A little bit about myself…
I’ve shaped well over 100 boards using either a Makita sander polisher or no power tools at all. I live on Hatteras Island NC where we unfortunately get way too many hurricanes. My shop has been flooded twice now and along with it, most of my powertools too. So after the first flood, Hurricane Irene, I had no powertools and I did most of my shaping with the “G-Rasp” from Greenlight. It is an awesome tool and very effective at removing foam. I was able to resurrect my sander and I’ve continued to use the combo of the planer and rasp, along with a few sureforms and sandingblocks to get my desired shape. However I have felt the urge as a craftsman to master the power planer. I travel, and i wanted to be able to walk into any shaping room and using their tools, turn out a decent surfboard. So I began looking for the best planer to get. The skil 100 is a beautiful thing and my friend has 2 for sale, but he’s an asshole and I didn’t want to open up communications with him, so that was out of the question. There’s the Accurate planer and that was way outta the budget and a bit big for the small stringerless eps boards I enjoy making. Of course there’s the hitachi, which I thought was my only option until talk of Petec’s Bosch started to appear on the forum… The reviews were in and I decided the Bosch was the way to go.
Trying to save a few bucks, I decided to do the conversion myself. I purchased a remanufactured Bosch 1594 online for $120. It showed up brand new and already had an 8ft cord. I made one board with it stock. It worked OK and got me really stoked on how it’d be once modded. I ordered the handle and shoe kit. Well 3 weeks ago my shop got flooded again in Hurricane Arthur, so I didn’t get to do the mod as soon as I wanted and spent the next 2 weeks cleaning up and throwing away once valuable tools… The Planer survived and I did the mods in a couple hours mostly using a dremmel tool and drill. The parts in the kit are Badass machined aluminum and added the perfect amount of weight to the planer. Keep in mind, I don’t have much experience with the tool, but I finally got around to mowing one out. I couldn’t believe how well the tool performed and how easy it was to use and make adjustments on the fly. I was becoming more confident with each pass and I had the blank rough shaped in no time. The tool is amazing and feels so good in my hands. If you’re in the market for a planer or have it in your budget to get another, this is the one. ! The boards have been coming out much truer and faster than ever before.
Thanks again PeteC