Questions for Delta's 13" 22-580 Planer Owners

[Joseph N. Myers]

I am one of the new Delta's 13" 22-580 Planer owners purchased from Lowe's and have a couple of questions:

1. How long do the planer blades lasts, each side, measured in board feet, linear feet, hours, compared to other planers or some other means of measuring their performance.

I know that each side the blades on my older Delta 12" unit are usually good for maybe 5 - 6 hours, maybe 300 bf (mix of oak, walnut, poplar, 6" - 8" wide, 8' - 10').

This assumes that I don't hit any metal and even then, by shifting the blades, I can still get the hours out of them.

2. Where do you replacement blades and how much do they cost?

When I purchase my unit earlier in the week, I purchased an extra set of blades for $28.43 (#22-549) which I thought was kind of high (based on my other planers). After looking on the web and checking my local Porter Cable store, it seems that the blades are going for close to $35.00 --- went down to Lowe's and purchased their last set.

Regards, Joe

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Joe
I have the Delta 13" planer also
I have not checked the sharpness of my blades as yet, but haven't put that much wood through it - in my opinion.
But why not check it like you would check a chisel - since that's what a blade is - eh?
Now, I have to admit that there is a nick in my blades - don't ask how it happened - I don't know - but isn't deep - which is sanded out easily on the wood. I avoid it as I can.
Daniel

[Jim Becker]

Joseph, don't forget that those knives are double sided when you are considering the cost. When I had my 22-560, I found knives at a good price from Northwest Power Tools online...similar to what you paid at Lowes for the 22-580 knives, if I recall. It's been awhile...

As to how long they will last, it's dependent on what you are planing, starting rough or surfaced, how hard you work them, etc. But you knew that...

[David Rose]

I've had such good (great really) life from Amana blades that I got from Scott Whiting a couple of years ago, I'm hoping they will offer planer blades for the Delta. I've read in several forums that folks think the Delta blades are somewhat soft. I think they are also. I've nicked two sides of mine without hitting even noticable knots. I do use a lot of S2S from a local mill that is air dried in the open, so some grit or something may be causing the problem. Oddly, I can have a nick large enough to leave a substantial ridge on the wood and not feel it on the knives. And honing doesn't seem to help nor does the slight offsetting that can be done.

David

[Andy London]

I've had the 22-580 since it come out, awsome machine by the way, not sure how many sets of knives I am on (12..?).

As noted it depends on the wood you are planing, not only how hard it is but how clean it is also, blades are double sided.

All of my work is either figured domestic woods or exotics, generally speaking I get three months out of a double sided set, that would equate to running close to 3,500 lin feet through, probably more as I don't keep track. My wood is very clean to start.

I'm in Canada and blades are crazy expensive, $79.95 at the big orange so....I have a couple of buddies that buy them for me at Lowes in the states and mail them to me, I thing the last two sets were around $30.00 USD.

There is a guy in Vancouver that claims he has them sharpened, I haven't tried it as I need pretty much perfect uniform thickness (picture frames).

The quality of the blades, IMO, is hit and miss. I had one set knick on the first board through, for no reason I could see or find, others have lasted the entire three months with no knicks to be found. But generally speaking they recent blades knick very fast.

Andy