My Delta Planer: Love Story

The second woodworking machine I ever purchased was my Delta 22-560 planer.  I got it used on craigslist for $100.  It still works and I have developed a healthy relationship with it which I feel needs to be documented.

This machine is a fairly typical bench top planer of the "lunch box" variety.  It has two 12.5" blades (or knives as they are called for some reason.)

These machines are the workhorses of many hobby woodworking shops and have become very popular due to their ease of use.  Also, even if you are a hand tool user, planing lumber to thickness can be extremely time consuming and tiring.  A planer is a good thing to have.

My experience with this particular machine has been pretty positive, so this will not be a critical look at the shortcomings of small planers.  Rather, I'm going to take some time in the next few blog entries to talk about some of the things I've done with this planer to make it as useful as possible in my small shop.

The main areas that I'll go into are - parts and maintenance, chip / dust collection, building a mobile stand, and finally, addressing the age-old blade sharpening debacle.


More to follow,
Lucas