Benchtop Planers and Rough-Sawn Lumber

[Richard Daly]

I have the Dewalt 735. I have planed about 750 bd ft of ash (rough cut ) From 4/4 to 3/4. The only thing with the 735 is that you have to be careful with the depth of cut . When I first got mine (being dumb) I got carried away and took a good bite , I couldn't get to the crank fast enough however it still cut. I have not turned the blades over yet.
I AM TIGHT WITH MONEY . I found that if you have a belt sander with a used very fine belt that with a little care ,black magic marker , and a feather touch that you can hone the blades with no problem. I felt that the worst that could happen would be for me to turn the blades over it works just fine. good luck .You had better have a good way to collect the chips, it really THROWS them out.

Keep fingers out of joiners please....Stubby

[Johnny Kleso]

I have a Rigid and my advise is buy a planer with out disposable blades..

Buy a Delta or any other planer that takes 1/8" thick HSS blades.. You can get a hand stone and tune them up several times before sending them out to be resharpened and many sellers on eBay sell them for less than a disposable set you get two short uses out of before you trash them..

IMHO,
The blades are way to thin and dont last like a real 1/8" blade........

[Joseph N. Myers]

I have the Delta 22-580. I don't have any complaints with it. I just changed(flipped) the blades after about 2 years mostly because of the nicks not sharpness. I don't have anything to compare it 2. I mostly run it on the weekends and I don't have any idea how many bdft I ran through it. I run mostly popular, oak, walnut and alder. I hope that helps.

Cary,

I'm sure you know the following but for some of the others ---

When I install the blades, I make sure I offset them, i.e., one to the left, one to the right. When I get a nick, I shift one or both of the blades to the other side and the nick(s) go away. (If doing initial planing, I shift one blade, final planing, two blades).

Regards, Joe

[Joseph N. Myers]

Joe, did you get a new source for blades or do you think Delta is just making better blades now?

I have a 22-580 and have been happy with it as well. The Dewalt came out soon after I bought my 22-580 and the 3-knife cutterhead had me regretting my purchase initially but the 22-580 has served me well so it was more new tool envy.

Yun-Fong,

I should have mentioned it but no, standard blades. Also standard blades to the 12" but haven't used it since I got my 13". For my Woodmaster 18", I did have a local shop make some up for me and they worked a little better than the manufactures blade. The 22-580 blades are thin, double sided and cannot be re-sharped (can but costly). The 12" and 18" are thicker, single sided and can be sharped at least 2 times saving money.

Regards, Joe

[Joseph N. Myers]

I am thinking of getting the Woodmaster 18". How was the performance compared to the Delta. I am looking at running about 500' a month and was wondering how well the Woodmaster will work.

James,

If all you are doing is planning regular wood, the Woodmaster is pretty much an overkill. It required 220, is a lot slower and the dust collection not too good. On the plus side, it is 18", quieter, variable speed for those super hard woods, curly, etc and the dust collection can be fixed with duct tape. The manufacturers blades are fairly good but I had some made up locally that were somewhat better. And the blades are standard sized so you can buy them at other places.

If you going to use the other options such as the sander, molder and/or gang rip, your talking a different story and probably should start a separate thread on the subject. And do a search as other thread are out there on subject.

As far 500'/month, the Woodmaster could easily do that every day (except for maybe the speed). 500'/month for the Delta, yes should have little trouble doing that. But at that volume, I'd be looking at a floor model like the Delta 15", or one of the other out there. And if noise is an issue, one of those new fancy cutting heads with inserts (can't think of the name now) will add a $200-$300 but will cut forever (four sides) and save your ears and neighbors.

Regards, Joe

[Eric Klock]

I have a Delta 52-580 and it has done a marvelous job in dimensioning rough stock for me, although I do not like it's Infinite Depth Stop.

Every time you wish to go back to a previous setting you must plane down to the desired thickness, checking as you go, then reset the depth stop. I frequently switch between 1/2, 5/8, 3/4, 1/4 and 1 inch thicknesses. I tried using "set up blocks" under the Blade Zero indicator then locking the depth stop hoping to duplicate a previous thickness only to find it .010-.020 undersize.

Both the Ridgid and Dewalt have adjustable fixed stops; although I've never used used either of those machines it seems to me that for repeatability they would be the better models.