I'm thinking of buying a thickness planer, i'm ignoring the cheap Ryobi's etc based on hearsay from friends.
Does anyone have any opinions on the Makita 2012NB ? Or any other suggestions, what to look for, recommended modles/brands etc?
Thanks
I am pretty happy with mine. Snipe isn't too bad, blades are easy to change, seems to have plenty of power. I bought it because it was the lightest one on the market and I had to move it from a shelf to a stand every time I used it. If that's not an issue for you, you might want to look at a cheaper heavier one.
I bought the Dewalt DW 735 after using a cast iron Delta for many years. It works very well. The blades are easy to change, the dust ejection is superb and it has the capacity needed for my shop. The only complaint is that the knives are thin and no matter how careful I am they get little nicks leaving raised ridges. The boards sand very easily but it is annoying. max
I have been using a 12" Delta for the last 5 years and it is going strong. It does fairly well on the 5" by 5" by 10' posts I did but I am going to upgrade to a 20" Grizzly because I need to be able to finish plane 8" thick. The 12.5" Delta seems to be a better machine.
Last time I looked the 13" Ridgid was one of the best buys around in a breadbox type, if they're still making/selling them. Don't know whether you can find them in Oz.
I like my ryobi planer as well. It has plenty of power. After about fifty 16 footer boards, I got a slight nick in the blade, which didn't bother me to much because these boards had some really rough boards with knots. One thing I recommend about flipping the reversible blades. Mark with a sharpie the side you are about to flip before you remove them. If you drop it, its very hard to tell which one had the nick.
Jeff
I've got the Dewalt 734, and so far am quite pleased with it. You have to hook it up to a dust collector, though...it lacks the internal fan the 735 has that ejects the chips, and a shop vac doesn't have the nads to get the job done. Once I got my dust collector...problem solved. It also lacks the two-speed feature found on the 735, but it's about $100 - $120 cheaper too.
And as for snipe, I have never, and I truly mean never, sent a board through that came out with one iota of snipe. I was impressed!
on 10/26/2005 7:05 AM snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net said the following:
Good tip. Thanks!
Amen on the DC!!!!! My DW734 could easily overload the shop vac, and had a lot of chips blowing out around the cutter head/feed area. The only time I ever had snipe was if I had a looooong board and didn't get around the output side to support it, or if I forgot to lock the head(DAMHIKT)!
My DW735 also shows a couple of the nicks in the blade, even though I am quite carefull of what goes in. Often using a wire brush to clean off the board.
Since most of my board are not 13" wide, I always try to move them around a bit when planing to even knife wear and I can often make my final pass where I know there are no knicks.
Since the machine is a 4 blade machine, it is also possible to just flip one single knife as well.
How many of you have to blow out the bed after passes of not too wide material? I found when planing down some 2.5x3.5 blanks, I had to blow out the bed every pass as there were enough chips on the bottom to possibly become an embedding issue.
I've not yet taken the cover off to check if the dust hood has some stuffed on the sides or the neck causing the problem.
Alan
I've got the DW735 also, though I'm pretty sure it is has a 3 knife cutter head. I've never seen much more than a few (I'm talking 2 or 3) small chips (closer to sawdust, really) lying on the bed. I did, however have an oak knot come loose after passing though the blades, and the knot wedged itself between the bed and the outfeed roller. 2 sprockets ended up busting into several pieces. I ordered 4 replacements so I'd have an extra set on hand along with some e-rings. IIRC, total (including shipping) was around $10, and the stuff arrived about 3 days after I ordered. I've certainly learned my lesson about planing thin material with knots. (Don't do it.) The first incident I had was planing some thin pine, and the knot got sucked up and caught in the chip ejection fan. Lovely smell of melting plastic ensued...
Pros for the 735 are that there is no snipe whatsoever (I've got the additional infeed/outfeed ramps), dust ejection is unbelievably fantastic, and it has 2 feed speeds. Cons are that it is pretty pricey, and it weighs a ton (if portability is a concern). Blades are also a touch pricey, especially since they are listed as disposable, but I've seen comments on this group indicating that they are, in fact, resharpenable.
-John
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