First Planer- Help me narrow down to one!

[Knottscott]

I'd spend the extra money on a cutterhead lock to reduce the chance of snipe, so I'd stick with either of the DeWalts, Makita, Ridgid, Delta 22-580 or TP400....these have all rated well in one planer comparison or another, but I'd pass on the lower end Grizzly, Delta TP305, and Ryobi 1301. As with most tools, the end performance is really dictated by setup.

If you can catch a deal with the Microsoft Cashback promo (currently 30%!), you'll hit budget. Refurbs can be good value too.

[lebomike]

I have a Dewalt 735 for about eight months now and I Love mine. no snipe and excellent machine IMOP.I got mine on a good deal at Sears and only paid $319.oo.

mike

[LCHIEN]

I'd spend the extra money on a cutterhead lock to reduce the chance of snipe, so I'd stick with either of the DeWalts, Makita, Ridgid, Delta 22-580 or TP400....these have all rated well in one planer comparison or another, but I'd pass on the lower end Grizzly, Delta TP305, and Ryobi 1301. As with most tools, the end performance is really dictated by setup.

If you can catch a deal with the Microsoft Cashback promo (currently 30%!), you'll hit budget. Refurbs can be good value too.

I have the Delta TP400 (old 22-560) and it always got good reviews, its the single speed version of the 22-580, mine works great, has cutterhead lock and it weighs around 60 (68?) lbs for the unit only... altho the current TP400LS comes with legstand its not required and adds to the weight quoted in their website I imagine... The 22-560 is a handful for me but i can and do lift it to a table to use it, store it on a middle shelf (not too high or too low)

[THyman]

Regardless of which planer you ultimately choose, it will benefit greatly from a mobile cart with fold-down in/out tables (such as the one offered by Rousseau). You will be able to fold it up and roll it out of the way when not in use, and the extra shelving underneath will see that the space is used wisely. In addition, you will be better able to handle long workpieces, with much better anti-snipe performance. Worth considering...

You could use a dedicated cart with a flip top that can hold the planer and maybe a sander or something else small. Do a search here or on other forums. (Woodnet or SawmillCreek) there are plenty of plans for them.

[dbhost]

No cutterhead lock, though. Not always a problem, but often is... Ryobi really cheapened things up when they moved from the AP1300 to the AP1301.

I'm no expert in this field, but the owners manual to my AP1301 does list a cutter head lock.

[THyman]

I'm no expert in this field, but the owners manual to my AP1301 does list a cutter head lock.

The Dewalt 735 and the new Rigid R4330 don't have cutter locks as well but they do have four threaded posts that act as a cutter lock.

[Uncle Cracker]

I'm no expert in this field, but the owners manual to my AP1301 does list a cutter head lock.

Then it's either invisible, or they added one without changing the model number. I crawled all over one of them in HD once, and there wasn't any lock evident. It's no longer on the Ryobi website, so I couldn't check for it there, but here is a prior discussion on this website about it...

EDIT: Just found a .pdf online of the Owners' Manual... There is no facility mentioned about a cutterhead lock, unless you could be talking about the mechanism that holds the cutting drum in place while you change blades. What we are talking about instead is a lever actuated latch system that secures the whole cutter assembly to the adjustment posts, preventing any movement up or down of the height adjustment within the gantry while planing. This is one of the main causes of snipe. It's a whole different animal from the blade-changing thing.

[Gator95]

Thanks for the responses all. After handling several planers from the AP1301 to DW735, they all are liftable but heavy. No real distinction based on weight from lightest to heavy. Will put any planer I get on mobile stand and find a place for it once I get a chance.

Can anyone with the DW735 comment on the ability of the machine to direct woodchips to a bag without a separate dust control system? Seems like the amount of chips any of these planers would make will overcome my 16gal shopvac in quick order... which is what I use on my 3660 for sawdust. So some kind of directed, fan assisted chip-expulsion mechanism would be worth a few bucks more to me.

Any other comments on the DW 734 vs. Ridgid 4330 would be appreciated, including comments about how well they handle chips/dust. Don't care where they wind up, just so long as it is in a pile, in a bag, and not gumming up the works on the planer.

[pelligrini]

I have the DW735. I have been quite pleased with it.

It has a powered chip fan, and it works pretty well. I picked up their DW7353 chip collection accessory. It's basically a 4" hose on a bag that goes over your container of choice. I've got mine feeding a 33gal cheap rubbermaid plastic can. The bag wasn't designed to catch any fine dust, but it doesn't bother me too much since I use the tool outside, or put the collector can outside. A 4" hose going into any container with a filter and enough flow would work too. I just didn't feel like messing with it at the time.

If you don't use a hose, there is an included stock chip sprayer. It helps to disperse the chips everywhere, but it does keep them away from the works.

You will also want to get their infeed and outfeed tables, or make a stand for your own. This will add to the cost. Dwalt should have these packaged with the table.

I designed and built a flip top stand for mine. I really got tired of moving the thing around, especially at the end of a long shop session.

[Stan]

Can anyone with the DW735 comment on the ability of the machine to direct woodchips to a bag without a separate dust control system? Seems like the amount of chips any of these planers would make will overcome my 16gal shopvac in quick order... which is what I use on my 3660 for sawdust. So some kind of directed, fan assisted chip-expulsion mechanism would be worth a few bucks more to me.

Gator,
The powered chip fan does a pretty good job of moving sawdust away from the machine. I had mine hooked to my 16gallon Ridgid shop-vac when I first got it. If there was already sawdust in the shop-vac and I fired up the DW735 before the shop-vac -- the chip fan on the planer would lift the top of the shop vac and start blowing sawdust out between the top and the barrel of the shop-vac.
Don't think you need to buy the Dewalt accessory, just a bit of standard 4" DC hose, a garbage can of your chosen size and a means to hook the DC hose to the top of the garbage can. A bit of scrap plywood and a PVC connector should do the job.

[Stan]

As an update to the ability of the DW735 chip fan to clear things.... I just milled about 200 linear feet of stock for stiles and rails -- and forgot to switch the dust collector hose at the dust collector.

So... the DW735 was pushing chips out of the planer and through about 16 feet of 4" DC hose to the open end. I didn't notice any issues at the planer, but when I walked to the other side of the tablesaw after I finished, I found a nice pile of chips about 5" deep and stacked up neatly in a corner as it was blown out of the planer and through the DC hose.

2 loads picked up with the 16Gal shop vac and I can now see the asphalt again.

(I'm thinking the chip fan works pretty durn good).