Good thickness planer

[farminkarman]

Good afternoon fellas. I’m looking to get a decent thickness planer for my shop now that I have my sawmill fully operational. I do have a big planer that came with the mill that I will use for chip planing, but I want something for my shop at home. I am thinking about a Dewalt, but I’m curious to hear what you guys are running.

 

[Lnk]

Good afternoon fellas. I’m looking to get a decent thickness planer for my shop now that I have my sawmill fully operational. I do have a big planer that came with the mill that I will use for chip planing, but I want something for my shop at home. I am thinking about a Dewalt, but I’m curious to hear what you guys are running.

I have a shopsmith standalone planer. Works well. Only planer I ever had. So no idea if is better than others. It does work really well, but I am limited to 12" wide boards.

 

[farminkarman]

I have a shopsmith standalone planer. Works well. Only planer I ever had. So no idea if is better than others. It does work really well, but I am limited to 12" wide boards.

I have heard of those, but have never seen one. Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[Lnk]

I have heard of those, but have never seen one. Thanks for sharing your experience!

I am not a real woodworker. I just dabble. I found a Mark 5 for sale with disc, belt, planer, joiner, table saw with extension tables, lathe, and bandsaw, with the dust collector for like 500. Bunch of fences, tooling, drill chuck etc. I can accomplish just about anything I need to do, but planning is critical. Moreso than having separate tools. Like I said, not a real woodworker. That said, the tools seem well constructed. I have had to redo setups a few times due to my lack of experience. I enjoy it, and wish I had started earlier in life.

Good luck in your search, I bet any with the size requirements you need would work well. Could always sell it if you find a better or more suitable one.

 

[beaglebriar]

I really like my grizzly 20” but it’s far from portable if that’s what you’re looking for.

DeWalt 13” with a helical head would be my choice in something portable.

 

[farminkarman]

I really like my grizzly 20” but it’s far from portable if that’s what you’re looking for.

DeWalt 13” with a helical head would be my choice in something portable.

I don’t need portable, but it would be nice. How much is the Grizzly you have?

 

[beaglebriar]

I don’t need portable, but it would be nice. How much is the Grizzly you have?

New is somewhere around $3000 but you can find them on marketplace for a fair price.

 

[Ketchup]

The Helical 13” Dewalt is a pretty darn versatile planer for finish lumber. I find mine snipes easily though.

I have a friend that runs a Local Hardwood furniture business. He chip planes and then goes directly to a 36” Time-Saver sanding machine. It’s a slick set-up.

 

[farminkarman]

The Helical 13” Dewalt is a pretty darn versatile planer for finish lumber. I find mine snipes easily though.

I have a friend that runs a Local Hardwood furniture business. He chip planes and then goes directly to a 36” Time-Saver sanding machine. It’s a slick set-up.

I have heard good things about the Dewalt…they aren’t too spendy either. Is the snipe fairly short when it happens?

 

[Al Smith]

I have a 12.5" DeWalt that does a fine job but it will snipe one end for some reason . It's probabley an adjustment I've over looked .

 

[hacskaroly]

I am thinking about a Dewalt

Where I worked, we sold quite a few DeWalt planers, people seemed to like them. I have one from Harbor Freight, it works well for me, still learning with it. Seems to be solid so far. The store had it miss-marked so got it for about $40 less than what they normally go for.

 

[Cantdog]

I have a number of planers.......and some of the afore mentioned ones.

I own two DeWalt 12" portable planers......these do very well for a limited amount of planing. They should not snipe as there is no bottom rolls to adjust. If they do all you have to do is hold up gently on the end of the board going in and out so the board is flat to the table until it is held down by both rollers. Not to expensive, portable and will porduce a great finish with sharp knives.


I also have a 20" Grizzly. When I bought mine 20 years ago they were $900.00 plus shipping. This is a good planer and blades (4) are real easy and pretty quick to change. I have planed tens of thousands of board feet of select hardwoods with this. I bought it because it would open up to 8" and I was building a 26' X 52' two story post and beam barn and there were several thousand feet of 6" X 8" timbers to square and plane. All told I milled over 15,000 BFT of timber for this job so this was a lot of planing and shows the only downside to this planer is it only wants to plane 3/32-1/8 cut per pass. I have replaced the switch and one set of belts in 20 years of what you migh call light comercial use. Great bang for the buck, durable if run properly and not that expensive for the capacity in thickness and width.

I favorite is my old Powermatic Model 100 12". Not Portable at 450lbs. A couple years ago I converted it to a helix head...best thing I ever did to it!! Don't have to be a magician to change knives anymore!!! I bought this planer 25 years ago it it gets used weekly and some time daily. This planer says on the sticker "Please don't remove more than 1/4" per cut." This is important/good if you are prone to planing a lot of rough lumber.

I also have a 37" TimeSaver in the shop that takes the place of having to plave wide boards/panels or final finish planing.

So I must also add one more thing about planing wood. Especially rough lumber. You first need to flatten one side of the board with a jointer. Otherwise most of whatever cup/warp/curve the material has will not be gone after planing...simlpy, slightly less cupped/warped/curved than before but smooth.
In the end my advice is see how much planing you intend to do and buy the machine one level up from what you think that matches your needs. That way you won't be disappointed.

 

[Seachaser]

I have the Dewalt I got from Lowe’s. It had been returned. Looked brand new and got it for about half price. All I’ve done was change the blades.

 

[Ketchup]

I have heard good things about the Dewalt…they aren’t too spendy either. Is the snipe fairly short when it happens?

Could be as much as 3.5”? It’s all about lifting the board as mentioned above, which sounds easy but leaves room for mistakes. Well set rollers help.

 

[farminkarman]

Could be as much as 3.5”? It’s all about lifting the board as mentioned above, which sounds easy but leaves room for mistakes. Well set rollers help.

I’ve also heard a sled can help, but I have never used one

 

[Dustin4185]

I have the 13” Dewalt. It does good for what it is, but like metioned, it will snipe if you aren’t careful.

 

[farminkarman]

I have a number of planers.......and some of the afore mentioned ones.

I own two DeWalt 12" portable planers......these do very well for a limited amount of planing. They should not snipe as there is no bottom rolls to adjust. If they do all you have to do is hold up gently on the end of the board going in and out so the board is flat to the table until it is held down by both rollers. Not to expensive, portable and will porduce a great finish with sharp knives.


I also have a 20" Grizzly. When I bought mine 20 years ago they were $900.00 plus shipping. This is a good planer and blades (4) are real easy and pretty quick to change. I have planed tens of thousands of board feet of select hardwoods with this. I bought it because it would open up to 8" and I was building a 26' X 52' two story post and beam barn and there were several thousand feet of 6" X 8" timbers to square and plane. All told I milled over 15,000 BFT of timber for this job so this was a lot of planing and shows the only downside to this planer is it only wants to plane 3/32-1/8 cut per pass. I have replaced the switch and one set of belts in 20 years of what you migh call light comercial use. Great bang for the buck, durable if run properly and not that expensive for the capacity in thickness and width.

I favorite is my old Powermatic Model 100 12". Not Portable at 450lbs. A couple years ago I converted it to a helix head...best thing I ever did to it!! Don't have to be a magician to change knives anymore!!! I bought this planer 25 years ago it it gets used weekly and some time daily. This planer says on the sticker "Please don't remove more than 1/4" per cut." This is important/good if you are prone to planing a lot of rough lumber.

I also have a 37" TimeSaver in the shop that takes the place of having to plave wide boards/panels or final finish planing.

So I must also add one more thing about planing wood. Especially rough lumber. You first need to flatten one side of the board with a jointer. Otherwise most of whatever cup/warp/curve the material has will not be gone after planing...simlpy, slightly less cupped/warped/curved than before but smooth.
In the end my advice is see how much planing you intend to do and buy the machine one level up from what you think that matches your needs. That way you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the great info! I don’t do much woodworking, but I hate working with tools that are barely good enough. That being said, I think the Dewalt might just fit the bill.

 

[Lnk]

Let us know how you like it when you get it!

 

[Eduardo K]

I’ve also heard a sled can help, but I have never used one

I have a buddy with a rigid planer who said he can almost eliminate snipe completely by extending the bed with melamine.

 

[stretch5881]

I have a Ridgid that I bought 22 years ago. Handles 13" stock. I don't know if the new ones are the same quality though.