Cutech 40200H-CT 13" Spiral Cutterhead Planer - Professional Model

First off, this thing came fast. I had 15 pieces of hard maple I needed for a job when this came. My rigid planer died on me and I wanted to try a spiral cutterhead. I assembled it, not much really. Waxed the table. And ran my boards thru. I got a very little bit of blowback but that was always when my dust deputy was not keeping up. When that happened it gave me just a tiny bit of checking. Nothing to speak of. It is twice as quiet. And even on the wider boards it had enough hp to keep up. That was a concern. It could seal better on dust collection chute on bottom but I knew that from other reviews. The finish on maple was outstanding, even the curly parts I had zero chip out. I have no problem giving this 5 stars. I hold reservation for longevity.

I've had this planer about a month. I believe it is identical to the Rikon planer. In fact, most of the benchtop planers are made in the same factory in China. Out of the box, it worked well. The dust collection is not optimal, maybe 85% of the dust collected. I was able to improve that because there was a dust leak on the top of the included dust collector that I solved with a strategically placed foam stick-on. This planer features spirally placed blades, that is, there are several rows of small blades that seem to have no adjustment, 5 blades on some rows and four blades on rows. My first planing job involved planing end-grain hardwood on some cutting boards. The Cutech planer worked, well, did not bog down, but there was considerable tear out on the exiting side and the planer leaves tiny lines on the surface, not the usual washboard planer marks, but lines where the blades don't quite overlap. There are several rows of blades on the aluminum planer head, some with four blades, two with five blades. They are lined up horizontally, not in a spiral, but I suppose that the end result is a helical planer. I cannot see any chips in my blades; these lines are easily removed with sandpaper and were there from my very first use of the planer. It is also pretty noisy, recommend ear protection. Certainly, there is considerably more noise than with the 30+ year old 8" thickness planer I had been using. There is no way you are going to be able to sharpen the blades, expect to replace them after one 180° turn.Having said that, adjustment of the thickness is a breeze and I did not notice any snipe when thicknessing long boards. Portable? It's 90+ lbs, so hardly. I mounted mine on a dedicated stand and am happy with that. For the price, this is an excellent tool.

This is my first Spiral Cutterhead planer and I was expecting more, I ruin some bird eye maple, the helicoid head tear it up badly, the blades are new I just got the machine, very disappointed, otherwise a fine machine but not better than my blade one. It need more blades 26 is not enough. May send it back. I got the professional one, is just a name don't pay more. Bad deal

I purchased this planer a couple of weeks ago and have used it on a couple hundred of feet of poplar and cypress. Almost no sanding is required and it is not nearly as loud as others I have experienced. I bought this to replace a Steel City planer which is identical to this one except for the newly designed cutter head. This head is much easier to work on and clean than the older stacked head. Doug was extremely helpful when I called with a question about whether I could use 4 sided inserts instead of the 2 sided as provided. He told me that only the 2 sided should be used on the newly designed head. The shipping was extremely fast and the packaging was good.

Let me preface this review by saying that I'm a young guy with limited funds, so I always do extensive research before purchasing tools and equipment. When I first began to research the different bench-top/portable type planers that were in my price range, I was very impressed with the Cutech because of the spiral cutterhead, a feature pretty much unheard of for a planer under $1500. The point needs to be emphasized that it is a SPIRAL cutterhead not a true helical cutterhead that I saw it referred to in several places, none the less, the spiral design is leaps and bounds better than the standard ole straight knives setup. I had originally purchased a Dewalt 735x because I have other Dewalt tools I'm happy with, and because I was nervous about the Cutech planer being from a new company that I had never heard of. Needless to say, I returned the Dewalt it after the blades began to degrade almost immediately. After I received my refund, I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase the Cutech, I'm really glad I did!! Shipping was lightning fast (I paid for ground shipping and literally received it less than 24 hours later) and the customer service guy I called to ask a few questions was a super guy! I've run a fair amount of stock through the planer thus far and have been thoroughly impressed, no visible infeed snipe and minimal to none on the outfeed. The knives seem to be keeping their edge well, and the machine just has an overall solid feel and appearance. I have several "planer intensive" projects planned for the near future, and if all goes well, I will update this review and bring it up to a full 5 stars!

Very smooth and quiet, planing 150 yr old timbers that have been re-purposed more than once is not an option with a blade type planer, which this planer replaced.(an extremely popular model at that)

Had some shipping damage when I opened the box, but Cutech sent replacement parts immediately. You won't find a better planer with a spiral cutter head at this price. Forget about "yellow". I've looked at them all.

This replaced another name brand that starts with Dew and ends with alt. This is at least three times the planer, really don't have to send after using this.