AP1301 Portable Thickness Planer Review
the Ryobi AP1301 portable thickness planer makes smooth surfaces with minor chatter markes and has a nice price tag but the features indicate this model is for hobbyists and the engineering needs improvement
The motor on this machine runs smoothly, but because it has no circuit breaker, it could burn up if overloaded. Still, despite making a lot of chipping noise while planing, the Ryobi produced smooth surfaces with only minor chatter marks. The dust outlet does not accommodate anything larger than a 2 1⁄2-in. shop-vacuum hose, but when I juryrigged the tool with a 4-in. hose, it worked fine. Even though the features on this model tell me it’s aimed at hobbyists, the blade-changing protocol would challenge a millwright. There are no positive locks or alignment tabs for positioning the blades in the cutterhead. After replacing the blade, the instructions just say to check “visually” that the blade is parallel to the cutterhead before replacing the gib and tightening the adjustment screws; accuracy just left the building. While the price is right and the surfaces produced are smooth, this unit needs better engineering.
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