Sealey SM1311 Planer/Thicknesser, 200mm x 120mm

After buying this machine I was (at first) reasonabley impressed with its capabilities. The fence is flimsy though so was a bit hit and miss on perfect planing. The reason this is a one star is that after a few months of use I injured myself on It quite badly taking off a large portion of the side of my finger. This I believe was due to the shoddy and flimsy build quality of the safety features, the blade guard bent away leaving my hand exposed to the spinning knives. I phoned their customer help line and reported the issue, (no concern offered I might add) and they seemed largely disinterested. I thought the blades must be blunt and I wanted to change them and was disgusted to find that they are £90 for a set. On doing some research this is over double the price of other more expensive machine blades. And of course they aren't resharpenable. So all in all I would strongly recommend you go for a better quality planer as this one is not worth the risk.

This machine was purchased by me cautiously as the price indicated there was a possibility it would be very much an amateur's tool and either wouldn't be very efficient or wouldn't last very long. So far, it's proved me wrong. A professional carpenter doing work for me spotted it and, rather than bring his own to the site, used mine for three weeks to build three stable doors and windows from scratch out of solid oak. It did the job and didn't pack up. Nuff said.