Shopfox W1723 or Dewalt 735 planer

[Eddie Johnston]

I need help, guys. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a used Shopfox W1723 15" planer or a new Dewalt 735. Price difference is negligible.
I'm a teacher and woodworking is a hobby, so I don't do any production stuff.

What I like about the Dewalt is the ease of knife changes and the reviews, but the Shopfox has an extra 3 inches. And noone in my house is going to gripe about an extra 3". What do you think? Pluses and minues of each??

[Cary Falk]

W1723 hands down if you have the room and power. The stationary planers are soo much quieter. You can always put a spiral head in it in the future if you don't like changing blades. I went from a Delta 13" lunchbox planer to a 15 spiral Grizzly. I am soo much happier. I am a hobbiest also.

[Charlton Wang]

I would take the W1723. I had the DW735 and even though the performance is good and the design as far as lunchbox planers is concerned is pretty awesome, it is VERY loud and the blower exhaust is so powerful that there have been times when my dust collection hose was blown right off and the planer spewed shavings all over the place.

[Peter Quinn]

I owned the Dewalt and it's a fine planer but I switched to a 15" floor model and could not be happier. The floor model is larger ( significantly) and heavier. Heavy is good in use, bad when you have to transport or move around the shop, but am good mobile base halos if space is tight. I added a spiral head, No more knife changes. I'd buy the shop fox unless there was a compelling reason not to.

[Danny Higgins]

My first post! I am slowly putting a woodshop together in my 2 car garage. I have a Dewalt 735 on the Dewalt mobile stand, and recently picked up the extension tables. Due to space limitations, I think I will go the route of fitting the Byrd Shelix spiral head cutter, which hopefully will cut down on the noise factor, and be content with that. It didn't take to long to pit a nick in the stock knives, which I understand are prone to this problem. Can anyone weigh in and confirm that the Byrd head is quieter in operation on the 735?

[Myk Rian]

and the blower exhaust is so powerful that there have been times when my dust collection hose was blown right off and the planer spewed shavings all over the place.
Put the hose on better.

I have a DeWalt with Byrd head. That's the way to go.

[Mark Ashmeade]

+1 on the ShopFox.

Two different animals really. The ShopFox will be considerably heavier. More capacity, quieter. The DW will have a universal motor, the Shop Fox a much more powerful induction motor. The Shop Fox will want 240V, the DW 120V only.

Suffice to say, I changed from a lunchbox screamer (RIDGID R4330) to a Powermatic 15S, and there is utterly no comparison. They both plane wood in the same way that a Mercedes and a bicycle both get from A to B.

[Matt Meiser]

Unless space is an issue, the cast iron Shop Fox with the induction motor over the plastic and aluminum Dewalt with the universal motor. But do consider the space if that's important, not that the Dewalt is a small machine. Eventually either can be fitted with a Byrd head.

[Charlton Wang]

Yeah, eventually I learned that. All my tools are on mobile bases and I had to hook up the hose every time I wanted to use the planer. I used one of those quick fit tapered fittings but they don't really give that great of a fit.

Charlton

[Curt Harms]

Piling on. Shopfox W1723 >>>>>>>>>DeWalt 735 as long as you can deal with the power requirement.

[phil harold]

Shopfox W1723 will last longer than the dewalt