Help with planer

I have a 718 that I custom ordered to straightedge/gangrip my lumber into blanks for my moulder. I have never done anything else with it but I would not hesitate to get another one. If I could do it over I would have gotten a 725. I ordered a 10 hp 3ph drive motor, the 1/2 hp, 23 fpm feed motor that comes standard on the 725, and serrated in and out feed rollers to eliminate slippage (the teeth marks don’t hurt moulder blanks). By changing pulley sizes I doubled the feed speed, and cut the shaft speed in half (7000 rpm is way too fast for sawing). Woodmaster is not a heavy iron machine, but it is well designed and easy to work on. When I was talking to the salesman about how I wanted it set up and what I was intending to do, I was asking questions that no one else had asked, so he had the factory foreman come to the phone to talk to me. The foreman said they could build it the way I wanted, and filled out a special order ticket while talking to me. I wish everyone was as helpful as they were. I have pictures of it in my LJ workshop.

-- David, Southern Indiana, http://www.freedhardwoods.com