So, several weeks ago, I took delivery on a Yorkcraft, 15” planer. Not a whole lot you can write about a planer, but I’ll give it a shot. I believe Wilke Machinery is the only vendor carrying the Yorkcraft line and for this, I’m actually quite happy. Wilke’s Customer Service is fabulous! The order went smoothly, they already had me on record, so I didn’t even have to specify liftgate delivery. I ordered while they still had a bit of a special going on shipping, so I saved a few bucks there, plus my sales dude noted that I’m a repeat customer and threw in a fresh set of knives, to boot! The unit reached my neck of the woods *within* a week from placing the order!R&L Carriers once again took care of the delivery and, as is their NOP, service was exceptional! I was further very fortunate in having fellow Creeker and good friend, Frank Chaffee give me a helping hand with receiving and setting up the machine.
With a little brainpower and a lot of grunting, we got the unit off the back of my trailer and into the garage. Pulled the carton off to find the whole unit very well secured to a pallet. Not a scratch on the thing anywhere! Once we got it off the pallet, we installed the mobility kit (included and integral to the base) and were able to easily roll it into the shop. The footprint of the unit is hardly much bigger than what I had with the Dewalt on a stand. The rest of the assembly was pretty typical, including the traditional removal of Cosmoline. A spray bottle with “Simple Green” and plenty of rags quickly took care of that chore. Oh, and except for one allen head driver, all the necessary tools are included!) If any part of the assembly, which I would like to see improvement on is the dust chute. Rather awkward and you need to remove one of the material rollers on top of the machine to accomplish this.
I had pre-purchased a “Twist-Lock” plug and receptacle, though it’s not necessary, as the unit comes complete with a typical 3-pronged 220V plug on it. No other wiring was required! Anxious to try it out, I just plugged into my nearby DJ20 outlet, though I did eventually switch that out for the “Twist-Lock”. First impressions? Compared to lunch box planers I’ve had, this bad boy is quiet! Yes, I still wear hearing protection when running it, but it’s almost borderline of where you could get away without it! So, the first cuts: On some Maple I had laying around, smooth, quick and NO snipe. At all!Dust collection appeared to be quite good but, we noticed that there were quite a few chips getting pressed back into the board!
Searching through the manual, there was no hint as to why this would happen or how to resolve it. So, the following Monday, I gave Wilke a call and was put in touch with one of their main Tech dudes. If I had a video phone, I could just see him rolling his eyes as he let out a deep sigh. He told me that, for who knows why, the factory elected to put this strip of foam on the underside of the cover over the cutterhead. What happens is, as the chips start flying around, they get caught behind the strip and then just fall back down through onto the board and get pressed into the board by the outfeed roller. He said to open it up and tear that puppy outta’ there, which is exactly what I did. Problem solved! Not as much as a single stray chip since!
Fast forward to today: After using it some, I’m kickin’ myself in the pants for having waited this long to get one! I have a hunch that folks with similar planers have similar results, but I have to believe the Yorkie gives you the most bang for the buck. Integral mobility, cast iron in/out feed tables, very heavy and stable, with power to spare. I’ve not tweaked a single adjustment on it, though I may go ahead and check into tuning it up just a tad. Across an 8” board, I get a variance of right about 1/1000<SUP>th</SUP> from one side to the other. Probably acceptable, but I’m still going to try and squeek that last .001 or so out of it! I’m not one to try and hog off a lot of material per pass, so I can’t tell you if/how it will take 1/8” off. I usually run off between 1/32<SUP>nd</SUP> and 1/16<SUP>th</SUP>”, tops. The slow speed on it actually does appear to have some influence on the final quality, as well. Finish cuts at the slow speed on some Birdseye Maple produced very, very little tear-out. I didn’t wet down the board, though I did have room to skew it a bit, so I imagine that helped a bit.
In the final analysis, hat’s off to Wilke Machinery, R&L Carriers and, of course, to my buddy Frank! Job well done by all.<O
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