Patent ID: 7458402

Claim:
A power planer for planing a top surface of a workpiece comprising: a base assembly; a carriage assembly disposed above the base assembly and operably connected to the base assembly, the carriage assembly comprising a cutterhead assembly, the carriage assembly being vertically movable to change distance between the base assembly and the carriage assembly; a hand crank attached to the carriage assembly for changing the distance between the base assembly and the carriage assembly, the hand crank being vertically movable with the carriage assembly; a material removal gauge disposed on the carriage assembly; a switch disposed on the carriage assembly; a speed selector handle disposed on the carriage assembly for adjusting the speed of rotation of the cutterhead assembly; and a height scale disposed on the base assembly; wherein the material removal gauge, the switch, and the speed selector handle, and the height scale are on the front side of the power planer and wherein the speed selector handle can be rotated between at least two positions.