I've found I can work the planing crank pretty dang fast if I keep my elbow
is lined up with the crank shaft (i.e. the center point of the indicator
dial). It's still alot of cranking, but it seems to go about twice as fast
this way... probably fewer movements involved or something. Turbo!
Too bad there is no "quick release" mechanism that allows the planer bed to
lower all the way down, then when needed again, quickly return to its
previous setting. I suppose the keypad-activated motor option might do this
trick.
If they wanted to get really fancy about it, such a system could be tied in
with the dust chute limit switches and what-not: the bed automatically gets
out of the way when you start moving the dust chute from planing to
jointing. When you rotate the chute back, the bed automatically rises to its
previously used position. Of course, there could be some additional safety
issues to address, but... Oooh, that would be cool.
...Geoff
