I have (had, actually) a Delta 12-inch benchtop planer (22-540) that has worked, at best, satisfactorily for the few years I have owned it. I say "satisfactorily" with some generosity as the machine was minimally useful for its intended use, and nothing more. I think I paid around $200 for it. The drive rollers never gripped the workpiece very well - or at all - requiring me to literally push the board into the planer, and then having to pull it from the other side. The crank handle that set the cutterhead height would turn on its own during the planing process, due to the great amount of vibration. I would have to secure the handle in place with a spring clamp, lest I end up with a board that is thinner at one end than the other.

Today, while preparing to plane a couple pieces of white oak, I noticed that the cutterhead height adjustment mechanism was difficult to turn. Lo and behold, the two threaded shafts that raise/lower the cutter head were no longer in synch, resulting in the cutterhead being positioned way out of parallel to the platen. I unplugged the machine and tried to look inside, hoping for a way to repair this failure. But most of the moving parts of the Delta were sealed and thus not accessible. That included the gear assembly which connects and operates the twin cutter height adjustment shafts. My guess is that one or more of those gears became stripped or dislodged.

Given that I had only subjected the Delta planer to very light and occasional use - perhaps 100 board-feet total - I was rather disappointed in its early failure. That works out to $2 per board foot for the wood I have planed. Wood dealers around here will plane lumber for as little as 10 cents a board-foot. Since repair of the machine was not an option (a shop would likely charge more to fix it than it was worth), I decided to get rid of it. I like to be green, so I wanted to recycle as much of it as possible.

My experience with Delta power tools over the past several years has been less than satisfactory. I once owned a Delta benchtop jointer. However, the infeed and outfeed tables were constructed of cheap pot metal which, due to its relative softness and high coefficient of friction, constantly developed sharp burrs. Each time I jointed a piece of wood, the unavoidable burrs added a series of scratches along the edge. Exasperated, I sold the unit on Craigslist and bought a Jet. My Delta table saw is a bit better, though the blade tilt adjustment rod sometimes falls out of position, requiring me to crawl under the machine and re-install it.

Old-timers tell me that back in the day, Delta made some rock-solid machinery, and I don't doubt that. But based on my experiences with their products made in the last 10 or 15 years, I have to say Delta is but a mere ghost of what they once were. My verdict on Delta power tools: avoid them like the plague. You can buy machines that are far superior for about the same money.

The twin screws that raise and lower the cutterhead on the Delta benchtop planer are synchronized by a set of gears. Those gears on my machine failed, resulting in an uneven cutterhead. Unless you want wedge-shaped lumber, this configuration is unacceptable. I tried to see if it could be repaired. Unfortunately, the gears are not user-accessible, rendering the machine useless. Taking said machine to a repair shop would like cost more than the machine was worth. There is only one solution: recycle.	Due to the variety of materials used in the construction of the Delta benchtop planer, not all of them can be recycled. Thus, it is necessary to "disassemble" the unit. I found that an eight-pound sledgehammer works superbly for this task.
It took only a couple of blows with the small 8 lb. sledgehammer to inflict some serious damage to the planer. The thin sheet metal housing buckled with little effort. A single blow was all that was needed to crack open the cheesy motor housing.	A few more well-placed blows from the hammer really separated the components from one another. I have never seen so much zinc and brittle plastic fly out of something. Good thing I was wearing safety goggles! Now I can start sorting the materials, placing the metal components in my recycling bin and disposing of the rest.
Close-up of the anemic little universal motor and part of its flimsy zinc-and-plastic housing. A couple more hits and that nice copper wire should break free, ready for recycling.	The remains of the housing and the drive and cutter assembly. Much of this can be recycled.