Porter-Cable PC305TP 12.5-Inch Benchtop Thickness PlanerWeekend Warrior

The PC305TP is an easy-to-set-up benchtop for dimensioning and light hobby work, and owners rate its cut as good as anything in its class thanks to four precision columns. The 15-amp motor even handles glued-up panels. Its weak spot is snipe, so someone who wants to avoid building infeed tables should look at a planer with adjustable feed-roller tension.

• Owners find it easy to set up out of the box, which first-time buyers appreciate
• The four precision-ground columns give a stable, repeatable cut that owners rate as good as any in its class
• The 15-amp motor handles dimensioning and even glued-up panels
• It holds a high owner rating over years of use, with long-term owners still satisfied

• Snipe is well documented and one of the top gripes, about 2 to 3 inches at each end, and because this model has no feed-roller pressure adjustment some owners can't tune it out, so infeed and outfeed tables plus sacrificial boards are the fix
• No dust hood is included, so owners add the Delta 305-style hood for a 4-inch port
• With two straight knives it needs more passes on hard or figured stock, and the knives nick on grit
• It's a heavier lunchbox unit and not the quietest

It accepts the Delta TP305 dust hood to convert the rear opening to a 4-inch collector port. It uses standard double-edged reversible quick-change knives. There's no factory helical option, and it shares its platform with the Craftsman CMEW320. The lack of feed-roller tension adjustment is the one thing you can't mod around.