Mid size planers--Are they worth it?

[bob cohen]

I have an opportunity to upgrade to a mid size planer (at a reasonable price), but am pleased with my current Delta benchtop. I do not often crave for a wider planing surface, and am wondering what are the other advantages of a mid-size unit. Space is not a huge concern, but I am afraid that I'll be disappointed in other aspects of the mid-size planer. In particular blade changing. My delta has tersa blades and it takes all of 5 minutes to pop on new blades. The mid-size planer is a 16 inch Jet open stand, with straight knives. Thanks in advance for all of your great comments.

[glenn bradley]

From your comments I would be looking for a driving need for that four more inches of width. You say you don't find yourself needing it so I would spend your money elsewhere. Sometimes I feel like I have to act on something simply because it is a good deal. I try to temper that by asking myself; what is the actual value to me and what am I not doing instead?

[Lance Norris]

Bob... The difference is kinda like comparing a pickup and a semi. They will both do the job, but one has the advantage of capacity and long life. Most bench planers have universal motors which werent built for long lives. Larger planers all have induction motors, which last almost forever. Larger planers are built more for industrial settings where they will be ran for hours at a time, hogging off an 1/8" or more in a single pass. Longer, heavier boards can be ran through the larger planers where a bench planer would be unstable. If you are planing many board feet of stock at a time and need to do it quickly, the larger planer will do this. If you are a hobbyist like many of us and are happy with the results from your current planer, stay with that. Some of us have both, a stationary planer and a benchtop, stating that you get better, smoother results from the benchtop. You do all your heavy dimensioning with the stationary and then make your last few light cuts with the benchtop for the best finish. I have both, a stationary planer with a spiral cutterhead and a benchtop.The spiral head does such a nice job, I havent touched my benchtop since I got my Grizzly 1021X.

[Lance Norris]

Bob... lets clarify what planer you are talking about. If its the first one, thats what I was refering to.

[bob cohen]

not the prettiest...

[Ben Cadotte]

I have a 12" Delta and for me it's just ok. Figuring what I paid for it. It does its job well. But its slow, can't hog down material like mentioned above. And my particular unit seems to have a moderate snipe problem. And this is just with taking a half turn on the handle at the most! As for width, I cannot afford a planer wide as what I would want (big enough for table tops over 36"). So for me I will be moving up to a medium sized planer. Most likely a Griz with sprial cutter. Even though it will only be a couple inches wider. It will have other improvements over the benchtop Delta. And the easy change of the indexed cutters on the head. Are even easier than the little benchtops. I will probably give the Delta to my father in law as he does not have one now, and a so so planer is better than no planer. :D

Now having said that, I am not in a hurry just yet to get a bigger one. Still moving and arranging stuff around. Cabinets are higher up the priority list at the moment. The Delta fills my needs at the moment, just have to plan for the snipe. So no rush on the bigger one. Now if the Delta dies, then its a call to Griz.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Bob, I have a 15" cast iron planer, and have used my brothers benchtop planer.

The bench top produces a smoother finish if you are taking a very light skim cut, since the cast iron planers normally have a corrugated steel infeed roller. If you don't plane deeper than the roller indentations, they are visible on the workpiece.

The cast iron planers last a lifetime, are quieter than the benchtops, can hog off lots of material in a single pass, and are strong enough to handle larger timbers.

If you want to upgrade go ahead, I like my planer and wouldn't trade it for a bench top model, however if you don't find any limitations with your planer, why replace it?

Regards, Rod.

P.S. The planer you are looking at purchasing most likely has adjustment screws for knife height, no self setting pins or stops. To change blades you will need a gauge of some description, or another method of setting height.

The nice thing about the larger planers is that you normally get two feed rates, and the choice of several different knife materials for different uses.

[Travis Gauger]

I've had several lunchbox planers with my current one being a DW733. I have been wanting to upgrade to a "Real" planer for some time and am just waiting for a good deal to come my way. My current planer works fine, I just want the increased efficiency and quieter operation that the larger planers offer. I will most likely step up to a 15" model when the time comes. If you are comforable with your current set up, stick with it. If there is any chance that you are going to step up to a larger planer in time, now may be your opportunity to do so at a reduced cost.

[bob cohen]

Yes, I forgot about the noise, I hate running my delta without ear protection, but there are always times when I'm in a hurry and can't find them...

With respect to Ben's comments about snipe, I've all but eliminated snipe from my unit by adding homemade extension tables. You have to play with the height AND SLOPE of the tables (you don't want them, exactly parallel), but you can do it.

From the comments so far, I think I should save my money and get a spiral head unit, like the grizzly Zs, that offer easy knife changes.

[Paul Johnstone]

I have an opportunity to upgrade to a mid size planer (at a reasonable price), but am pleased with my current Delta benchtop. .

Yes, it's worth it. I used a benchtop for 10 years. I upgraded to the 13" jet planer/molder.. It's not about additional width. The floor model can take off more with each pass. It's less noise. It won't tip over. The overall quality is better.

Even if it's a bigger pain to change blades, how often do you need to do that as a hobbyist? Not very often to make it be a deal breaker, IMO.

[Bruce Page]

I bought my Powermatic 15” several years ago to replace my 12” Delta sniper that was also a horrible screamer. The PM doesn’t leave the baby butt smooth finish the old Delta did and I rarely need more than 12”, but I can run it all day and the noise level is much more tolerable to my ears.

[Larry Nall]

I just went from a 12 1/2 Delta to a used Grizzly 1021.
It still needs cleaning up a bit and I am considering changing to a spiral head. So far its a lot quieter. I've managed to tip over the portable a couple of times. The Griz weighs 500#. I don't think it will budge.

[Peter Quinn]

I bought an old delta DC-380 iron planer at an auction for less than my Dewalt lunchbox cost me. I had used industrial spiral planers at work and jumped at the chance to upgrade my setup. I kept the dewalt as a back up, use it occasionally for that smooth finish or for small work, but don't miss the noise.

The iron planer is much faster. I don't usually take off more than 1/16" per pass to keep things flat, but the machine can easily take more when needed. The lunchbox needed such light passes in really hard woods it was painful. With sharp knives on slow feed rate the finished quality of cut is excellent.

Knife changes are more difficult and take some pratice, but the knives are much thicker, last longer and wind up costing me less per board foot. You can get spiral heads and tersa/terminus heads for 15" planers if you need carbide or really hate knife changes.

If you are happy with your present setup than you have answered your own question. I would see if you can go pass a few boards through the Jet and see if you are still happy. I'd bring cashtoo!

[Brandon Shew]

As the others mentioned - even if you don't need the capacity, there are advantages to the larger machine. I have a 12" wood master planer (Model 612). While I don't have any more width than your benchtop, I do have a heavier & more stable base, longer & fixed position infeed & outfeed tables, and a nice 5 HP Leeson motor that will hog off a lot of material on one pass.