Buying a planer on $300 budget

[Rob Horton]

Could really use some advice from the fellow Creekers.

Is it possible to find a good benchtop planer for $300 or less? I'm sure in the marker to buy one. Delta has one, found on Ebay as Brand New still in the Box Deal, and was thinking of buying it.

What do you all think of Delta tools?

I know I should buy the most tool my budget will allow. The problem is my budget only allows $300

Also, what exactly is 'snipe'? I keep reading about it and I know it's bad and that a planer shouldn't do it ideally. But what in the rootie-tootie is it? (I'm guessing it's where the blades kind of make gouges in the wood occasionally and then you have to sand them out after planing.)

Anyway, much appreciative of any advice. And long may the Creek flow with woodworking knowledge!

[Tom Sweeney]

If you could bump up your budget $75 I would highly recommend you getting the Delta 22-580. It is a great lunchbox planer that Amazon.com has for $375 probably about the same if you can find it local.
I have this planer & while it's the first one I've ever owned I would buy it again even on a tight budget. It has 2 speeds a roughing and a finishing speed. I can run curly maple through on the finish speed & 9.5 times out of 10 the board will come out looking like it was sanded with 320 sandpaper. It's a heavy well built machine.
I have had minimal problems with snipe which is when the blades kinda make a divot in the end of the board. Mostly it was probably due to me rushing & taking too much off - often you can adjust the in & outfeed tables to compensate for snipe.

I would again highly recommend going the extra $75 for this quality machine. The new Dewalt is generally rated a little higher but it's also more$$($479) & the difference is probably not worth it in my book.

[Bob Reilly]

Could really use some advice from the fellow Creekers.

Is it possible to find a good benchtop planer for $300 or less? I'm sure in the marker to buy one. Delta has one, found on Ebay as Brand New still in the Box Deal, and was thinking of buying it.

You can go to this site and get the Delta 22-580 for $265.00 which is a great deal after the rebate and 10%new customer discount.
http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/CART.exe

Someone will chime in on how to go about ordering as a new customer to get the discount,i see they waived the shipping charges.

[Bob Weisner]

Ryobi has a 13 inch planer that looks like it is well made and is reasonably priced.

Bob