I've just finished tweaking on my new planer. I've shaped thousands of boards with these little green Hitachi planers. While the Skil 100 is well known as the workhorse of the surfboard industry, many production shapers choose to use the Hitachi because of it's cheaper cost, better availability and lighter weight. Clark foam used to manufacture a modified version of the Hitachi that was distributed at most places that you could find surfboard building materials. They would change out the bearings for better ones and modify the front shoe adjustment for more "on-the-fly" action. After they shut down, the planers became harder to find. I've resorted to building my own from scratch. I cut off the handle, and fabricate a custom one from steel that closely matches the skil 100. In the process I also remove the trigger switch and replace it with a simple toggle, because I leave my planer on most of the time when I use it. Also I cut out the crappy little dust chute and fabricate a nice over sized one to facilitate the easy removal of large foam shavings. The front end is modified to more closely resemble the skil, much easier to hold onto.
Here's a stock Hitachi
And here's mine. I can't help but paint everything flat black.
Time to get shaping. -Carl
