OK, so I finally found and bought the Bosch 1594k. Had to drive to northern NJ to find a store that had them in stock. As far as I can tell they are sold out everywhere in NJ now, so I guess I made up my mind at the right time. There might be one left which leads me to my first question.
I noticed a couple of things when inspecting the planer. I took the belt cover off and noticed some metal shavings in the cover. The planer seems fine but I was wondering if thats normal? Also, I have heard that this planer is pretty famous for mis-aligned shoes and blades hence the planer be discontinued. I checked mine out and sure enough the planer shoes are not aligned perfectly. The blades look like they can be adjusted pretty easily but the front shoe when zero’d out is not at the same height as the rear shoe. I have read a lot of reviews about this problem. The planer apparently will always take something off even if set to “0”. I have also read that the shoes are not level which in turn is not giving a level cut.
I am pretty sure I will be sending the planer out to Petec for modding. I would love to be able to do it myself but there is not much information around that is detailed enough for me to just jump into somehting like that. I am very handy and love fiddling with things and modding them myself. If anyone has any suggstions for modding this myself I would love the info. Again though, I will likely send it to Petec for modding if it doesn’t seem like something I can do. I am not sure if he is still selling just the DIY kit.
Anyway, back to the shoe alignment issues. I was wondering if this problem can be fixed by me or adjusted by me? And does the planer not really ever being zero’d out effect me for shaping? The metal shavings were a bit unnerving. I am half tempted at this point to return the planer but would appreciate imput you all might have.
So far I am loving this site and am really glad it exsists. I have shaped a few boards myself already but never did much with the electric planer. The one available was chewing the board up and I loved the hands on approach anyway. I am converting my shed into a shaping shack so I will have more questions in the fututre. I do have a Delta 50-840 Dust Collector and was wondering if thats sufficient to hook up to the planer? Also, like i said before, if anyone can help me with some info on mods i can do myself that’d be awesome. I know for a fact that sending it to Pete is a surre bet but I would love to do one myself if at all possible(in all reality it’ll likely go to Pete) and if the DIY kit is available.
Thanks again everyone for the help so far. And a big thanks to Pete who gave me a good history lesson is planers the other day!
