B & Q Unbranded power planed £24.99

[Agile]

I had a problem with difficult neighbours and my sticking front door used to alert them to me going in or out.

The redish hardwood door was fine when fitted in the summer and the door was finished all over with varnish. It could well be the frame swelling in the winter rather than the door but the effect was the same.

So I decided to see if I could do the job quickly with a power planer and found some cheap ones but did not place an order.

Whilst in B & Q for something else I saw their cheap one and my on line searches had made me think they started at about £35 so I bought it.

It has all the basics including a dust bag and comes in a basic black and white box! The drum is in the centre so will not plane rebates like the expensive offset ones.

The noise level in the book was 86 dB which worried me on account of the neighbours. In practice it was nothing like that noisy and quickly did the job taking my setting of about 0.7 mm off on each pass. The whole machining job of about 2 mm on the closing side and a little off part of the bottom and about 150mm at the bottom of the hinge side only took about six minutes and much of that was practicing to get the best technique.

It was so cheap and made the job so easy that I wish that I had bought one before!

Tony