I'm done with my DW735 and want a real planer. 15" minimum, but needs to run on 240VAC. Go. Spend my money.
Planers are pretty simple machines. Virtually all decent upgrades from you Dewalt will be available for 120/240. Older used ones can be a great value and should be relatively easy to work with. Helical heads definitely cut down on noise but are more $ up front. BTW, I've had a the older brother of teh DW734 for going on 20 yrs and it still works very well for me. You can do a whole lot of work and very accurately with the little 120V universal motor units like yours.
Mine works fine, just takes too long....and is too unforgiving with knife sharpness. I have close to 900 BFT of rough sawn I need to work for some builds coming up quick. I can pick up some paid jobs to offset cost very easily.
For sure! I recently did smaller job (<100bf) on the Dewalt and I popped the circuit breaker in the Dewalt several times. I would love to have the money and room in my shop for a genuine cast iron + TEFC planer. I'll be interested to see what you decide. I'm not up to date on newer equipment since I haven't had to buy any new machines for my sho1p for >10 years. In general, the Grizzly machines seem to be the best quality/cost of the oversees machines. Powermatic makes excellent machines too, but they will cost you. Hopefully someone with real-world experience will chime in here.
Generally I will buy old cast iron before new stuff, but I've been looking at auctions and online for used stuff for over a year and have yet to land something. I can find good deals on giant 3 phase planers, but they are still too much. I got outbid on a 15" Grizzly planer this summer....ended up going for close to the price of a new one. My dad has a 15" Grizzly planer that has been real good to him. I'm drooling over a 20" helical head planer. I'm going to have to make a lot of promises to my wife on stuff I'll build her to be able to pull that one off. My shop is 32x32, so I have plenty of space to get nearly anything.
Interesting. What’s a helical head? Don’t tell me the blades are helical? That would make a sharpening nightmare no?
Ok, I looked them up and watched an informative video. Cool. Looks like the way to go unless you enjoy sharpening straight steel blades Been out of woodworking about 20 years or so. This is a first for me.
I only have a 12" Delta but I put it on wheels so I can take it outside when it is nice. Always seems to cut faster without the dust collector.
We picked up a Makita cast iron jointer/planer from a cabinet shop auction maybe 15-16 years ago. Has done some nice work but haven't used it in years (14) since we moved. Now it sites buried waiting for me to clean the garage.
I wouldn't mind picking up one also. But, I'd like to stay in the 120v range. I'll be watching this thread!
