Love it --but on a piece of redwood 6" wide 20"
craftsman 12 1/2 thicknesser/planer is entry level model, very sturdy albeit not that powerful... now, when we have that one out of the way:you are not holding it correctly and allowing material to "kick" on the rollers when you load in and on egress. rollers are too high with the table.you did not mentioned if you get it new or used. either way, disconnect it from power, roll down the cutters, check for nicks and squareness of the blades, tighten all blade holders, check if they are not protruding excessively.check infeed and outfeed rollers for vertical movement, check if you hear any bearings noise. correct rollers at that stage should be parallel and just above the table of the machine (about two paper sheet thickness), to check that, have steel square or ruler, 2 $5bills, lay bills on the table, position ruler on thin edge on the rolers, bills should be movable freely but wihout gap on the table, add another bill and repeat exercise, if bills cannot be moved (this should be occuring at about 5 notes), your rollers and table are set correctly. if rollers cannot be regulated, there is another solution.remove less material at each pass, instead of 1/8" (3.175mm) - maximum "bite", drop that by half to about 1/16" (1.587mm). this should solve your problem with kicking on the beginning and end of the run on the plank.in my workshop i do not allow to actually run more than 2mm on portable planners, it is better to run piece twice and have nice finish than to run it once and then spend half hour on removal of chips and gradings...
