Oliver 13" HCX Helical Cutterhead Benchtop Planer

I bought this to replace another planer that I was really disappointed with. This purchase was without regret until I learned they came out with a 15" 220V planer... Seriously though, I do not regret buying this as it is an absolute beast for its size. It has bogged down trying to put through hard maple at max width, but it went through it. The finish it leaves is amazing, and using the lock mechanism on the head really reduces snipe. This is the newer version, where they made a few changes from the previous and it uses their own helical head. Well worth it.

Would you consider your board looking like this after being planed in a new planer? Look at the streaks the entire length of an 8 ft. board.

This is a great product. The carriage lock essentially removes snipe.

Excellent machine except for two problems. The depth of cut is 1/32 inch with material 6 inches or less and over that width its 1/64 inch. That's according to their manual which is well written. I think that's because of helical head and size of motor in machine. The other problem is using the Wxiely (my spelling error) system to set the depth of cut. Push one button to set depth of cut and after running material thru the display shows how much you've taken off. Then have to push same button again to set depth of cut. The buttons are fairly small and time consuming pushing buttons to take material off. In a production shop with different people running machine, attention to this process will probably get overlooked and machine damaged. The time spent using this process is costly. I didn't read any of this in the Amazon description of the machine. Machine quiet and finish is very good with no snipe since can lock head down. I returned machine in original box with everything included and they charged me about $125 return fee.

I did not buy this from Amazon I bought it from Woodcraft. I’m not sure what the issues were that folks faced with this product, perhaps they did not know how to use the machine. There is some setup, the digital scale and aligning the beds needed to be done. This planer is amazing, fantastic build quality, great construction but the helical head is the MVP here. This planer is amazing I came from a dewalt dw735 and you cannot compare apples to apples unless you buy the shelix head for your dewalt. 0 snipe and a quality finish. Couldn’t be happier with the purchase.

Did not work properly and charged me a substantial restocking fee within the 30 day window despite not disclosing it.