DEWALTDW680K Heavy-Duty 3-1/4" Planer Kit with 3/32" Depth of Cut

This Planer is awesome! It cuts through wood like butter. It has an easily adjustable depth knob on the front that dials in fine increments without a problem. It has an exhaust chute on the side that can be hooked up to a shop vac. Without a vac it throws wood shavings everywhere. It is one powerful tool. It also comes with a nice hard case and an edge guide to help keep cuts square. The only negative if you would call it that is it is heavy. With one hand it can get away from the operator quickly. It is best to operate it with two hands. At the end of a run, for example, the weight can cause the nose to dip when passing the blade that can cut a big chunk out of the end if not careful. Can't put wood back after it is cut, so use two hands on the tool and a clamp, helper or something else to hold the material.

With all the rains in California this year, I had a number of doors that were sticking. The sticking was limited to relatively small areas. I have other power tools but never had/used an electric planer. I figured i'd give it a try.It worked perfectly! I was able to shave a few thousands of an inch off various areas and had three sticking doors moving freely in less than 15 minutes. The depth of the cut is easily controlled using the big front knob. I only needed minor shaving in certain areas but the tool gave me enough control to do just what I needed an nothing more. I was under the impression that one might have to start from one end of the wood piece and move inward. But as long as you have the blades turning at full speed, you can carefully begin a cut in the middle of the piece -- by slowly lowering the tool so it is flat on the surface and then moving forward.Other have noted that the shavings fly out of the exhaust port and that is true. We had some minor sweeping up to do after the shaving, but we were so delighted that our doors were free and clear that we didn't mind. If you intend to do a lot of work with this tool, you will want to find a way to control and collect the shavings.

This is a nice, powerful hand planer. It is a quality tool that has most of the features you would expect. The reason I only gave it four stars mainly relates to dust control, and as another reviewer pointed out, the position of the power cord.This tool produces prodigious amounts of shavings. Someone suggested using it outdoors. Unless you don't care what your yard looks like, or you have a compost heap that you plan on working near, that is not a practical suggestion. The tool really ought to come with a sweeper attachment for the odd-shaped port on the side where the shavings are ejected. The first time I tried the planer, I didn't put anything over the port. After a single pass over a 24 inch piece of lumber I had shavings spewed all over my shop. At the very least there should be a deflector to direct the shavings towards the floor. Following another reviewer's advice, after cleaning up, I used duct tape to attach a plastic grocery bag over the port. Yes, this quickly filled, but it was better than nothing. Other power planers come with a port that you can fit a Shop Vac hose on; I am disappointed to report that this one has an odd shaped port that has very little clearance around it to fit anything but a custom-designed hose attachment. I couldn't find anything on Amazon, except that someone mentioned that DeWalt stopped making the bag that was designed for it. Also, on other planers in this price range the exhaust port is switchable to either side of the planer. But the DeWalt only has the port on one side, as if designed for a right-handed user, where the shavings would come out away from the user. But if the user is left handed, the shavings would be directed towards the user. Even with goggles and a dust mask, that would be unacceptable.The problem with the cord, as explained by another reviewer is that it comes directly out the back of the planer. It really should have been offset to one side or the other because it does have a tendency to snag on the back edge of the workbench when moving the planer in long strokes along the work. This could become a safety issue when it tugs on the tool, or (heaven forbid) should it find its way under the planer. Also, I expected a longer cord. One of the YouTube reviews from Europe mentioned a 4 meter cord. It's not that long. I had to use an extension cord, giving another place where the cord might get caught on something.The planer performs as expected. I'm not an expert with it yet. I have trouble getting boards really flat that are wider than the 3 1/4 inch width of the shoe. I keep telling myself that there must be some magical combination of pressure on the front and back that will allow me to smooth the ridge left by my first pass. But, so far, I haven't found it. I read somewhere that the handheld power planer would not obviate the need for a real planer. I can see why you would still need a shop floor planer, but I believe that with practice I could develop the skill to plane wider boards with this tool. If I'm going to practice that much, maybe I will need a compost pile.

Read the reviews, most are extremely positive. Planer arrived yesterday. Nothing like Prime 2 day free shipping and it arrives overnight, a day early. I'm building a farm table out of reclaimed lumber. I used 6 clamps after running the edges through my Powermatic jointer. Had perfectly smooth level edges to glue. The ends were matched up perfectly, but the middle of the slab top sagged during the hot humid gluing time, and I had 8" wide boards as much as 1/8" off, leaving a very irregular top. I started using my Dewalt belt sander with 50 grit, but it was going to take a long time. I couldn't believe how perfect this DW680K was for the job. I had read on several woodworking sites that the only solution is to find a local shop with a wide sanding machine to run the 40" x 84" table top through. This planer works like shaving whiskers in the morning. I set it for 1/32" and made smooth passes laterally across the table top. I had no idea there was such as tool that would do exactly the job needed to be done. Finishing up with the belt sander 80, then 120, and ready for the finish. Highly recommend this smooth working planer. A dream machine!

It's a DeWalt. Enough said

What a great tool I just finished planing a large glue lam table top, this planer is a beast, it leaves a very nice finish. it produces a lot of chips so you need to buy the chip collector fitting as well. I purchased it, however it did not arrive with the rest of my order, so I had some clean up to do, no problem though I used my stainless steel works shop shop vac witch works great. Buy both with confidence.