Last December, I tested and adjusted my thickness planer in this blog entry. This morning, while using the planer, I confirmed my fears: the gears do slip:

As shown, one of the teeth is actually chipped and the alignment spots (that I made with a black marker) no longer line up. In fact, I made it skip a tooth while I had it tipped over to look at it.

I guess I’ll need to look for a better planer! Seems the higher price of a better quality unit may be worth it if it doesn’t have this problem.

Prior to buying this, I had been comparing models from Makita and DeWalt, with Makita getting the higher vote. I’ve had many Makita tools over the years and my experience with them has been positive.
For those that are interested and want to avoid getting burned by this model of planer, here it is:

I’ve had this one for about two years and have not given it a lot of use.

An example of caveat emptor – realize that if something is low cost, they needed to cut some corners to manufacture it for less. Don’t fall into the idea that if something is “name brand”, that all you are paying for is that name; my experience says that along with the name, the extra cost generally gets you a better quality tool.

It won’t be a total loss, since I’ll strip this one down to make a jointer. That should be a fun project.