Help needed, Craftsman wood planer.

[Al8236]

I just went out to the shop and looked at my power hand plane and my craftsman jointer the hand plane runs at 12,000 RPM with about a 2 to 1 reduction to the cutter head and the jointer runs a 3450 RPM motor with a 2 to 1 Increase to the cutterhead. that is what I am going by. Do what you will but I don't think the jointer was ever intended to operate at those speeds.

[tonyfoale]

I just went out to the shop and looked at my power hand plane and my craftsman jointer the hand plane runs at 12,000 RPM with about a 2 to 1 reduction to the cutter head

So 6,000 rpm at the cutter, I measured the speed on my hand version and it was the cutter head that spun at 12,900. Strange that there is such a difference.

I don't think the jointer was ever intended to operate at those speeds.

I am sure it wasn't.

So what are the pros and cons of running fast and slow?
I can see that for a given feed rate (manual in this case) the fast cutter would need to make a smaller cut which would reduce the blade load but on the other hand the blade would heat more due to the speed. The power requirement would probably be higher but that is of little concern to me because I'll just put a suitable motor on it, but of course it would be of concern to a manufacturer because it would increase cost.
What about finish, does a fast moving blade give a smoother cut?

I seem to have opened a can of worms with my inquiry, but I don't like to just accept things in ignorance. I need to know why.