wood on one side only. Tried new set of blades, result was the same. Even worse - I set medium level of cutting 1/64 - blades do not touch the wood surface. It's visible on photo that left side of blade is higher and cutting, right side is lower.