Reply by runswithscissors

I think few people are aware Ryobi invented the lunchbox planer back around the early 80s. Their first was the AP10, which had only 10” capacity. The shop teacher at the school where I taught bought one and installed it in the middle of a long table, and put a roller at each end, same height as the planer bed. Pretty soon the kids were using that little planer all the time. And they weren’t just redimensioning lumber yard stuff. School shops like to start with rough sawn material so the kids get a taste of the whole process. Anybody have any idea how hard kids are on power tools? That little planer held up for several years that I know of. After a while, the old industrial planer, about the size of a mid-50s Buick, was just gathering dust. I still see an AP10 show up on CL once in a while. But I don’t know how good the latest iterations of that planer are, the AP12 and AP13. Not all of Ryobi’s tools are junk is my point, I guess.
I’ve never had one of those, though I did have a TrendLines planer which, oddly enough for a llunchbox, had bed rollers. I’ve gone through several planers since, my next to last being a Rockwell/Invicta 13 X 6. I love that planer, and was aiming to put a Byrd cutterhead on it, then I changed my mind when I ran into an unbelievable deal on a Jet JJP12-HH and am now trying to sell the Rockwell.