Bauer 63445 12.5-Inch Portable Thickness PlanerWeekend Warrior

The Bauer is the lowest-cost way into a benchtop planer, sold only at Harbor Freight, and owners get solid results on a wide range of hardwoods and softwoods when they take light passes. Owners regularly report years of steady use out of it. It's an entry-level machine that depends on careful setup, so anyone planning aggressive full-width hardwood work should step up a tier.

• Owners consistently call it strong value, with a nice finish for the money
• It holds up in sustained use, with owners reporting a few years of regular work without issues
• Owners run everything from pine and cedar to oak, walnut, maple, and purpleheart with good results
• Several owners have gone through multiple sets of blades with the machine still running strong

• Snipe is present but owners call it manageable, largely handled with careful infeed and outfeed setup and light passes
• Chip and dust ejection is weak without a collector attached, so it makes a mess run bare
• It's a two-knife straight head with no helical option, so finish and knife life trail helical machines
• Results depend heavily on setup and light depth of cut, it isn't built for aggressive hardwood passes

It uses common 12.5-inch lunchbox knives, and aftermarket HSS sets that fit the Delta 22-560, WEN 6550, and Porter-Cable PC305TP are cross-listed for it. There's no helical upgrade for this model. Replacement knives and rollers come straight from Harbor Freight.