Any woodworkers here?

[Unsuspicious]

I'm in the market for a 13" benchtop planer so I can take pieces of wood and make smaller pieces of wood. It'll be my biggest ticket item for woodworking but I'm optimistic it'll pay for itself after selling a few things I make. I have sold pieces in the past back when I had access to a full woodshop.
I already have a miter saw and table saw. I'd be looking at a router table next since that can work as a jointer.

Anyway, the Dewalt 735 is like the champion poster child but sits around $600 while there are other name brands starting around half that. Would it be more cost efficient to buy a cheaper machine and use the saved money to give it awesome blades? Will the Dewalt literally last twice as long as a unit costing half as much? Any personal experiences, recommendations, dissuasions, etc?

[Torqaholic]

Nearest thing to woodworking I've seen lately was a woodpecker banging on the side of my house

[Asparagus]

Have had a Delta 12" planer for 25 years, have only had to occasionally change the blades. Also have an old 6" Craftsman joiner that I bought used back when I got the planer, works fine.

Plenty of used equipment out there, much of it like new, Craigslist and FB Marketplace are your friends in this case.

[snide]

@DAB to the white courtesy phone.
@Tikiman to the white courtesy phone.

Are courtesy phones still allowed to be white?

[CurtP]

Originally Posted by Unsuspicious

Anyway, the Dewalt 735 is like the champion poster child but sits around $600 while there are other name brands starting around half that. Would it be more cost efficient to buy a cheaper machine and use the saved money to give it awesome blades? Will the Dewalt literally last twice as long as a unit costing half as much? Any personal experiences, recommendations, dissuasions, etc?

Can you even get awesome cutter blades for the shitbox planers? Upgrades like the helical cutter heads are for popular models and you probably won’t see them for the Harbor Freight specials. I’d go with the DW735 and upgrade the cutter bar when the original knives wear out.

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[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by CurtP

Can you even get awesome cutter blades for the shitbox planers? Upgrades like the helical cutter heads are for popular models and you probably won’t see them for the Harbor Freight specials. I’d go with the DW735 and upgrade the cutter bar when the original knives wear out.

This is an excellent idea if you plan to work with a lot of highly figured timbers. However, last I checked, the helical cutterhead for the DeWalt was nearly as much as the machine itself. Oliver makes a nice benchtop planer that comes standard with a Byrd Shelix cutterhead and it is priced at $1k.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/1...0Over%20%24500

If you just plan on planing a bunch of cherry, walnut, and oak, go with the DeWalt as it is a good machine. It's what I have and if I didn't have so many sets of new knives for it, I would be looking seriously at the Oliver as I tend to work with highly figured timbers.

[LATB]

I used to do the fine woodworking.
Also worked in a commercial cabinet shop for a while when I was a younger man. It was a great job because we did a lot of installation of the work we produced.
I can remember thinking: this cabinet stuff is cool but I’d like to build these buildings.

Once I moved on to home building, the fine woodwork took a backseat. I did build a few larger pieces over the years, benches and tables, etc…

I would like very much to set up a modest wood shop in my barn someday.

[LATB]

As can be seen in Tiki’s example, fine woodworking is all about the joinery and the finishing.

Both Tiki and DAB are very good at both.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by LATB

As can be seen in Tiki’s example, fine woodworking is all about the joinery and the finishing.

Both Tiki and DAB are very good at both.

Thanks. I read this book. It is the first English translation of the 18th-century masterpiece: "L´ art du Menuisier" by André-Jacob Roubo. It changed the way I look at woodworking.

[Budman]

Another vote for the Dewalt 735. They have a special deal sometimes for the planer, stand, I feed and out feed extensions and an extra set of blades.

[Unsuspicious]

I'm trying to get my over analyzing brain to see what the point of helical is because it sounds like a gimmick to me. You put in your wood at an angle anyway so you'd still get cuts not perpendicular to grain with a spiral.
I just feel like the results would be indistinguishable. Maybe it's a very high cost to chase away that 0.1% occasion of a little tearout on that time you plane an end grain cutting board but you probably should've drum sanded at that point but actually helical would make zero difference on end grain anyway idk

[Unsuspicious]

The benefit of using many 14mm or so blades over the 2-3 full length blades is still there with spiral which uses 4 sided blades just arranged to make cuts perpendicular to feed direction

So there are machines like this from Wen with 26 blades about $350
https://discounttoday.net/product/we...BoCl1IQAvD_BwE

While stock the Dewalt 735 is a full length blade setup at $600

[Tikiman]

When you are planing an eight foot board, you are not feeding it on an angle. It really has nothing to do with that. The helical carbide cutterheads significantly reduce tear out on highly figured woods, which are notoriously difficult to plane. They are also much quieter than planers that use knives. Each set of carbide cutters gives you four edges so that when it starts to get dull, you loosen a screw and rotate the carbide insert 90 degrees. I think that helical carbide cutterheads are the future of jointing and planing - I just wish the prices would start dropping faster than they are. With that said, if my DeWalt blows up tomorrow, I'm going to look at the Oliver.

I don't think you should ever plane the end grain on an end grain cutting board. I use a drum sander for that. But DAB is the expert on cutting boards. Everything I know about them, I learned from him.

[Unsuspicious]

If you're not buying the Dewalt for its blades, what features are you getting to justify the price?

[Don Rickles]

I'm the resident Jewish Carpenter.

I've lived by, trying buying the best tools that I could afford. I used to have an old craftsman planner, it couldn't handle the hardwoods well. So, I went out and bought a big Grizzly, nothing it can't handle!

I have a shop full of brand new tools just waiting to be used. Delta bandsaw, Delta radial arm saw, router table, huge jointer, etc. I bought most of the tools years ago when a local store went out of business for half off! I do want a table sanding machine, it's on my short list.

Good luck, play safe!

[DAB]

I’ve had my DEWALT planer since about 2005. Keep a spare set of blades on hand. Done.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by Don Rickles

I'm the resident Jewish Carpenter.

I've lived by, trying buying the best tools that I could afford. I used to have an old craftsman planner, it couldn't handle the hardwoods well. So, I went out and bought a big Grizzly, nothing it can't handle!

I have a shop full of brand new tools just waiting to be used. Delta bandsaw, Delta radial arm saw, rotor table, huge jointer, etc. I bought most of the tools years ago when a local store went out of business for half off! I do want a table sanding machine, it's on my short list.

Good luck, play safe!

^^^ another excellent woodworker

[Unsuspicious]

Originally Posted by Don Rickles

old craftsman planner, it couldn't handle the hardwoods well.

What does this mean- motor stalled on stuck blade? Lots of tearout? Something that couldn't be overcome by taking smaller passes?

[Bruze]

[Don Rickles]

Originally Posted by Unsuspicious

What does this mean- motor stalled on stuck blade? Lots of tearout? Something that couldn't be overcome by taking smaller passes?

All the above....the hard woods especially the cherry woods I ran thru it would burn after only a few passes on new blades. Motor couldn't handle the sizes I tried to put through the machine. A big problem I had way back then was not having a good vacuum system, the chips would build up and clog the machine, I was clearly overworking it...Since then I did also add the Grizzly vacuum, boy did it help!