My first planer... cheap, easy to use, and portable

Nice review. Thanks

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

thanks for the review. its been between this and the grizzly for awhile but i think that now i might be leaning a little bit more toward the delta. thanks for the review.

I was thinking that this was the same as the Delta planer that I’ve had for a year or so now and have been very happy with it as well. But, mine is the two-speed, 13” model, the 22-580. It leaves a very good surface at the finish speed (90 CPI). I would use the 20” planer at school to do the grunt work and then bring the wood home to do the final couple of passes.

By adjusting the in-feed and out-feed tables up slightly to support the wood better or using my hand to support longer pieces, I can usually eliminate the snipe.

-- Jack - Mission Viejo, Calif

Hi SST,

Nice review and I agree it is a good planer.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Do you wear that bow tie and tux when you operate it? That’s ok, I like to come home and dig right in without changing too. Nice review also! Looks like a good one.

Dave

-- Dave Leitem,Butler,Pa.,http://dlcarver.etsy.com

I had one in a school shop I previously worked in. Not too bad, I think it was $300 when I ordered it. However I would spend a little more and go with the Dewalt 735. (I think that is the number) It is the one with the 4 posts, so a cutterhead lock is not needed, has repeat thickness setting, 2 speed feed control and easy to change indexed 3 cutterhead blade system. I have changed blades at least 6 times in the 3 years I have had the machine, it can be done in about 10 minutes. The entire top lifts off and you look down from the top since the motor is behind the cutterhead. This is the only planer I have changed blades on and not cut my finger in the process. Beware to anyone changing planer blades, they are as sharp as a surgeon’s knife and you will be bleeding before you even know you are cut. At least it doesn’t hurt that way. Finally the planer has a chip ejection fan/blower. That thing can inflate my dust collector and it has to travel through 6 feet of 4” flex hose, 6 feet of 6” pipe, and finally through about 12 feet of 8” pipe to get there.

Dewalt and Delta have merged and even the tool rep for my school who can sell me either and was first a delta rep says the dewalt is the way to go and that machine would stand up even in the school shop environment.

I have sent at least 4 complete kitchen rebuilds through my planer, and dozens of other personal projects. Lumber from Pine and cedar to maple, oak, ash, and cherry.

The only drawbacks are the cost at nearly $500, and the weight, it is about 75lbs. Not really too portable. I do remember reading in one of the magazines it rec’d top tool, but not top value for the same 2 reasons I just listed.

Just my 2 cents. Tooldad

nice review. Can you tell us where you get those pallets?

I have a cheap Delta planer too. It works fine. I have i sitting in a tool well with 24” of infeed and outfeed. that keeps the snipe down.

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

Great Informative Review! Impressive Results with Pallet Wood -

-- Bill - - Ad-Marketing Guy, Ramsey NJ

I’m thinking of building a longer infeed / outfeed extension to use when I clamp this to my bench. I do think that’s the way to go. As to pallets, I got a bunch at a local landfill where they are stacked up. They sell the good ones for a buck each and the ones with broken parts are given away or trashed. I usually take the ones with broken parts because there’s a lot of good pieces, and, of course, because I’m cheap.
You can also watch larger business that get stuff on pallets. They often toss them. -SST

-- Accuracy is not in your power tool, it's in you

The infeed/outfeed is what does the trick . Check out my bench. It holds a planer, mortiser and it also servs as a massive router table. Click on the thumbnails to see bigger pictures.

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

Nice review, I have had the same model for a year or so. Like you, it’s my first so I can’t give a comparitive analysis. However, I’m very happy with it. The depth adjustments are fluid and blade changes are straight forward. Snipe is an issue, but my understanding is that almost all benchtops don’t have the locking mechanism that reduces snipe. Dust collection is not accounted for so much either but I typically angle the rolling flip top cart (see my projects) towards a floor sweep/dsut collector.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

I have to say that I had this planer and did not like it. It had horrible snipe no matter what I did. I finally sold it and got a Dewalt 734 and have never looked back.

-- www.responsetolight.com - A Woodworking & Renovation Blog

While there is at tendancy for this planer to leave snipe on the first and last few inches of a board it can be reduced and even eliminated (virtually) by lifting the board slightly as it goes in and out of the machine. Taking light passes also helps. While this planer doesn’t have many of the features of more expensive planers it will get the job done if you are on a budget. If I could have afforded it at the time I probably would have went with the Rigid planer. The Dewalt is just to expensive for me given the amount of work I do.

-- Glenn, New Mexico

I have this planner and use it a lot. I really like the fact that the blades are easy to change and are self indexing so you do not have to worry about squaring all the cutterheads to perfection after each blade change. There is snipe, but I tend to leave the boards a little long and then cut them down to final size and noone ever knows the difference.

-- Steve-o