Big drop in quality.

Being a Hurricane Katrina victim and having seven feet of Salt water in my shop, I'm faced with replacing all my tools. A friend suggested the Delta and the savings were sizable compared to my old DeWalt. To make a disappointing story really short, the Delta cannot hold the shavings from the Dewalt. It is believed that this planer invented snipe. Worse on soft woods it seems. Be wiser than I, spend a little more and buy once. I "Will" get the DeWalt again.

Excellent value

First looked at the RYOBI and the Ridgid. Both were big and bulky, one had a not so sturdy feel and the other was pricey for what I wanted. Based on reviews here and the look and feel of the Delta floor model went with Delta.^M
^M
I have the mitre saw utility vehicle from HD and this planer fits well on it. With the adjustable rollers I was able to level off the feed with minimal snipe on par with much bigger and costlier shop planers. Years ago I did prehung door assemblies and we milled our own jambs using commercial planers. This little Delta produces very similar results.^M
^M
Good quality feel, precise cuts, and ready to go right out of the box. Also, this planer has a blade that is very easy to change. I believe anyone could use this machine and produce nice smooth surfaced material. ^M
^M
^M
^M
^M

Very nice Planer, but there are some set up steps they forgot

Got delivery of the planer & performance of the unit is as the other reviews said. But the Detla owneres manual left off two set up steps that should be performed before operation.^M
^M
1. The unit was covered in a lot of grease. Normally, this is a good thing and was probably beneficial to protect it in transist from China, but grease + sawdust = sticky mess on your wood. Cleaning off the excess around the height adjuster & on the cutterhead & chains, and then lubing the chains and adjuster with a dry chain lube helped.^M
^M
2. Make sure to check the cutter head height from side to side across the table. When I pulled mine from the box, I cranked it down all the way to the lowest height and it started to jam up at about 3/4". That's when I cranked it back up to a mid height and checked the height of the cutterhead to the table on the LH, center & RH edges. It was set at over 1/8" off from side to side, causing the unit to jam on lower heights & would create trapezoid pieces if left that way.^M
^M
To adjust, you will need two 1-1/16" wrenches or a socket & a wrench, ruler, and a phillips screwdriver. First, remove the LH side cover as shown in the book on how to acess the chain drive for lubrication. This will expose the height adjustment mechanism (Black in color) Place one of the wrenches on the bottom nut to hold the adjuster (bottom of cutterhead frame)& loosen the top lock nut (On top of cutterhead frame). If you are lucky & your unit wasn't tighened by a 800 lb panda, it should losen and then you can turn the lower nut to adjust the height of the cutterhead. Make sure to hold this nut when tightening.^M
^M
If your lock nut was tightened by a 800 lb panda like mine was, you will either need a torque multiplier (say a piece of pipe) and the machine securely clamped down on the bench, or an impact gun and a 1-1/16" socket. Mine was on so tight the impact was the only way to get it off. To gain access, you will need to take the top cover off with a 4MM hex key & remove the two screws. Those two screws were loose on mine. You can wiggle the cover off if you take it slow without having to loosen the RH side. Make sure the cutterhead is in a lowered position to allow the rods some flex. Once off, raise the cutterhead up & then you can drive off the nut & perform the adjustment.^M
^M
Even with these extra steps, I was able to have this up and running in about an hour and cutting very true. Some suggestions:^M
^M
Purchase an outfeed roller stand of some type. The outfeed tables are too short for work longer than 24" and it will make it go faster.^M
^M
If you are running narrow stock & want to avoid sniping, start one piece, then when it is 1/2 way through, start the next piece. And then repeat with a third one. I found that second board will come out perfect the full length & the third has very little tail snipe. ^M
^M
Hope this helps.