13" planer

Hi all,

I'm in the market for a 13" planer.

I've ruled out a few in my research. Ryobi is cheaply built(and priced which is nice), Hitachi also seems not as solid as some others, Grizzley, ruled out only because it doesn't have any type of repeat cut feature/lock, otherwise I would not hesitate to get this one, a very solid planer. Most of my equipment is Grizzley and dewalt.


So that leaves me with:

dewalt 735 13" ($500. new, or $360 refurb with 1 yr war.) - 2 speed(96 or 150cpi), 3 knives - looks like a work horse to me. - Too pricey for the New one.

dewalt 734 12.5" - ($375 new) - also 3 knives, seems solid 96cpi

Ridgid 1300 - 13" ($350 new) - Feature rich, only 2 knives(56 cpi), and the knives look paper thin to me.

I'm having a tough time with this decision.

Anyone have any experience with these models ?

Also, is ridgid still doing the life time warranty ?

 

gtm20,

I don't have any experience with the models you are looking at, but I purchased a Delta earlier this year. It was advertised as a "no snipe" solution. I was very skeptical, but since I lean toward Delta tools, I decided to try it out. I am not disappointed. No snipe whatsoever.

http://www.deltamachinery.com/index.asp?e=136&p=952

Good luck,

 

I'm going to take a look at the Delta 22-580. I've seen good reviews on it. I found it online for 345.00 incl. shipping. HD also has it for a bit more.

 

Good deal. I've never been disappointed by Delta products.

 

I was also in the market for a 13" planer and paid for a downloadable article that reviewed I think about seven or eight different models.

They said, basically, forget about the Ryobi. It has good features like the ability to hook it up to a dust collector OR a shop vac with no extra connectors, but the cut quality is horrible. Snipe (which you can at least work with) was one of the issues. However, the bigger issue is that with woods like cherry, the finish was simply horrible and they could not figure out how to fix that. With fir, the finish wasn't great but you could at least sand it.

The rigid was the other one in the test that could be hooked up to a dust collector or shop vac with no extra connections. However (surprise to me, cuz I like rigid products), the cut quality was only slightly better than the ryobi.

The dewalts were not part of the review (don't know why), but I've heard good things about them. I plan on storing my planer under my workbench, however, and didn't like the footprint of the dewalts.

They also reviewed the two craftsman that fit this category (21722 and 21743). The cut quality was decent. However, because the insides are so cramped, it made blade changes very difficult.

The makita was pretty good overall.

The cut quality on the grizzly wasn't great and there was no repeat a cut feature.

The best overall and the best value were the delta 22-580 and the tp400ls. I picked up the 22-580 and got it just yesterday. Haven't even taken it out of the box, so can't tell you anything personally. The one thing I heard is that you HAVE to purchase the (unfornately) optional dust collector hood. Otherwise, the wood chips become unmanageable. Now supposedly this only allows you to connect it to a dust collector. However, my rigid shop vac is suppoed to have shop vac to dust collector connections. A little bit of a pain, but in the end, the finish of the wood is what matters. I think all manufacturers should realize that most users that are buying these low end planers more than likely won't have dust collectors and should make them connect to shop vacs instead. Or do like rigid and ryobi and make them work for both.

 

fine homebuilding/woodworking rated the ryobi fairly high in their 2004 tool guide I beleive it was rated a "best buy "

 

It's funny, because I was hoping that the Ryobi was worth buying, as it is only $249 at The Home Depot. However, I'm looking at the review right now. The high points

o Large cutterhead lock is right up front on the machine where it's hard to forget.
o Onboard storage for knife-changing tools
o Included dust port fits both 2 1/2" and 4" dust collection hoses
o The least expensive planer in the test

And the low points
o Despite self-aligning knives, knife changes are slowed by close quarters.
o The thickness gauge jammed repeatedly in use. Ryobi's Jeanne White told us that the gauge on our planer was incorrectly assembled at the factory and should be an isolated incident.
o Cut quality is below average, and tear-out was severe in curly maple.

Now this is just a summary. They also mentioned snipe within the article as well, but didn't mention it in the summary. First, snipe can be worked around. However, you eventually pay anyway. Constantly throwing away the ends of wood costs in the long run, as you're constantly wasting wood. And the thing that can't be worked around is the last one. You can't sand tear out. To me, that was the factor that made me not buy it.

Now they mentioned that the job it did on things like Fir was fine. However, in the end I paid $100 for the Delta and feel that it was worth it.

I have to also say, I have a number of Ryobi tools. Overall, they're great when you're just getting your feet wet in a new area, because the cost is usually on 60-75% of the competition. However, you'll eventually pay if you really get into the area. For example, I bought a Ryobi cordless drywall saw a few years back and paid $50 for it (without the charger). Just recently, I was laying sheetrock for my toolshed. On the very last piece, it failed and has stopped working since. I've only used it to cut about 10 pieces of sheetrock, total. Usually what I find with Ryobi is that their products do the job, but the durability is a question. Anyway, my two cents.

 

Just food for thought. My local HD had the Ryobi set up recently for demos. Snipe was awful. 3 to 4" on a 4' 1x4 white pine.

I think you made a good decision.