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I often find that my personal woodworking projects are made from cheaper, recycled or rough-cut boards to save money, but that also means that I spend more time sanding and smoothing for a good quality finish. Using a planer to shape your boards and level out the surface makes finishing a project faster, but if you’re a home woodworker, you might have noticed that planers can be pricey. This 18-volt 3 ¼” Ryobi cordless planer is a good home-shop-grade planer, and it’s on sale for $67.75, 48% off its regular price.
What a planer is good for
A planer is most commonly thought of as a tool for shaving down a door so it will fit in the jamb, but a cordless planer can be used for lots of other things.
If you’re using rough boards, you can use a planer to shave them down and reduce your sanding time, and if you have uneven edges on your boards, you can use your planer to smooth those out. I often use mine to shave down high spots on recycled boards, and to shave down sharp corners on exposed edges. If you’re finishing a basement ceiling, you can use a cordless planer to shave down low spots on your joists so you can install perfectly flat drywall for your ceiling.
To get a precise fit in a corner when installing shelves, a planer can help you accurately shape your shelf material, especially if your walls are not at exactly a 90 degree angle. You trace the shape of the wall you’re cutting custom shelves for and then shave down your boards to the exact angle of the corner you’re fitting. I live in an old house, and I use my planer on the back side of molding to allow for a precise fit.
Why this is a good planer
The Ryobi 18-volt, 3 ¼” planer can shave up to 1/16” of material per pass, and its width allows you to shave down up to 3 ¼” of material at a time. This tool comes with a bag to catch your shavings and a kickstand to keep the blade away from the parts of your work you don’t want to cut. The Ryobi cordless planer allows you to switch what side your chips are expelled from, so you can aim them away from yourself depending on the angle and direction of your cut. This can make using the tool a lot more comfortable and make it easier to see what you’re doing while you’re cutting.
Ryobi makes over 200 tools that are compatible with their 18-volt batteries. You can power anything from a lawn mower to a circular saw with their batteries, so their line of cordless tools are versatile for DIY projects. If you choose to get a battery and charger for this tool, it will work with all other 18-volt Ryobi tools from this battery platform, and if you already have a Ryobi battery set, you can add this finishing tool to it without needing new batteries. For DIYers, having a versatile battery platform allows you to do more with fewer batteries, cutting down on the most expensive part of investing in a cordless tool set.
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