Craftsman 12" Planer, 21722, Feedback

[JGF]

With a recent house purchase I seem to be rapidly acquiring tools for my woodshop but after a recent nightmare with a simply unalignable Ryobi Miter Saw I am a little skittish on what might look like a "good deal". Sears has their 12" Bench Planer # 21722 on clearance sale for $190. Does anyone have feedback on this unit? Or its replacement the #21758. The older unit has a max. thickness of 4 1/2" with 12" max. width. I see that many other units have a 12.5" width and 6" thickness capability.

Questions: Is the extra 1/2" of cutting width a big deal? Is the 4.5" thickness vs. 6" a big negative? Is this a good price or should I consider others?

The older Sears unit appears to have very good reviews a few years back, but real life feedback would be great!!!!

[fiasco]

If you can get a Ryobi AP1300 (not the 1301) I wouldn't hesitate. I bought the last two that a local Home Depot had in stock and put one on ebay.

I got 2 AP1300's for $300. One was a display and the other brand new in box.

I used it for the first time tonight. I got some rough cut 11" wide oak and ripped it into 2" strips with a table saw and then jointed and planed them down to 3/4" x 1 1/2" with the Ryobi and it did a flawless job.

They are hard to find though (discontinued).

I called every local HD here in STL and went through 9 of them before I hit on one with an AP1300 (and not the newer AP1301). You have to specifically tell them to check the box or check the manufacturer tag on their display because the HD sku sticker will say AP1300 regardless of which model it is.

You can't go wrong with the AP1300 at $200 or less.

Ryobi doesn't have a great batting average but even they can hit a home run once in a while.

[JGF]

Thank you to those that have viewed. Doesn't any one else have feedback on this planner??

With a recent house purchase I seem to be rapidly acquiring tools for my woodshop but after a recent nightmare with a simply unalignable Ryobi Miter Saw I am a little skittish on what might look like a "good deal". Sears has their 12" Bench Planer # 21722 on clearance sale for $190. Does anyone have feedback on this unit? Or its replacement the #21758. The older unit has a max. thickness of 4 1/2" with 12" max. width. I see that many other units have a 12.5" width and 6" thickness capability.

Questions: Is the extra 1/2" of cutting width a big deal? Is the 4.5" thickness vs. 6" a big negative? Is this a good price or should I consider others?

The older Sears unit appears to have very good reviews a few years back, but real life feedback would be great!!!!

[SARGE..g-47]

I wouldn't normally post here JGF, as you ask for feed-back on a given model and I can't give any to you on that model. I suspect the reason you didn't get a lot of response is most are in the same boat as I when it comes to that particular model??

I would venture to guess that most here have a Delta.. Rigid.. Dewalt.. or Makita that you would have gotten lots of feed-back on. They have been around awhile and their merits are widely known. I just purchased a 18" Steel City band-saw and if I asked in advance to get feed-back on it, I wouldn't as Steel City is the new boy on the block. Since I researched the line and put my money down, I can provide feed-back as I could with a host of various other tools than I have owned, currently owned and used over the last 34 years since I got bit by the wood-working bug.

So... bottom line is I don't think anyone is skirting your question, they just don't know enough about the machine to give you feed-back without it being an assumption based on when they saw one on the shelf.

Regards...

[Knottscott]

The lack of reports from users would be enough to make me hesitate a bit. As Sarge pointed out, there are alot of owners of the DW's, Deltas, Makitas, Ridgids,etc., and even several Ryobi's out there. Those machines pose steep competition for other machines near the price range. They sometimes go on sale at really good prices too.

I usually look for advantages of one machine over another when making a buying decision....price, features, warranty, convenience, etc. The price of the Sears is attractive but not incredible. It's still alot of money if it's not a good tool for you. I don't believe the added capacity of other planers will make much difference, but features like a cutterhead lock to reduce snipe, and dust chute of some sort are fairly important to me. I'd also want to check on the availability of blades and find out how hard they are to change.

Sorry I can't give direct feedback on the planer itself.

[bigfoot]

I agree with Fiasco, cannot comment on the Sears planer, but the Ryobi AP1300 is a fine unit. The 1301 is GARBAGE. That said, there are not many 1300's left to find.