Planer purchase

What is a planer you would recommend in the 400 dollar or less catagory. Lowes has a Delta 12 or 12.5 cant remember for 199.99.

My dad said he would buy me one in exchange for converting his tow behind sprayer from gas to electric and getting it ready for summer. I already spent about 100 bucks on parts, so I may come out even, I dont know.

Locally I have that Delta at Lowes available and also a 13 inch RIGID at Home Depot.

What type of finish does a planer produce? Is it very smooth? Lots of sanding still needs to be done after?

Reply to
stryped
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Planers are one of the cases where the bench top tools are very good. I have a 12.5" delta. I plan to upgrade to a 15" floor standing model for the next machine purchase. But I just picked up 230 board feet of maple and hickory and plan to run all of that through the little planer.

Generally, the bench top planers leave a very good finish in normal grain. Figured grain tends to tear out, but chance are you won't be using that for now. You'll still want to sand with a fine grit when done, but the finish should be great.

You'll want some sort of dust collection with the planer. I use my benchtop without dust collection because I don't have the shroud, but I plan on trying to make one shortly. Make sure the planer comes with a dust shroud. If it doesn't, buy that also. I think for a benchtop planer, you can get away with using a shop vac for the dust collection. I also heard that there's a new benchtop planer that has a fan or something to eject chips. That could work also if you don't have a shopvac or something. Be prepared to sweep. Planing makes a lot of sawdust.

Amazon has two delta benchtop planers. I have an older version the cheaper one and it's served me well. One feature that stands out on the more expensive one is dual speed. If you can slow down the feed rate, you'll get a better finish. The finish I get now is so good though, I'm not sure how much better it would get.

Get the cheaper benchtop planer and put the extra money into the jointer.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

I would go with the Rigid. Initially any new planer will produce wonderfully smooth boards. However way way way long before the blades become dull they will developed nicks and you will need to scrape or sand the surface before applying a finish. Thickness planers are not intended to provide the final surface before applying a finish.

Reply to
Leon

For big runs I think using a regular sized dust collector would be a futile effort. I just got finished planing 200+ bf of Oak and produced enough saw dust to fill a typical sized dust collector 4 to 5 times a day for 2 days. It took me 15 minutes each day to sweep up and dispose of the saw dust in to

6, 45 gallon plastic bags. I suspect it would take much longer to empty a dust collector bag that many times. A planer produces big time waste as you well know. You need a big time collector to keep up and not cost you more time.
Reply to
Leon

Yeah, I thought about that. As it turns out, the 230 board-feet of wood that was supposed to be rough sawn (and it was priced that way) had really been planed down to 15/16 by the mill. The finish looked fairly good, and the boards are flat. So I don't plan on taking more than, say, 1/32" off any one pass. Still, I probably should set up the cyclone trashcan thing before hand.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

Yeah, the cyclone trash can set up would be the way to go. I took me about

8 hours total to flatten and plane using a planer sled and a Delta 15" planer running a 32 fpm. Have fun.... LOL. Fortunately you will not have to take too many passes or flatten the boards first.
Reply to
Leon

Trash can cyclones work surprisingly well with the typical 1 1/2 to 2 HP collector.

Reply to
B a r r y

Yeah. I'll be getting a grizzly g0490 delivered some time this week so it should be fun, at first anyway. :-) I just wish I had the new planer already. Hopefully, if I'll look real sad and tired, swmbo will suggest I get the new planer now.

I had been debating whether or not to get the 10" griz jointer, but I didn't think I would ever find reasonably priced boards wider than 8". Then I went to the lumber mill. I had to turn boards down because they were too wide and I didn't want to do the rip/glueup thing.

I don't plan on planing the entire 230 board feet at once since it's ment for several projects. I also need some thin stock for this project so I plan on resawing some of the boards (another first for me) and the first real test of my delta 14" BS.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

Ive had the Rigid for about 4 years now w/ no problems.

Reply to
Rob V

I thought you were getting a jointer? You have been making hundreds of posts about jointers recently, right?

Reply to
No

You should just buy the bed. :)

j/k..

Reply to
Locutus
  • Vote on answer
  • posted

hello,

go for a "refurbished" dewalt 735, they run in the $350 range. do not get fooled by the so called refurbished, the 3 ones that I saw were as good as the non refurbished, and I am more than happy with mine.

I love the motor assisted ejection, and you really just need a pipe and a trash can with a cloth on top for dust collection (at least, it is a good enough start)...

regards, cyrille

Reply to
Cyrille de Brébisson

lol.

This may be the most sound advice he's yet received.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

Yeah I was not referring to the power, rather the storage capacity. The easy to empty trash cans should work well. The cloth bags on most average sized dust collectors would be way too small for a large planing job.

Reply to
Leon

Someone sells a cyclone retrofit for the old style dust collectors. It looks like the normal cyclone-shaped thingy, but with no motor or output stage. I'm nto sure if it would be that much better than the trashcan lid though.

brian

Reply to
brianlanning

The Cyrille de Brébisson entity posted thusly:

I've only seen a planer in action once, and your talk of dust collection makes me wonder how that's accomplished. On the one I saw, the chips came straight out the back, followed (less quickly of course) by the board itself. How do you set up something to suck the chips in, while not getting hit by the board itself?

Reply to
Oleg Lego

I guess we are talking about 12 or 13" portable planers in that price range. Take a look at Makita or DeWalt.

A decent planer is around $500. Get one with a DC hood.

With sharp blades and a bit of luck the finish is very smooth. Maybe some 220 grit sandpaper will be needed. If you take a small amount on the last pass the finish is even more smooth. Remember that wood is wood, and some samples will be smoother than others, depending on grain direction, knots, internal stresses, defects, etc.

One thing about planers is that they produce a LOT of sawdust. Moving the sawdust quickly away from the machine will produce better results, help keep your machine cool, and protect your health. You have a DC, right?

Reply to
Phisherman

My Makita surface planer did not have a dust hood. I could have bought one for $70--ouch! Instead, I made a hood from some scrap wood, some metal, an old metal can, metal tape, and some paint. It took me a couple hours to make, but it was almost free and works great! Expect a mess without proper dust collection!

Reply to
Phisherman

They do. And the trash can cyclone is much easier to empty and set back up than the large bags. I installed a plastic window on the side so I can easily see when the can needs to be emptied.

Reply to
Phisherman

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