How much do you use your surface planner?

[Woodboy]

Just received a new Norm furniture plan in the mail and as expected he uses a lot of material thicknesses that are not common at my three local fine wood suppliers. With Christmas coming around soon and the inevitable - "what should I get you question” from my wife I am debating if this is the year I bite the bullet and get a surface planner. After all the accounts are all joint.

So here are the questions: How often do you use your planner (if you have one) and which one should I buy? While I can appreciate the cost benefit merits of say Harbor Freight for some things, when it comes to major power tools I’ll stretch a little for top of the line quality.

[zootroy]

I use mine for almost every project. I own the Ryobi and I have no complaints.

[Bruce Cohen]

I'd be lost with mine, as I usually only buy wood either rough or S2S.

I've had the Dewalt 735 since it came out, It's probably the best proforming tool in my shop. And yes, it's pricey, but when I got mine at Lowe's they were running a promotion and it cost $350.00.

Bruce

[wardprobst]

I'd be lost with mine, as I usually only buy wood either rough or S2S.

I've had the Dewalt 735 since it came out, It's probably the best proforming tool in my shop. And yes, it's pricey, but when I got mine at Lowe's they were running a promotion and it cost $350.00.

Bruce

I've had a Dewalt 733 since they came out and agree with Bruce, money well spent. You could buy a good hand plane but it's a lot more labor.
DP

[Whaler]

I have a DW733 and it does a great job. I haven't used it in 2 years, wish you were close enough for a pick up the price would be right.

[New Guy]

I have an old delta my dad gave me. I think I have used it on every thing I have tryed to make. If it broke I would definitely get another one.

[maxparot]

I own a Ridgid thickness planer. It is used on virtually every project other than lathe projects. I consider it an essential tool to a woodworkers shop. The Ridgid has been reviewed many times and is consistantly rated as a best value and as for function finishes second to the Dewalt DW735.

[Pappy]

Go for it. You will wonder how you got along without one.

[JTimmons]

Go for it. You will wonder how you got along without one.

Exactly!

How much do I use it? More than I thought I would when I bought it, that's for sure. Especially when buying rough cut lumber.

I've got the DW734.

[jhart]

Have the DW733 and use it a great deal more than I ever anticipated. The more things I try and build, the more times I find the wood to be different thicknesses, especially buying the wood from the big box places.

Biggest lesson learned was on some base molding. Needed enough that we ended up buying some from 2 different stores, as one store didn't have as much as we needed. Didn't realize the slight difference in thickness until doing outside corner miters and absolutely could not get them to match up perfectly.

Now anything I do in WW, I run the boards thru the planer first.

[LarryG]

I have a Delta 22-580, and use it on virtually every project. If you're working with rough lumber at all, a thickness planer along with a jointer is indispensable.

The more things I try and build, the more times I find the wood to be different thicknesses, especially buying the wood from the big box places.

Big +1 on this. Yesterday I sent six sticks of 1x2 clear pine, sourced from Home Depot, through my planer to get them all to unform size. The 3/4" thickness was fairly (although not perfectly) consistent, but the 1-1/2" width varied by as much as 3/32" from piece to piece. That's a HUGE difference!

A light pass through the planer is also good for removing the dirt and black marks and paint streaks that store-bought lumber always seems to have.

One caveat: a thickness planer throws out a LOT of debris and will fill up the bottom bag of a DC faster than you can believe. If you don't have a DC, expect a big mess (but one that's easy to clean up, due to the fluffy nature of the shavings).

[Warren]

I have a 733 and a band saw. Between the two I get the thickness I need when I need it. The planer is one of those tools that, once you have one, you wonder how you got along without it. Unless, or course, you're one of those ludites who gets pleasure from planes. No complaints please. To me a being a ludite is a good thing. I'm just too lazy to plane large surfaces. And, I love the sound of power tools in the morning!

[gsmittle]

I too have the Rigid planer and I use it often. Used it all day yesterday to thickness some white oak. Ditto on the amazing amount of shavings--I use a ShopVac for now (saving my pennies) and I filled three 14-gal bags in an hour.

I even use it with a sled to flatten boards before jointing with th router. Can you tell I'm jointer-challenged?

Go for the planer!

g.

[MilDoc]

Way too much!!!!

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Every day. Sometimes I dream about it. My wife gets jealous but in all fairness it has 3hp.
I have a 15" Delta Floor Model. Before that I had the Ridgid lunchbox planer. I think the Ridgid is the best bang for the buck by far. Works like a charm and includes stand, tables, extra knives, 4" and 2" dust ports. Locking cutter head, etc makes it one mighty fine machine. Being able to switch out cheap disposible blades in 5 minutes on the Ridgid is awesome compared to taking blades out of a larger unit, sharpening them and then the PITA of resetting the blades!