GMC PPM Palm Planer: Discontinued — What to Buy Instead

The PPM was GMC’s palm planer — a small, narrow-width electric planer meant to be driven with one hand. GMC’s Australian business went into receivership in 2008.

What a palm planer is for

Not dimensioning. A narrow planer cannot flatten a board; it takes a shallow cut over a width smaller than most stock, so the result is a series of overlapping troughs.

What it does well is trimming in place: easing a door edge that binds, chamfering a fitted piece of trim, cleaning a glue line on an assembled frame where a bench plane cannot reach. One hand on the tool and one hand steadying the work is genuinely useful there.

If you own one

Blades are the whole tool. Most small planers of this era took disposable double-edged carbide blades in a common length — measure yours before assuming. Generic replacements in standard lengths (82mm is by far the most common) are cheap and still sold. A planer with dull blades tears rather than cuts, and people replace the tool when they should have spent a few dollars on steel.

Check the rear shoe is coplanar with the cutter arc. If the back of the cut steps down, the rear shoe is out of adjustment or worn, and you will never plane a flat edge.

Dust. Hand planers throw shavings hard in one direction. Set the chute away from you and expect a mess regardless.

What to buy

The Triton TPL180B, linked below, is a different proposition — a 180mm three-blade planer, considerably larger, and it is on this page because there is no like-for-like replacement worth recommending. The triple cutter head is the point: three blades means a shallower bite per cut, which leaves a cleaner surface and less chatter than a two-blade head on the same pass.

For the trimming work a palm planer did, a sharp block plane costs less, makes no noise and never needs a blade you cannot find.