Planers

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Botanist

New User
Ron
To all,

I am thinking about replacing my 12 inch delta planer. It still works fine but produces quite a bit of snipe on both ends of the board. It is also kind of a weeny and takes for ever to take much off the board. I buy all my lumber rough so I use it a lot. It is probably one of the first portable designs and I know they have improved them quite a bit over the last few years.

I am looking at the dewalt DW735. It seems to have a lot of features and gets good reviews. I am also considering going old school and looking for an old Powermatic or Parks planer.

I guess my question does anyone have any experiece comparing the new fangled portable units against the old school heavy duty units. My main concerns are snipe as well as amount of wood one can remove in one pass. Any comments are appeciated. Well helpful comments anyway.

Thanks,

Ron
Durham
 

JimmyC

New User
Jimmy
Ron,

Last year I was in your dilemma, I had a 18 year old Delta lunchbox which needed upgrading. I looked seriously at the DW735 which is a great planer, but more of a finish planer. I almost pulled the trigger, but I need to take alot of wood down sometimes and this seems to be one of the DW735 downfalls. Luckily an older Powermatic 15" planer and I was lucky to score it for $400, it needed some TLC, but now works like a charm and I'm happy with it. If you buy the DW735, you may want to keep the Delta for first , or rough, cuts and then finish off with the DW, unless DW come down on the price of blades.

Good Luck,
Jimmy:)
 

JackLeg

New User
Reggie
We own 2 DW735's and one of them has dressed several thousand feet of cedar, cypress, and oak. For a lunchbox planer, it does a great job. Easy to set, accurate, and powerful enough for a 12" unit.

BUT, the "inside" of the unit contains a lot of plastic. Just today a large chip hung in the fan (which is a great feature) and stopped the entire planer. Took off the adapter, pulled it out with a pair of needle nose pliers, and she went back to work!

For the money, I think it's a great machine. If you need "Heavy Duty" look for something else.

m2cw!

:wwink:
 

Travis Porter

Travis
Corporate Member
I have a 15" Grizzly 1021. It is a pretty good sized unit and I can take up to an 1/8 off in a pass depending on material hardness and width. Still, I get snipe. I would like to have a larger unit (imagine that), but in addition, I would want one with solid infeed and outfeed tables, not the roller system like I have. I think that would help with the snipe issue but don't know for sure.

Before I got the Grizzly I had a Makita lunch box that I got frustrated with as I considered it a weenie as well. I personally didn't think it did well with large quantities of rough lumber that I like to process. That was around 10 to 15 years ago though and I would expect there have been many improvements since then. If and when I do go bigger:wwink: I would like to get one with segmented infeed rollers. They are supposed to make it easier to plane multiple boards when they are not the same thickness. I said like, and I don't think that should be an absolute any longer. I missed out on a good deal because of my shall we say bias that I regret.:BangHead:

Good luck on your decision
 

LeftyTom

Tom
Corporate Member
I was looking at the 735, but didn't like that it did not include infeed and outfeed tables. There are packages that include those tables, now.

(Hidden gloat: I got bdjessup's Delta 22-580 12" planer March 21..pics coming)
 

MarkW

New User
Mark
I went through the same thing this year. I had actually bought a 735 but not opened it when I realized by the time I added the tables and stand I could get a more industrial planer for a couple hundred more .

I went ahead and bought the Grizzley G0453

There isn't much plastic in there.
 

cubicdissection

New User
Eric
JimmyC gave you spot on advice. If you want to find the single biggest downfall of the 735, check the reviews the blades get on amazon. The blades are designed to cut marshmellow and not much else. I literally budget a new set of blades for each project, and have spent close to $1000 on blades in the last three years since I've owned it.

OTOH, the finish when the blades are sharp is unparalled. If you buy one I'd definitely keep the old one for roughing and reserve the 735 for finish work.

A better idea would be to buy a 15" griz. stationary. I'm planning on ordering one in about two weeks and fitting it with a byrd cutterhead. Only reason I have not upgraded earlier is my shop space is rented and I was waiting to upgrade to 220 tools until I bought a permanent place. However, I can't wait any longer and so I will toss a 1.5hp 110V motor in it until I move.
 

Keye

Keye
Corporate Member
Sounds like the 735 is pretty good planner except for the complaints about the blades. Am I missing something:dontknow:. Why not use stainless steel blades. If they are not available over the counter I am sure you could still have them made and save a lot of money. Or, is there an after market blade available. Might be worth a try if you own a 735.

If you are a furniture maker and decide to look for a used floor model I would suggest 20" vs 15". Particularly if you do not have a drum sander. If you stop and look around you will be amazed at how many 17" to 19" glued up panels are used in furniture making.
 

Nativespec

New User
David
I had a 735 and got rid of it. Good for fininshing, but so is a sander. I needed a planer that can plane boards and the 735 is a little slow for me. The dust chute is located in a bad place as well-keeps getting knocked off by the stock running through it.

I would look for a used "production" planer.

David
 

JimmyC

New User
Jimmy
Sounds like the 735 is pretty good planner except for the complaints about the blades. Am I missing something:dontknow:. Why not use stainless steel blades. If they are not available over the counter I am sure you could still have them made and save a lot of money. Or, is there an after market blade available. Might be worth a try if you own a 735.

If you are a furniture maker and decide to look for a used floor model I would suggest 20" vs 15". Particularly if you do not have a drum sander. If you stop and look around you will be amazed at how many 17" to 19" glued up panels are used in furniture making.

Keye,

The DW 735 blade system is for disposable blades only, so there is no advantage to having better blades. On another note: they are supposed to do figured wood better than other planers that have blades.

Jimmy:)
 
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