WEN 6534 8-Amp Electric Hand Planer, 4-3/8-Inch

This is my third Wen product to purchase to date. I have a drill press and a belt sander that I purchased some time back. As usual I ordered this planer because it was not expensive and I was hoping it would be a decent product. Like their other products I got a beast of a termite that spits wood like it hates it. This angry little machine planes wood like it cannot get enough. Its a little heavy but it is a planer so the weight works well. A small learning curve keeping it balanced but I planed a 5 foot slab and by the end I was in love. Planes a good wide path that spews wood out faster than prune juice through an old lady. Left a nice flat level finish that was smooth and nice to the touch. Took off a little at a time but this thing can plane much deeper and takes no time to make a pass. I used it outside of my shop because it throws wood as fast as my last girlfriend tossing my clothes out of her house. Wen products so far have very strong motors and seem to take a lot of punishment and keep going. Happy to buy this product again without hesitation.

I have had for a couple years and no problems. I use all the time, after checking stores and seeing the prices I bought this. Would buy again.

This is a decent planer for the price. The cost is its biggest attraction. For under $60 you get a good quality tool that compares to hand planer prices, if not lower. Pros: -Price -Decent quality for the price: And no it is not that difficult to adjust the blades. Just use the set screw along with the clamping screws. It's not rocket science, just common sense. -Wide cut: 4-3/8" -Power Cons: -No collection bag -Entry level tool, NOT for commercial use. -The prop foot under the tool does not seem to retract very well. EXPLANATION: If you are starting your cut off of the end of your work piece it is OK. If you are starting a feathered cut in the middle of your work piece you basically have to manually put the foot into its locked and upright position, otherwise it will bind and not retract itself. -FINALLY THE BIG ISSUE: BEWARE of the wrench they send you to adjust the blade clamping screws!!! My first unit came with a wrench that was improperly tooled. It had way too much play and rounded off the screw heads. (BTW, WEN calls the clamping bolts SCREWS, they are actually little bolts.) When I called the company for replacement SCREWS they replied: "I DON'T HAVE ANY AVAILABILITY FOR THOSE SCREWS. THE BEST THING TO DO IS RETURN IT TO AMAZON FOR A REPLACEMENT. THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING WEN PRODUCTS." This is the manufacture that claims their product has a two year warranty!! They have no access to replacing a tiny bolt? WOW!! When I asked them about how they would honor their two year warranty, since they can't even replace a tiny SCREW their answer was this: "YOU ARE FULLY COVERED, IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US AND WE WILL TAKE CARE OF ANY PROBLEMS THAT YOU HAVE. ​THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING WEN PRODUCTS" How, If you can't even send a replacement SCREW? My only conclusion would be that you would need to ship your unit to them for warranty work (at your expense, there and back) just to have them replace a 10 cent SCREW. This is how most manufacture's keep you from using their warranties. It costs you more to ship the item both ways than just purchasing a new tool. Not saying that this is WEN's policies but how would you know until something went wrong and you needed to exercise a warranty claim.

Very nice planer. Plenty of power. Easy to adjust the depth of cut. Does a great job on planks of rough cut boards. We agree that the amount of discharge requires a good vacuum, or use it outside.

I bought the big version to get a little extra weight and length along the sole for flattening longer boards. The longer the the sole is, of course, the flatter the resulting plane created by the cut. I'm using this as an initial cut on a woodworking bench that I'm making out of multiple 2x4 boards. This helps knock off high spots before going to a hand plane or drum sander where more refined removal is necessary to achieve a truly flat surface. My thinking is that with a $60 tool, I'm saving in expensive drum sander sand paper rolls and more importantly, effort. A couple of caveats: 1.) Don't buy this if you don't have a shop vac with reasonable capacity. Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/RIDGID-50353-1610RV-Stainless-16-Gallon/dp/B011KF547M/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1535039347&sr=8-3&keywords=shop+vacuum+rigid 2.) The adapter that comes with the planer is not all that great; fits a bit loose. You may want to get an adapter that fits your shop vac hose to the 2" OD of the bidirectional dust chute outlet on the planer. 3.) Set your wood/workpiece on sawhorses or on a bench so that your planing is done ergonomically and safely. 4.) Apply pressure to the front of the planer as you enter the cut (with no pressure on the back). As the planer works through the middle of the cut, let the weight of the tool apply the pressure. As you exit the cut (likely at the end of a board) retain pressure at the back of the planer (with no pressure on the front). This will ensure a flatter cut. 5.) If, like me, you're working on long boards, it may help to get a straight edge to check your work. You can spend more on more accurate straight edges, but this is probably good enough for government work: https://www.amazon.com/Swanson-SVE480-Straight-Non-marring-Laser-Etched/dp/B0083SGRT4/ref=sr_1_6?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1535039703&sr=1-6&keywords=straight+edge You may also want to use winding sticks to check for warp/twist. Note where the winding sticks rest, ideally on the outer edges if not a flat surface. 6.) Start off taking only small amounts of material, and dial up to a cut that feels comfortable. 7.) Empty your shop vac before using the planer. Then when you (rapidly) fill the shop vac with wood chips, you can save them. Let them dry out for a while. They should make great kindling if you have a fireplace. Alternatively, it could be used for mulch or yard waste. The only con I can mention, and one that WEN should consider adding as a feature, is that it's missing "Hold" button. They probably assessed that this was a safety risk, but when you're planing large sections for long periods of time, your fingers and hand get fatigued from holding the trigger. It would be nice to have a feature that enabled a press-once for "on"--my SKIL belt sander has this and it really makes a difference.

Hace su trabajo muy bien, robusto y sin tituveos, solo hay que checar bien el ajuste de profundid de corte pero has pruebas antes en maerial de desecho y sin problemas.

I bought this planer back in late July for an upcoming projected. While everything initially looked okay with it, the planer had a defect, which I didn’t discover until past the return date. The front shoe simply wouldn’t horizontally align with the rear shoe and blades, resulting in tilted cuts. I thought it was due to a faulty spring, but even removing that to test the shoe, the tilt remained. While quick in their responses to try and resolve the issue, WEN informed me that they DO NOT COVER SHIPPING FOR INTERNATIONAL ITEMS UNDER WARRANTY. The shipping cost to replace the unit was $4 CAD less than buying another directly from Amazon - and if there was an issue with the replacement unit or the motor dies in 6 months, I’d be in the same situation. There’s an old saying, “If you buy cheap, you buy twice.” In future, I think I’ll stick to the bigger brands, due to the warranty situation.

Mi primer cepillo electrico, tras pasar la curva de aprendizaje (es muy diferente a un cepillo tradicional), de hecho me ayude, al ver videos en youtube, inicialmente... hasta pensaba que llego defectuoso, pero no, he logrado buenos resultados, sin duda mucho mas rapido que el cepillo manual, ya lo probé con trabajo intenso, y todo bien no se calento. Pequeños detalles en plasticos, la perilla y la base plástica, de profundidad, un poco torcida, algo estético pero no afecta nada funcional, resulta bastante bueno en calidad precio.

After spending countless hours hand planing a great number of raw cuts for intricate wood burning projects.... I found this beast. More than enough machine for what I need, with some power reserves for heavy duty stuff. Very happy with it, and the price compared to "the other guys" is unbeatable.

The item arrived and initially I was excited about it and had high expectations from it after seeing the reviews on amazon and youtube. I bought it primarily to straighten the edges of 2x6 to make a table top. After trying to straighten few pieces again and again, I realized that the straightening was not working. I had it on minimal setting and it was taking more wood off. Then I realized that the boards were in even bad situation than the initial point. This led me to suspicion of an issue. I turned the blades and found out that one of them was very off from one side. I tried to pushed the blade backwards and it improved but did not completely fix the problem. the planer started to work better than before but the blade was still little off and I could not make any adjustment unfortunately to completely fix the problem. So I returned the product.