Who can recommend a good 12 or 15 inch planer.

My 35 year old Makita 12 inch planer needs some parts and the parts will cost more then it's worth. The rollers are shot, the drive chain is skipping, the drive belt is cracked and the knives need to be replaced too. Seems it should have lasted more than 35 years.

Anyone have a planer they can recommend. I would like a 15 inch but I guess I can keep living with one of the 12 inch portable 120 volt ones.

I had a Park's for a good ten years. Loved it. Sold it when I gave up the hammer and started college as a 40 year old. Now Parks is out of business but they do come up on Ebay.

Now I have a 12" inch Delta. It works but it doesn't feed as reliably as the old Parks. What's wrong with a new Makita?

Another Makita is an option. The early DeWalts had plastic drive gears which were failing but I think they fixed the problem.

Like all tools and why I would like to move to a 15 inch is that the motor windings can be configured to run on 220. I now have 220 to the garage and middle level of the new addition. I got.a 120 volt Hobart welder a few years ago, works fine but I wish I could have held out for a 220 version. I had to fix a snow thrower frame which got smashed when a tree fell on it. I took it over to Pearl who had a nice 220 volt miller system but 2 month went by and he couldn't get to it so I just got the Hobart 140. There is just too much voltage drop over extension cords. The stationary planers now almost all have the option to get them with spiral cutter heads. Those things cut much nicer than the straight blades. If one gets nicked, it just needs to have the one cutter rotated 1/4 turn. I have a friend who has a Bridgewood which is over 110 years old still works great but the thing is over 700 pounds of iron.

Same old story, good stuff costs money.

I never heard of the Parks brand. I looked it up and found this. Looks solid, except for the belt.

That's a really old one. Mine had the belt running downward inside the casting. I welded up a stand and put a 2hp motor underneath, on a plate with door hinges, so the weight of the motor put tension on the belt. I wish I still had it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcR_DJxV7Do