At Milwaukee’s recent 2015 new tool media event (check out all of our coverage here), there were so many new products on display that they couldn’t fit all of the demos in the convention center. This new M18 planer, and the new M12 right angle impact driver, were demoed outside near the lunch tables.
I’ve used powered hand planers before, but not extensively. Keep that in mind as you go through the post.
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Milwaukee says that their new cordless planer (model 2623-21, 2623-20) offers unmatched power and depth control, which are some serious claims. It’s got a 3-1/4″ width capacity, max rabbet depth of 27/64″ (0.421″), and 2-blade design.
The planer comes with an edge guide, but you can take it off if you want or need to use it free-hand or on larger surfaces.
From what I’ve seen, powered planers like these are often used to trim the sides, top, or bottom of a door for better fit.
Here’s an interesting feature most other planers don’t offer – selectable chip ejection direction. I think that Bosch is the only other brand to offer this, with their PLH181 model (price check).
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Thanks to this feature, you can direct chips right or left, depending on what’s best for your comfort or how you’re using the tool. You could also attach a vacuum or dust collector for cleaner working.
There’s another neat feature on the bottom – a retractable kickstand.
Deploying the kickstand allows you to rest the M18 planer blade-side-down onto a worksurface without there being any contact with the blade.
If you don’t care for this feature, or have the edge guard installed and can’t rest the tool blade-side-down anyway, you can lock the kickstand back into the tool.
You don’t need to retract the kickstand when using the planer – it’ll spring back into the tool automatically as soon as it makes contact with the work.
Since I haven’t used this type of tool very much, I gouged the demo door a little with the blade. I guess with a little practice I would get a better feel for the proper speed and pressure to use.
I should also mention that the depth control was great. The knob wasn’t very hard to set, but locked down tight enough to prevent accidental changes. The product manager seemed particularly proud of this.
Specs
- 3-1/4″ cutting width
- 27/64″ max cutting depth
- 14,000 RPMs
- 20 locking positions (0 to 5/64″)
- Weighs 7.5 lbs with battery
The kit (2623-21) comes with the planer, (2) planer blades, a bevel and edge guide, (1) M18 XC battery pack, and a multi-voltage charger. A bare tool option (2623-20) will also be available.
ETA: October 2015
Jerry
I think the feature often needing improvement on power planes (at least the few cheapos I was around) would be a straightforward, easy to set depth control, that stayed where you put it.
Besides trimming doors/drawers to fit, they are also commonly used for rabbiting in instances where it is easier to bring the tool to the work, than the work to the tool.
Hang Fire
See that knob on the front marked with fractions?
Jon
Does this blog still cover other products besides Milwaukee?
Either Milwaukee is (nearly) the only brand that has done anything in the past few months or there is a distinct bias that has developed here. I really hope it’s the former and not the latter.
Stuart
Yes.
All of the new Dewalt tools I previewed at their event fit into 3 posts:
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-cordless-tools-new-2015/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-mechanics-tools-hand-tools-new-2015/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/dewalt-power-tools-nailers-drill-bits-new-2015/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I tried, but couldn’t do the same with Milwaukee. Way too many new tools, too many photos, and too many vastly different tools.
How can I lump together a thermal imager with a cordless planer? This way, someone interested in a planer doesn’t have to read about a thermal imaging camera, and vice versa.
I’ve got a long queue of tools to post about, but wanted to get the Milwaukee media event preview posts over and done with, as it’s been 2 months already.
There’s at most 1 more preview, plus maybe a summary.
If you’ve found a new tool that’s worthy of preview discussion, here’s the tip line: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/contact-us/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Jon
Thanks Stuart. Milwaukee has put out a ton of innovative stuff lately, so I can understand the coverage you have been giving them.
I am invested in Ridgid’s power tool line and keep hoping they will expand the lineup beyond the bare bones selection of 18v products.
And in response to John’s post, no snark was intended in my comment, I legitimately wanted to know if this was becoming a Milwaukee tool blog. Sponsored or brand-centric blogs are not unheard of on the internet. I enjoy this blog immensely and am glad the authors can have an open dialogue with us.
will
oh that reminds me, have you tried the Ridgid Gen5X 18V VS Random orbital Sander? I believe other than Makita they offer the only other cordless ROS on the market. From what I understand you can get about 40 minutes on a 4ah battery on max speed. Not bad and for $70 or so for the bare tool I would have gone that route instead of the Dewalt if I had already invested in the Ridgid lineup.
Jon
I haven’t tried it yet. I’ll be refurbishing two decks next spring so hopefully I can catch it on a sale between now and April ’16.
Thanks for the heads up, Will.
Chip
Jon I have a Q for you,have you been able to get good deals on batteries? We never can find 2 pack specials on them. We have 1 truck setup with Dewalt 20v for handrailing,screen rooms and decks,1 truck for automated gate systems service with Ridgid,and and my truck with Milwaukee for fencing. We had Dewalt 18v in all three trucks and they were losing themselves lol. Ridgid has an amazing warranty,Dewalt doesn’t have a great selection,and in 1 yr ive had to warranty a hammerdrill,vacuum,and the sawzall is terrible (plastic sleeve that turns the metal blade release.
john
To be fair to Stuart its a cyclical thing, we all want to hear the latest news about the latest products and so immediately after the Milwaukee press event it will be Milwaukee heavy on here.
In the same way as after the Dewalt press event it will be a bit yellow and black for a bit. Same for all the other brands who can put together a decent selection of new products.
John S
Milwaukee has put most other companies to shame with all their new cordless that they have come out with of late.
And as Stuart mentioned in the first paragraph, he recently went to a Milwaukee event, so I bet he is just catching up on posting about all of the items from the event…
I would be really hesitant to call this Milwaukee bias.
Stuart
Thanks! It’s good to ask questions, and I encourage it. Honestly, I’m happy to have people ask more questions, here and on other sites. Transparency is good.
fred
I say Bravo Milwaukee – for both introducing a batch of new products and for promoting their introduction in a way that’s gotten Internet Blog attention. They could have chosen to slowly introduce new products – but I guess they felt it was no use hiding their candles under a bucket – and a big media event would garner lots of secondary publicity. I’m betting that others will follow.
More on topic – This plane looks like it may have potential. Most often we found ourselves dealing with pre-hung doors. When we were hanging custom doors – built to fit openings – or rehanging antique doors – a power plane was an essential tool. We had a few old Porter Cable 126’s, an old Rockwell PC 653, a Virutex CE24, and a Makita 1806B – which pretty much covered our planning needs up to about 6 inches. We did a job with making fitting old round-top doors – and bought a Virutex Curved sole planer.
BTW Virutex makes (in Spain) several other planers including a lipping planer – but we used a Hoffman lipping planer in the shop – and I bought a Lamello Cantex for my home shop – based on my mild dislike of the Hoffman.
John
Agreed. There are way too many needless, snarky, and critical comments about a “Milwaukee bias” or some implied “Milwaukee paid influence” to this site. I think the frustration and anger is misdirected towards the shear number or tool releases and news that came out of Milwaukee and Stuart’s excellent coverage of the dizzying number of product release when the criticism should be directed at the stagnant companies who released nothing. A “Tool News / Reviews / Preview site” that has too many new tools news? Go figure.
will
I have mostly Dewalt and have YET to buy into Milwaukee , but I love any and all new coverage of power tools. With that said this is the only site that has a new post every day or so and it keeps my hunger for more power tool news satisfied,Keep up the great work Stuart.Oh and please review the Dewalt tough case radio when it releases, thanks.
Rami
Somehow it feels strange to me that Milwaukee came out with this kind of tool. I have always considered Milwaukee as a brand that consentrates on metalworking and construction trades. Being a trained cabinet maker, I am used to make doors precisely the right size at the shop and not to trim them with a handheld planer at the worksite.
BikerDad
‘Tis because you’re a trained cabinetmaker. Not a half assed trim monkey hanging prefab/prehung doors in cookie cutter tract homes or Class B office space. Or doing remodels/reworks using said prefab doors.
Stuart
That’s not really fair.
Many more people use prefab doors than commission custom-made ones to fit irregular or slightly-offer-from-standard door frames.
Rami
I did not meant that those who use a handheld planer would be “half assed trim monkeys” as bikerdad refers. I mean that it feels strange for me to make a product ready at the jobsite, since I am used to go to the jobsite, make some measures and make the product ready to be installed at the shop with big machines, CNC etc. I guess that somebody like a common contractor would feel just as weird if he had to make something like kitchen cabinets and doors with a CNC in a shop and not with hand tools at the jobsite.
John
You’re also forgetting old work jobs not buying new doors. Sure your perfect cut doors will be fine for years till the house settles and you’re looking at 1/16 inch or so trimming needs since the door no longer closes because of clearance issues. Surely you don’t want to load up 12 doors, take them to your shop and then return them after working remote.
fred
We always wanted to give the customer options. Not every customer wanted or could afford custom-made doors made out of exotic woods. When we were doing high-end built-in cabinetry we made sure everything fit nicely to the space – but there sure was a lot of fitting to be done to match inset doors to an irregular space – rabbet the mating edges and make sure the reveals looked good all around. We often did work on site – bring the wood in weeks ahead – stickering it and letting it acclimate.
john
Really, I struggle to believe that Rami, its utterly impossible to make everything so it just fits direct from the workshop. I make doors of all kinds from cabinet doors through to the largest doors I have ever worked on being 24 ft x8ft! Simple lay-on cabinet doors on adjustable Euro hinges never need a skim with the planer but 99% of normal doors need a tweak.
Mike
Milwaukee puts out tools that nobody is ever going to purchase there the kind you rent because they used so infrequent, nobody is going to buy a cordless planner when you can buy a corded one for less than half when you work with a planner it’s for doors and your close to ooutlets
Kyle
Mike is it safe to assume you’re a homeowner and not a professional ? With battery technology as good as it is today, why do I want cords running all over my job site? I can now frame a deck with my Fuel saw and maybe two batteries. If I have to plane down the top of a deck joist why would I want to drag a cord out there with me when I didn’t have to do that to cut the joist in the first place. I for one am really looking forward to this as I prefer to cut the cord whenever possible.
JMG
I spent most of my working life as a self employed woodworker, and during that time I developed an attitude about renting tools: If you need to rent a tool more than once, you may as well purchase it as the long term cost savings outweigh the expense of not having the tool on hand. Also, corded tools in the shop actually caused safety issues at times and were responsible for several accidents due to the cords catching and/or dragging other items off of work surfaces or someone tripping over them. These instances led to a bias towards cordless tools (no matter what the price point), the these tools lowered the aggravation levels the the corded tools had previously caused from the various issues, or due to the large amount of extension cords that had been necessary prior to shifting to the battery powered platforms.
I personally welcome the large variety of new cordless designs that Milwaukee is willing to gamble on, and I hope they continue to raise the bar and force the other manufacturers to innovate and expand their offerings in order to maintain a presence in the marketplace.
You can never have enough tools :).
JMG
BikerDad
You can never have enough tools :).
I used to believe this. After my last move, I am skeptical. Not skeptical enough to refrain from buying a 24″ Italian bandsaw (used) to supplement my 14″ Delta, nor skeptical enough to pass on replacing my Craftsman Professional Motorcycle Lift with a Handy B.O.B. 1500. But skeptical enough to entertain the notion that one could, in fact, reach a place this side of Heaven where one has enough tools.
I’m with you on liking what Milwaukee is doing here, and hoping it will put the spurs to some of the other toolmakers.
will
I work at an underground utility company and I used to do a lot of service lines ( power,gas,cable etc to the home) and the air hoses and extension cables drove me crazy. Some guys didn’t mind if you ran over an extension cord but others would scream and go crazy if you did, especially the heavy duty cords. I’m not saying anything against the framers because they were there first and after we left but If they all went cordless it would have saved everyone a lot of hassle.
john
I had a Bosch 14.4v planer for years that got stolen. I absolutely loved it and the day Dewalt bring one out I will buy it immediately.
Cordless planers are an absolute godsend particularly when hanging internal doors in poor weather. You can whizz out when the rain stops, skim a couple of mm off and be back inside safely and quickly. Quick work and happy dustfree homeowner!
Chip
I will,and prevously owned a ridgid 18v. When you work with treated docks 600 ft from power. Who needs a cordless caulk gun,have you ever had to caulk 1/2 wide x60 ft crack in asphalt.
davev8
With modern health and safety, cables in public places are a nightmare ..also cordless are fast to deploy which is important if your are paying some one to use the tools or working on a price …time is money as they say
Adam
Good to see tools like this – can’t tell you how many cords I’ve gone through in years past with my trusty Makita….. 😉
I’ve been using the Ryobi 18v power planer for the past 7-8 year with great success. The blades are only 2″ wide – perfect for what I need it to do, but may be limiting for some. It’s still for sale for $70 I believe.
I was contemplating going back to a corded unit when my old ni-cad batteries were starting to gradually fade: however, I’ve now purchased the 4ah batteries and it’s like a new tool again.
Congrats to Milwaukee – keep up the great work!
Pete
My thoughts in refference to-“What is this a milwaukee biased website/blog now?”
This website is about Tool News and New Tool. As long as milwaukee is releasing the most new tools with the most innovation, it sure will be.
Chip
And Stuart the ridgid 18v has the kickstand as well. Thanks for the site,I read every day!
Brian
Yeah Stuart. Enough with the Milwaukee bias!! All you’re doing is making me spend more money on Milwaukee stuff!! I blame you Stuart!!
Great website, by the way.
Tommygun
Awesome website Stuart , so stoked to see Milwaukee bring out a cordless planer. Here in Australia they will be released mid September approx 4000 of these units will be arriving and they are so popular that pre sale orders are already through the roof that and pretty much sold out from sources I know , this is the most anticipated Milwaukee tool to date here as far as sales so far..
Marmot
Bosch isn’t the only other company that makes planers whose dust collection can be switched the right or left hand side. Both of the planers Festool sold in the USA, the EHL 65 E and HL 850 also have/had this feature. I believe there may have been other brands as well.
Tommygun
Awesome… The planer has arrived and is fantastic, nice feel to it and has plenty of power milwaukee have made a great tool here go team red!
Toolpig
I absolutely love my Makita LXT 3 1/4″ cordless planer. It is a clone of the corded Makita planer design which has been around for decades. It has plenty of power and runs so so smoothly! I doubt it will allow as deep of a cut as the Milwaukee but I never plane that much off any way I usually do the heavy trimming with the Festool tsc55 cordless track saw. I appreciate the selectable chip ejection. I wish the Makita had that. There is a newer corded Makita planer which has that feature. Maybe newer Makita cordless versions will implement this as well. When power tool companies compete, we win! Tool on!!
Clay Nally
Certainly we wouldn’t expect any furniture builders or craftsmen to trade in their hand planers for this cordless tools, nor do we thing Milwaukee has any big ideas these are going to fly off the shelves at the home centers. It is very positive to see a continued growth into new areas and with such a large base of M18 batteries in the market every new niche tool will probably find a fan base.