In this video, I discuss my thoughts regarding the Oliver 10015 15″ helical head planer. Overall, I’m pleased with my purchase, and I’m DEFINITELY pleased to have a dedicated planer and dedicated jointer again. If you’re wondering why I moved on from my combo machine, you can read about it here.
Overall thoughts:
- I think 15″ is the sweet spot for my planing needs. Anything larger can be planed on my CNC. It’s not as fast, but nowhere near frequent, so I’m OK with that.
- Carbide insert cutterheads are the way to go. Hands down. Without question. If it’s a jointer or planer, get a carbide insert spiral or helical cutterhead if it is within budget. Longer blade life and no setting the height.
- The integrated mobile base works very well.
- I prefer a fixed-height planer bed vs a fixed-head planer. The reason is you can set a roller stand on the outfeed side and not have to chase falling pieces as they come out.
- Snipe is present. It’s just the nature of a planer. I use a snipe board before the first board and after the last board. This works quite well as it puts the snipe on a sacrificial board, not my material.
- Power is adequate. I’ve never experienced an underpowered situation.
- The dust collection is good with the addition of a small plug I made. The dust port is about 1/4″ too narrow for the width of the machine. I provided feedback to Oliver, and they were appreciative and accepting of the info. Hopefully, a slight change will be made for future customers. I’d assume that would be an inventory situation where they may have a bunch of these ready to go. Regardless, planing a piece 1/4″ thick to take up the gap isn’t a big deal to me.
- I like the safety off switch. After turning the machine off, you need to rotate the off switch to deactivate it before turning it on. This extra step prevents unauthorized use for those unfamiliar with the machine. (Kids)
- I do wish the elevation handle was located on the opposite corner post. Where it is now is kinda in the way of my clumsy hands as I’m doing the infeed/outfeed dance with many smaller pieces. On longer material, where I don’t have to hustle to keep up with the machine, it’s not in the way.
Great review, almost went down the combined machine trail myself..
Really like the big stop bar on your jointer.
Agree very much about the carbide insert topic, game changer for all.
Take care, all the best from Western Australia
Jay,
Very interesting video! I value your insights.
Oliver seems to have appeared out of nowhere. It’s nice to hear they are another quality alternative to many of the usual suspects. I’ve always been wary of tools/appliances that combine the functions of multiple different tools. Despite the economy of space, they tend not to do either function as well as each individual tool.
Thanks!
JF
Great video! I didn’t catch what size your jointer was. I finally upgraded my DW735 to a Byrd head and very happy with it. I’m using a Powermatic 6”HH and agree the cut quality is much nicer than straight knives.
Leaving the comment here because that is what you requested in your video. Good discussion on your Oliver. I keep thinking about sharing my experience on my A3-41. As we discussed while I was touring your shop my experience wasn’t as positive as yours, but it was too expensive and it does work most of the time so I stay with it. Thanks for your review on the Oliver. I will leave a comment on YouTube that you don’t have to reply to but trying to help your channel analytics.