Customer Reviews

Dremel PL400 XPR Planer Attachment

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Makes reasonably quick work of trimming a door edge that rubs, but doing a neat job takes some practice. Heavy touch up sanding will be required.
This Dremel attachment is like every other Dremel attachment I have been suckered into buying, it is clearly designed by bean counters. It works just good enough that I would feel bad about throwing it out. For $20, it is a nice tool to have, but I would gladly pay more for one that had a better guide and did a neater job.

A couple specific gripes:
1. The 1/64th depth isn't off by a bit, it is off by a factor of 4. It planes nearly a 1/16th off per pass. I'm still trying to figure out how they came up with the 1/64th number.
2. The guide is useless, it is up to the user to attempt to keep the tool flat on the surface. This takes some practice and will result in some gouges and uneven planed surfaces that need to be smoothed off with sanding.

This tool embodies a great concept, and who wouldn't want to dispatch that sticking door problem with five minutes effort and a quick vacuuming?

But I was disappointed with the performance of the tool, mostly because of two factors.

1. The cut on each pass is fairly deep, maybe as much as 3/32".
2. The right-angle plate that's supposed to help you keep the tool square to the face of the door is way too short to be effective.

Consequently, blending the cut from one pass into the next is effectively impossible. If you make three overlapping cuts, you will get three clearly visible steps in the cut. And by visible, I mean visible when you're looking at the face of the door, not just looking up close at the edge or top.

Also, especially because of the weight of the tool pulling down on one side, it's extremely challenging to keep the cut perpendicular to the face. Expect a wavy edge that's also visible when looking at the door face.

On the positive side, it did fix the problem. I just wished when I was done that I took the time to scribe the door, take it down, and plane it. Something told me this tool would be too good to be true, but I guess hope springs eternal :).

No, you won't be doing any fine woodworking with this Dremel XPR attachment. But for twenty bucks, it makes awfully quick work of planing the bottom of a door so that it closes. I recently did a bathroom tile project, and needed to take just a tiny bit off a section of a door. The planer attachment certainly did the job.

It does make a lot of dust/mess, and the guide is far from perfect in keeping you at 90 degrees to the door. Overall, however, it's worth the money.

I bought this not realizing it wouldn't work with other Dremel brand tools. My fault. Just wanted to warn others.

Used this to grind down a sticking door, and adjust the size a different door that I was about to hang, with great success. I recommend that you take a few minutes to get a feel for the balance of the tool before getting started or you WILL get a wavy cut. It gets a 4 instead of a 5 because it leaves 'pass marks' that have to be sanded out or neatened up with a block plane.

Would have liked to see a depth adjustment on this plane, but I am very happy with it.

Not adjustable at all.

I needed this to shave off a little bit of wood backing that was sticking out 1/8" from behind some book shelves I built. The problem is that the planer is only designed to be used in one direction. If you can't use it in the direction they want you to, you are out of luck. Also, you can't change the depth of the cut, so if you don't want that deep or shallow of a cut, you are out of luck there too.

I ended up using the planing bit without the casing, and had better luck doing it that way, but it wasn't perfect like I was hoping the kit would be able to provide.

I would have given it only one star except that I was able to use the planing bit alone for what I needed. That is why two stars.

You may ask how is new better? Well, I imagine I could have taken the doors of the hinges, put them on sawhorses and used your old fashion planer then rehung them but I didn't. I put this on my Dremel and went at it while they were right on the hinges. Taking care of three doors, which either wouldn't close or were rubbing the door frame, in this old house that is now mine. So I got my original Planer attachment with my dremel and my old blade is/was dull (which I had lost anyway (kids!!) enough said) but I couldn't have imagined how dull it was. I put this new one on and zipped through a second large toy box that I've been making with the help of my father. BTW, I used my old blade to level the top of the frame and the Sandeply Hardwood Plywood that is attached to the frame of the first toy box I used the planer on. It worked well but took much longer than it did with the new blade that came with this new planer attachment package.

I do have to agree with the other reviews about the depth of the planer's layer removal when it is new. After having used it on 3 doors it did however remove a thinner layer more like 1/64 of an inch when I got to the first toy box using the old blade. Which is why that first toy box took so much longer.

As others also said it does take a learning curve (I had it before I finished the first door) and getting used to but I wasn't the best at using a jig saw or any other types of tool the first time I grabbed whatever it was. It always takes time to get to used to the grip, weight and so of a tool and to stick the the lines or what ever for a project (at least for me).

All in all this is an excellent addition to any Dremel users toy box (tool box for those that have outgrown calling it a toy box). Just make sure it will work with your Dremel model before you buy it. I hope you enjoy your purchase as much as I have!

Not the best design. Have to keep pressure against the tool to keep it on the dremel. Hard to use on the top of a door, the video shows it as very easy to use.

I bought this PL400 planer for a couple of doors in my house that have been very sticky to open and close for years. One was sticking on top, the other was sticking on the bottom. The planer worked great on both. The resulting door edges on both cases were clean and smooth.

You need two hands to operate the Dremel with the planer attachment. Thus, to have success you need someone else to hold the door while you're working or else some other way of keeping the door held still.

It's not completely clear in the instructions but you need to operate the Dremel at it's highest speed setting. The Dremel website has a how to video for planing a door and it is worth watching before you start. It makes it clear to use the highest speed setting. In the case of the 4000 that I'm using that's 35,000 RPM.

I've read comments that the planer takes off more than 1/64". I'd have to disagree. Each pass took off a very fine amount. One door required around 12 passes before it opened and closed smoothly.

Visually nobody can tell you ever shaved off the door edge at all.

I planed two doors with this and it worked great. I had a hard time getting it to lay exactly flat and I didn't expect that to be an issue at all. Might come better with practice, but seems like it could have had an adjustable lip on the other side or something.

Looks like quality work, and glad it included the bit for the dremel. Love it so far.