850W Electric Hand Planer, 82mm, 11mm Rebate Depth

This sits between the light 650W planer and the heavy workshop machines. Eight hundred and fifty watts at 17 000rpm gives enough power to keep the cutter turning through hardwood and through a full depth pass, where a smaller planer would slow and leave a rippled surface behind it.

The 82mm width is the standard, covering a door edge or a board in one pass. Cutting depth adjusts up to 2.5mm, though in practice a shallow cut repeated gives a better face than one deep one. The 11mm rebate depth is the feature worth paying attention to. A rebate is the step cut along an edge for a door frame, a window frame or a panel to sit in, and 11mm covers most joinery work of that kind without a router. Both the front and rear bases are aluminium, which keeps the sole flat and true, and that flatness is what decides whether a planed surface comes out straight. Dust extraction works from either side, so the shavings can be directed away from where you stand.