Thickness planer purchase dilemma- Ryobi or Dewalt?

[Dale]

Apologies in advance for yet another question on which tool to buy but here goes anyway. Home Depot has the Ryobi AP1300 planer for $249 plus tax and Amazon has the Dewalt 733 for $299 with another discount of $25 so $274 out the door, no tax, no shipping fees, plus an extra set of knives and the dust hood. Basically the Dewalt is $8 more plus I would get an extra set of knives. On the surface I would buy the Dewalt but Home Depot has an offer that ends tomorrow if you purchase $299 or more on your HD card you make no payments for a year. So...I throw in a new jigsaw with the Ryobi planer and I've got two new tools to use for free for a year. Should I just buck up and spend the $ now and go for the Dewalt or is the Ryobi a comparable, or superior? machine that I can pick up tomorrow and pay for next July. I've been very happy with my purchase of a Dewalt table saw, the 744 that I bought a couple of years ago. Your opinions are encouraged.

Dale

[George]

Hmmm, a toaster company

or a company that likes to use universal motors??? How often do you intend to use it and will you be using it to earn $$$??? If your use is serious, I'd get a Makita 2012NB or a Delta. If the vendor will let you plane a board, get the one with the least snipe as that translates into feet of wasted lumber. Personally, I own the older Makita 2012 and think it is a very intelligent design and get

[Charlie Self]

George responds:

ALL the lightweight planers use universal motors.

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

[Edwin Pawlowski]

"B a r r y B u r k e J r ."

Yes, but they were a tool company long before buying the GE appliance line. Sad thing is, they applied some of the high volume, low cost techniques to the tools also. The B & D reputation is not what it is was 30 years ago. Ed

[Samuel Brooks]

I went with the Ryobi even though the Dewalt is closing out at 249 and even lower at some places. I am an occasional woodworker and I like the idea of indexed blades on the Ryobi. The one time that I had to change then, it it only took about 10 minutes. From what I understand the Dewalt does not have indexed blades so changing them can take some time.

Also the dust collection on the Ryobi worked well. I have the Ridgid

6.25 HP 2in1 shop vac and it is able to keep up with the planer as well as my Jet table saw and Jet 6" jointer. Of course it's only one at a time so I have to keep moving it around. Grizzley sells a converter to go from a 4" dust port to the 2-1/4" that is tapered, which I needed for the Jet tools, but the Ryobi planer has connections for 2 & 4" dust systems. The only downside is you will be dumping the shop vac every 60-80 bf. I was taking off about 1/16 at a pass.

I would also recommend you get two of the workforce rollers to help feed the from the infeed and outfeed sides. $19.95 each. I would also recommend the workforce stand, I think it was about $25.00. I put a bag of cement on the bottom shelf and the planer on the top and had zero vibration issues.

Also if you have not been reading the post, Dewalt is comming out with there new model later this year.

You won't go wrong with either tool, so get what you feel is the right one. There have been lots of post on this goup and reviews that are good to both machines.

Good luck and have fun.

[George]

I had heard that about Delta, but which model? They have several now.

[William E. Prisavage]

I forget the model #.It's about 3 yrs old

[Leon]

Wow Larry, you have one of those too... I think one day one will be in a museum as they were the first of thier kind. BTY, I use the same method to prevent snipe but have never used additional infeed or out feed rollers even with boards as long as 12'.