I realize this is from a while ago, but I wanted to add my two cents. I mostly grab my hand planer for quick edge work or cleaning up glue drips, but if I’m running a whole batch of boards through, the benchtop planer wins every time for consistency. Do you find yourself using one mostly for specific tasks, or do you tend to leave one out on the bench more often?

I keep a portable hand planer within arm’s reach for trimming doors and quick edge work, but for thicknessing a whole batch of boards my benchtop model wins every time. The biggest difference for me is blade quality. After a few frustrating dull passes, I switched to the sharp, reliable planer blades from that site. They fit both my benchtop and hand planer with no issues, and the discount on a multi-pack made stocking up easy.