6 Amp Corded 3-1/4 in. Hand Planer

This thing works great if you need to quickly chew down some material that's no wider than its foot, or don't particularly care how smooth of a cut it is. I was able to put a smooth, relatively square edge on a board that I simply broke in half down the middle. However, the original reason I bought this was with the hopes of smoothing out live edge slabs and tabletops. In that regard, this tool does not fulfill my needs. As others have mentioned, out of the box it will leave large gouges on your surface. If you have a lot of material to remove and don't mind spending a lot of time sanding, then this will probably work fine for you. This is the only power planer I've used, but my understanding is that others have similar limitations (although, as with this one, the reviews are mixed on that). Another problem is that out of the box the adjustments for the front shoe are off by a significant amount. In the attached photo the dial is set to 0, but you can clearly see there is a gap between the top of the front shoe and the rear shoe. I have to adjust the front shoe down to the 1/36th mark before it levels out. Also, the blades are horribly unaligned. Because the front shoe was so far off, the blades also were both adjusted far too high so even at 0, it would still cut a significant amount of material. Furthermore, because of the misalignment, I was getting a tremendous amount of snipe at the ends of the boards. I adjusted the blades so that when the front & rear shoes are level the blades would take no bite... almost. Almost because the blade adjustment is also very inaccurate. You have to loosen 3 jam-nuts and adjust a hex bolt at either end of the blade. Once you get it where you want it, you tighten the jam-nuts back down. The problem is that when you tighten the nuts the blade moves a little. It's not much, but it is enough to put one end of the blade at a slightly different height from the other end. I'm guessing this is where the gouges are coming from when running this across flat surfaces. The edge guide isn't 100% square, but it's also not very sturdy so even if it were square you wouldn't be able to line it up perfectly square anyway. It does help you keep things relatively flat and square though if "close enough" is what you're after. I'm aware there are ways to square up the front & rear shoes, and given enough tweaking I'm sure I could get the blades perfectly square, but for my time & money, this just wasn't the tool for me. Overall this is a decent tool. If you don't need 100% accuracy, this is a great buy. If you need something to level out large surfaces, maybe stick with a hand plane.

of leveling out our subfloor joints. I hooked a 90 degree PVC adapter/reducer (1 1/4" x 1") to the shop vac and voila, no mess. I just needed to team out the inside a bit with the dremel.

Started using it on my floor. Works great. Good handing.

Great product, great price

This lightweight player is awesome it’ll eat up chew up and spit the water out and it whatever surface you’re trying to level level truly an awesome machine

Im new to power tools and am not the most skilled DIY’r. I tried using it for a wood slab im hoping to make into an epoxy resin countertop. Planer left huge gouges. The planer is heavy and might take much practice. Not likely the best tool for the unskilled hand.

The Ryobi planer turned out be far better than expected. It works great for edging and truing down wood,( I make exotic boxes out of spalted logs. My main reason for a planer). My past experience with door edge planers was that they were unruly and dangerous. Not the cast with this one. Smooth adjustment and good discharge ports. You need not buy another brand, their too pricey. But, you need to check out this video before you buy. https://youtu.be/_a1HCqK5i-A

Easy to use and very handy!

Love it. Easy to use. We got this to cut down kitchen cabinet doors fir remodel. We are going to non mortis hinges on inset doors. Love the guide and storage bag.

Bought the ryobi planer to help finish a sled headboard. What a lifesaver. Worked perfectly and furnished product was a hit.