OT but I need an opinion on a surface planer.

[Modat22]

I'm REALLY want'in a surfaceplaner, I've been looking at dewalt 734 and the 735, delta 12 inch, and a rigid 13 inch.

The dewalt 735 sure looks purdy and its only 60 or so dollars higher than the 734.

What are your opinions on the above units?


Thankyou greatly
Sam

[edsaws]

Well heres my .02 cents. If you plan on planing a lot of wood your going to need a machine with some nut. I have a older delta portable that I thought would be ok but after running a pile of 12 inch wide boards through it I was having to push and pull most of them to get them through. Then I found an older foley belsaw planer/molder has pretty much the same capacity 12 1/2 inch but it can hog off 1/8 inch per pass without much effort at all. It also makes some dam nice molding. I made some cherry 3 1/2 inch crown for the bedroom and tell ya its impressive to see a board go in and a sweet piece of molding come out in one pass. So I guess what I'm saying is bigger and beefier are better.

[Modat22]

Thanks Edsaws, Hmm theres a used industrial machinery place down the street from me in Louisville KY, I've been meaning to visit for some time now. I'll have to take a looksee while moose is at work 

[Burlkraft]

I have a Delta 15 1/2" and an old Foley................

Mmmmmmmmm Foley would be my choice...........

I love cast iron

[Paschale]

Hey Modat...your topic's about wood, and doing things with wood, so it's certainly not "OT."  Though it should maybe go into the "Drying and Processing" Board...   

I have a friend who runs a plant that makes percussion instruments, and he used a DeWalt Planer for a long time before moving up to a beefier unit.  He just sold it to a friend of mine at work, and it still has plenty of life in it.  That baby has seen A LOT of wood go through it, and I think it's a pretty good testament to the quality of the DeWalt planer, FWIW.

[Modat22]

I looked on ebay and was a little shocked at the cost of a belsaw unit on there, it was at 250.00 which to me is cheap!

If I don't find a nice used cast iron unit, I'll probably go with a dewalt 73- something or other.

The 735 would look awful spiffy with pinstriping or perhaps flames painted on it in my shop.

[Deadwood]

If you are on a budget, you might want to reconsider that Dewalt Planer. I am sure they are nice, but the cost of replacment blades is over 70 bucks from what I hear.

Myself I got an old Delta Portable Planer and like someone else said, on the wide boards the feed rollers don't have enough grab to pull the board through the planer. Still I have planed A LOT of wood with this unit and it still has a lot of life left in it.

FOR THE MONEY anyway, I would recommend this planer. You can resharpen the knives and you can buy new ones for about 2o bucks.

Just my two planer blades...

[Fla._Deadheader]

 We have 2 Belsaw Planer-Molders. One is headed to CR, and Ed has used the other to make some great looking Cypress siding and Shutters.

  Simple design. Put whatever size motor ya want on it. We used a gas engine on one in Arkansas. COULD go portable with it.  

[woodmills1]

15 years ago I bought a Ryobi portable 10" when they almost first came out.  Over the years it has more than paid for itself.  I sharpen the blades and their drop in blade holder makes for very quick set up.  I still use it for light passes and for its very smooth finish.  However I also have a belsaw machine from the early 1970's and it has planed thousands of feet, all of my stickers, and made lots of moulding.  It is a great low budget machine and you can still get parts for it.  Mine has a 5 HP 220 Baldor motor that has been trouble free.

[Skytramp]

Hi Modat;
     I have had some experiance with surface planners, I first bought a Ryobi 12&3/8 inch planner, it worked fine untill I went to plane some wide boards of seasoned oak.  Those small planners are great and affordable for ammature wood workers but if you are going to do any serious planning I would suggest that you spend the extra and get at least the Bellsaw or Grizzley makes some heaver planers.
     There is a place in Memphis that sells used industrial equipment, most of it is 3 phase and really inexpensive.  I bought a 24 inch ready to go for $800 and they had smaller ones for less.  Three Phase here is out of the question, without a converter but I modified mine to use a EA 71 subru engine, haven't gotten it compleatly done yet ( I need a governor of some kind, I have one off of a combine that I think will work but am busy with other projects)  anyway if you want the PH # I think I can find it, but I am sure that there is something simular in your area.  I can assure you that if you go with the small one you will be dissapointed at some point.  If you do choose the small ones take into consideration the price of blades, availability and ease of changing them, also be sure that they have enough end play to stagger the blades as you will invarably bet a little nick  in them and if you can slide one down a little you can continue to use the blades.  Also try and get one that you can sharpen the blades on.  On my Ryobi I just touch them up a little each time I use it with a Diamond dust type honeing stone from Wally World.
Skytramp

[Modat22]

SUBARU powered. I bet that one will plane some wood!

[bitternut]

I also bought one of those 10" Ryobi's when they first came out. Still works good. Very easy to change blades. Blades were real easy for me to sharpen. Made up a fixture to hold at proper angle and slapped it on the surface grinder at work. Could do a set in about 5 minutes. Retired now so am more careful about what I run through it.

It seemed like I was running into a need to plane stuff wider than 10" so I bought a Dewalt 735 that takes 13" stuff. It works real nice so far and the two speed feed rate is a plus with tough wood. It has less snipe than the Ryobi but I have yet to see a planer that totally eliminates snipe. I just plan for it and leave 4" to 5" extra on a board most times. If I am still around in another ten years or so I will let you know if it is durable or not.

If money were no object I would buy the biggest heaviest planer I could find. There is no substitute for good old heavy cast iron. Maybe some day I will come across a good used one for a good price ( cheap ).

[Jason_WI]

I recently picked up a 26" Cresent Planer for $650. It weighs 3000lbs, all cast iron. This is was made back when they made real planers and OSHA wasn't around yet




I have it up and running now on a phase converter with the 10 HP motor that came on it. I need to reshim the babbit bearings and it will be as good as new.

My friend used a JET 12 inch portable planer for a few years. The button on the motor would pop after planing 50 BF of oak with sharp blades. They are ok for hobby use but if you want to plane 100 or 200 BF at a time then a Bell-saw, RBI, Woodmaster, or older Delta planer would be your better choice.

Jason

[Ianab]

I've got a DW733 that does a good job. It is still a lunchbox planer so you have to go easy with it, light passes etc. The 735 looks nice, but I'm a bit dubious about the disposable blades. The 733 has big resharpenable blades (which only cost about the same as the 735 disposable blades   )

It depends how much you need to do. If you think 100ft of boards is a lot to do at one, a lunchbox unit will work fine. If you want to do 1000ft, you want something bigger.

Quality of cut on the lunchbox units is usually better than the big ones (slower feed rate and lighter cuts) so thats not an issue.

A company I do computer work for has one of these...
http://www.weinig.com/C1256F98005C541E/CurrentBaseLink/W2697LSP497ALPAEN
Now THAT will plane some boards  

Cheers

Ian

[Modat22]

One problem I have is shop size, I've only got a 12' x 16' shop. Inside I have a sears radial arm saw, miller 35 welder, smithy lathe/mill, a big work table, a tool cabinet and misc shelves and work table on wall.

Its way too small, I hope to build a much larger building when I get my bandsaw finished (and dry lumber).

[Ianab]

Well, a small shop is another reason to get a lunchbox planer.. at least you can stash it out of the way when you aren't using it.
And if you get a 735 and move it around enough.. think of the muscles you will build up 

Ian

[Engineer]

Sam, I just bought the Ridgid, and although I have only run about 50 board feet through it, it's a fine machine.  It has a lot of good features such as a head lock and an auto-thickness indicator (set it and forget it).  Blades are reversible, probably possible to sharpen or hone at least once, and they are thirty bucks at HD.

I looked at the Delta 13" two-speed model and the DeWalt 13" 3-blade model and found them both lacking.  There are tons of online reviews about all three models, on Fine Woodworking's site, Woodweb, newsgroups and magazine articles.   

Planer story - first planer was a Delta 12" lunchbox portable.  I really would have rather had the Delta 12-1/2" model with the head lock, so I eBayed the 12" one to a guy in Seattle.  Got $150 for it, which wasn't bad.   Guy called me and said that he had rejected the shipment, that the planer was badly damaged, and would I please refund his money.  OK, no problem, and curious, I waited for UPS to deliver the carcass back to me.  On arrival, it looked like they had attempted delivery of the planer, FROM THE AIRCRAFT at full altitude.  The machine was FLAT.  All castings busted, dust hood was a pancake.  Good news was, UPS gave me full replacement value for a new model, enough to buy the one I really wanted, and I was able to pull enough parts off the old one, including the motor, cutterhead, blades and belts, to get back my $150 as well.  So I profited nicely by having UPS kill the old planer.

I have since bought and sold the 12-1/2" model, and bought a Woodmaster 718, which is not what I really wanted either, so that's for sale too.

[dail_h]

   I got two planers.1st is a 220 in Grizzly,got it for $800,with 4-5 hrs on it,looked like brabd new.I've planed a bunch of stuff with it,and it does a good job,and has enough power. @nd is a 18 in Woodmaster I got for $300 with a sanding drum,moulding head,and Gang saw attachment.Haven't had a chance to use it much,but seems like a good machine.
   I really wanted a Delta because they are the only manufacturer that I know of whose head moves up and down instead of the table moving. With the head moving instead of the table,you don't have to be constantly adjusting your in,and out feed tables.
   So why did I buy two brands of planer that I wasn't interested in? 'Cause they are both well known and proven brands ,an 'cause they was "CHEAP"
   here is a site that sell used equip.,they usually have some good deals.
     www.dempseyand co.com

[solodan]

in my opinion, a 12 inch planer is useless. 13 should be the minimum size. a true 12" board is impossible to get through a 12 inch machine. Grizzly or Woodmaster will give you the most bang for your buck. a spiral head will give you the best finish. get yourself some good strong infeed and outfeed rollers to help avoid snipe. always keep your bed waxed, it will put less strain on the machine.

[shopteacher]

I'd be looking for a Powermatic 100 (long before the Taiwan invasion). Heavy duty and really well built.  Only takes up about 2X2 space and quite a few are single phase. Blade are readably available and reasonable.  I have a 20" delta that I use for rough boards and PM 100 that is in the shop.  Both are excellent machines and have had them for about 10 years. You can't go wrong with quality.

[Modat22]

Thanks for the info folks.
Sam