Home Planer comparison?

[Jerry Crawford]

I'm doing a little pre-purchase comparative shoping and wondering if anyone has come across one of those articles comparing/contrasing planers. I'm looking now at the Delta 22-580 and Makita 12/13 inch home craftsman models although haven't eliminated any others.

Thanks

[Mark Rhodes]

I have the rag at home ill try to remeber to post it tonight. It compared all portable 13" planers. It had the Dewalt at editors choice and the Delta 22-580 as best value. The wife bought me the Delta for my birthday and i have loved it and have run quite a bit of lumber through it and the blades are still holding up, Im a little partial to Delta though.

[Larry D. Wagner]

Jerry,

I personally have the 13" Ridgid. My father has the Delta. My Ridgid totally outperforms the Delta when we have worked together. I even installed new blades in his to try and help his.(We both make very minimal cuts each pass,1/32 or less) They helped in the finish department, but the snipe was horrible. I am not trying to knock Delta, but if your only other choice is Dewalt, I'd definitely go with it.

Larry D. Wagner :) :) :)

[Jerry Crawford]

Thanks Mark - I'll look forward to seeing it. I had an older Delta I picked up in a pawn shop in Rochester NH several years ago. It served me well and when I sold it about three years ago it was still running like a champ; so I'm partial to the Delta as well. The under-$300 price is attractive too. I've been stocking my shop out of pawn shops, flea markets, and the local Thrifty Nickle papers for so long I hardly know how to act when the possibility for a really new-out-of-the-box tool comes around :o .

[Jerry Crawford]

Somewhere I have info about Ridged & HD being at a parting of hte ways and any service issues difficult to resolvre ???

[Jeff Sudmeier]

If I were shopping for a planner again, a locking cutterhead would be a must for me. My planer moves around just a little, about 1/8th of a turn of the handle... so less than 1/128 of an inch, but it is annoying.... Happens more as the blades get more dull.

[Jerry Crawford]

If I were shopping for a planner again, a locking cutterhead would be a must for me. My planer moves around just a little, about 1/8th of a turn of the handle... so less than 1/128 of an inch, but it is annoying.... Happens more as the blades get more dull.

Jeff, that sounds like a solid observation. It also sounds like a $100 increase in price. As I mentioned, I haven't taken a serious look at home planers for a bunch of years so I don't know what I'm going to wind up with. Thanks for the comment

[Peter Gavin]

I just bought a JET (I don't have the model number here) 12 1/2" thickness planer for $250.00. It was on clearance from Farm and Fleet (an Upper Midwest chain) marked down from 370.00. I assume because they are discontinuing the model. It seems much more solid than the other 'portable' models on display plus it has a cutterhead lock. Last night they had two left after I purchased mine but I'm pretty happy with the deal.

Peter

http://www.southern-tool.com/store/media/JWP-13-DX.gif

PS. I may have gotten a better deal than I thought. If this is the same planer that I got (and it looks identical except they claim this one is 13" while the one I got is 12 1/2") there is an online retailer claiming it lists for 700.91 and they have it on sale for 421.59. I'll have to compare it to the one I have.

[Jerry Crawford]

Hey Peter - that qualifies as a gloat doesn't it?

The thing I recall most about my old Delta was how tight the crank was raising and lowering the head. I had to hole on to the machine with one hand and crank with the other to adjust it. It did a pretty good mjob of planing but it was really hard to adjust it. I was in HD a couple of years ago looking at the Ridged and noted that it operated with a side handle and much less effort5 was needed to adjust the head.

[Lewis Mills]

PS. I may have gotten a better deal than I thought. If this is the same planer that I got (and it looks identical except they claim this one is 13" while the one I got is 12 1/2") there is an online retailer claiming it lists for 700.91 and they have it on sale for 421.59. I'll have to compare it to the one I have.
Peter,
More likely to be this one:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/hi/B00005OAY2/qid=1106942498/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-6214261-4365549
This is the one I have. Very nice planer, and $250 is a very nice price. Still a gloat!
Lewis

[Mark Rhodes]

Jerry,
It was in the Feb 04, Popular WW Issue #139, It had the Dewalt as editors Choice and the Delta as Best Value, It beat out Ridgid,Ryobi,Woodtek,Shop Fox and Craftsman. Hope this helps.

[Wes Newman]

I've got the Delta 22-580, the crank handle moves the cutterhead up and down with hardly any effort. It has no snipe what so ever and you can sometimes catch a pretty good deal on them. As far as finish goes, you barely have to finish sand anything that comes out. I would defintly buy it again. The Dewalt seems a little high for what you get. If I was to spend anything over $400 on a planer, I'd be looking at the stationaries.

[Jerry Crawford]

....well, I wasn't going to spend over 400 bucks that's for sure. If I can hold my lust's in check long enought to make a dispassionate choice on the web rather than going into Rockler with all that eye candy on display, I'll spend around $300+. A gent over on Woodnet has a nice Jet up in Idaho but I'd be embarrased to offer him what I can afford. :o

My son is wanting to buy a new Powermatic cabinet TS and I thought maybe I could piggyback my planer onto his "BIG BUY" and make out a little but I think the least expensive Powermatic planer is around $1200. I'll go down to Denver without my credit card in my pocked and fondle some of the Delta's and Jet's

Wufff!! :eek: I just looked at the DeWalt on Amazon. $pricy.00 but it'd sure look good under my bench :D Doesn't surprise me it's editors choice.

[Peter Gavin]

Lewis,


You are correct, that is exactly the planer I got.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005OAY2.01._PE25_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B00005OAY2/ref=dp_product-image-only_0/102-3620407-4452944?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=228013)

And you are also right that apparently 250 was a great price for it. I ran a few boards through it this weeknend and everything seemed to work perfectly.

Peter

[Bart Leetch]

Larry & others with snipe problems

If your father is still having problems with snipe check this out it helped my Grizzly a lot I seldom if ever have snipe any more.

Check this out.

http://www.woodisourart.com/planer/planer.htm

[Peter Gavin]

Bart (and others with much more knowledge then me),

This weekend I was cussing up a storm because after mounting my new planer on a mobile base I made for it I checked the level of the infeed and outfeed tables and they raised a straight edge 1/8" off the table under the cutterhead. To top it off, I woud have to remove the planer from the stand because the adjustment bolts were inaccessible. Reading the link you posted, however it appears that they are supposed to be 1/8" higher? Could I be so lucky? (or is it that Jet knew what they were doing when they sent the planer with the infeed and outfeed tables pre-adjusted)?

Thanks
Peter