Summary: 2007-04-02 17:53:31 I bought the Ridgid TP1300LS based on its "top value" rating in a popular woodworking magazine. I am a home hobbyist woodworker wanting to take my skills to the next level. I decided a planer would be a good tool to own.
The TP1300LS is a great value. I paid $314 for the planer which includes infeed and outfeed tables, a stand and two sets of knives. With the other brands, some or all of these items have to be purchased separately. So the Ridgid is definitely a good value!
Assembly really just consists of putting the stand together and then mounting the planer to the stand. The pictures of the stand parts in the owner's manual were not entirely accurate but by process of elimination it was easy enough to put the stand together in about 20 minutes. One tip: don't tighten the bolts on the stand until you put the planer on it. The weight of the planer will let you eliminate any wobble in the stand. This is a heavy tool that is not easy to move. Therefore I will probably add a mobile base at some point.
The planer itself needs no assembly other than screwing in the knob on the cutter depth wheel and sliding the dust collection tube into position. The instructions then call for calibrating the thickness scale and repeat-a-cut stop settings. Mine were perfectly calibrated and needed no adjustment.
Now for actually using the thing. Here is where I ran into a minor issue, namely that I have never used a planer before and the instructions were not entirely clear on how you actually *use* it. They tell you how each individual component works but not really step-by-step how you plane a board namely:
1. Set the repeat-a-cut to the desired thickness you want to end up with.
2. Raise the cutter head high enough to insert the board into the front of the planer about an inch. Some part of the board must pass under the depth gauge. The depth gauge will initially be set to zero when there is no pressure on the board.
3. Lower the cutter head until the depth gauge starts to move. While the manual says you can make planing cuts of up to 1/16 or 1/8 depending on material, you really should make much smaller passes. like between 1/64 and 1/32.
4. Lock the cutterhead, turn on the planer and run the board through. If you don't know how to "read the grain" on wood (I don't) just look at the board after you run it through. If it is getting chewed up, you are going against the grain and should change the board direction on your next pass. Keep track of the grain direction, especially if you are planing both sides of the board. When you flip the board over, you will need to reverse the feed direction.
5. Unlock the cutterhead and lower the blade for another pass. I turned the crank wheel one full revolution on each pass which is about 1/64. Lock the cutterhead and make another pass.
6. Repeat until you can't turn the crank wheel, which indicates you have reached the thickness you set on the repeat-a-cut. Or more realistically, if you really need an exact thickness you will want to use a caliper to measure the thickness.
Once I figured out the exact steps to use the thing, I found it to be very easy to use and the results are excellent. The boards came out very smooth. I got a little snipe on short pieces, but that is pretty common. I hooked the dust chute on the planer to my shop-vac and it did a great job of extracting the wood chips.
I definitely give the TP1300LS five stars. I am very happy with my purchase.
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