Benchtop Planer, 15-Amp, 12-1/2-Inch, 3-Knife Cutter, 20,000 RPM, Corded (DW734)

First, a little praise for Amazon. $25.00 discount, free shipping, and free set of spare knives (didn't even know these were included.), resulted in a delivered price of [...]. That's the best deal in town, especially when you consider the free [...] knives. Now, the planer. It's heavy. Really heavy. But that's a good thing. It took only 10 minutes to set up, read the manual, and make my first sawdust. Initial results were excellent. Glass-smooth surfaces on White Oak, Poplar, and Red Oak. Minimum snipe limited to ends of board. No snipe detected elsewhere. Nice fit & finish. Decent manual. Good ergonomics. Plenty powerful. So far, highly recommended. I'll update after a few hundred board feet. UPDATE - 2 Years Later I'm still very pleased. I've put in excess of 1000 bf through the planer now. It hasn't missed a beat. Unbelieveably, I'm still on my first set of knives. They are a little nicked now due to some hard maple I put through it a few weeks ago, but I'm not yet sufficiently motivated to change them. This machine has served me well, and shows no signs of slowing down. It still ranks 5 stars. UPDATE - 1 Week since Last Update I broke down and turned the knives over. I cut myself in the process. Clumsy! A few cuts after freshening the knives made it obvious that I should have done this some time ago. The planer performs like new. Still 5 stars. Update - At 4 Years Still 5 stars. I turn or replace the knives every 6 months or so. The knives don't like Hard Maple, but all other species do fine (including Walnut & Oak). The results delivered by this planer are excellent. Update - At 6 Years Still going strong. Just added a Wixey digital readout that I got from Amazon. Still 5 stars. Update - At 12 Years Still going strong. Feed rollers started to slip, so I cleaned them with a stiff brush and alcohol. Worked like a champ. Back to 100% function. Obviously a great planer. Update - At 15 Years Seriously. 15 years. My kid is now grown and off to college. The planer still delivers. I planed some Walnut a couple days ago. Fantastic results. Clearly, I got my money worth. Would buy another in a minute should the need arise. Update - At 19 Years The planer and I have grown old together. It functions far better than I do. The only problem I’ve had is a broken tab on the dust collection fitting. That’s trivial, considering all the use this machine has had. A great product.

This is my first thickness planer and I have run approximately 10 BF through this thing. I know, it's almost all the wood in the world. THAT SAID- Out of the box, it ran beautifully and the knives are very sharp. Super smooth finish. Very easy to operate. Just spend about 5-10 minutes screwing around with it and you'll totally understand it. There definitely is 2" of snipe on either side, but as I learn how to feed the boards a little better I think that can be minimized. I bought this to speed up the process of building a new workbench to replace the hand me down monstrosity that came with my garage... I can already tell this will be a huge help. I will try to come back and update the review over time. UPDATE: After one session running about 384 linear feet of 2x4s and 320 linear feet of 2x6s (building a workbench out of Doug. Fir lumber from the big box store), I can say this is a great little machine. It doesn't seem to have any problem taking a 1/16" cut off a 6" wide board. Once you get the hang of feeding boards through it properly there is literally no snipe. It's a little more difficult with boards shorter than the beds. That will take some practice. One really annoying issue though- the dust port clogs really easily if you don't have a DC hooked up to it. After about 10 passes it seems to get clogged and it begins to shoot all the shavings out the front of the machine. I have a 1hp DC, but I don't have a separator on it yet so it gets clogged almost instantly when using the planer.

Update May 2017: 1) infeed rollers are awesome, few problems keeping stock feeding into the cutting heads. 2) Snipe: that gouge when feeding material into and when exiting from the the cutters-- DeWalt says that using the cutting head clamp-down reduces this problem -- I agree totally. No snipe on my redwood planks. 3) Chip exhaust remains an irritation: the chips are adequately collected by the plastic shroud over the exhaust, but the 4-to 2.25" reducer has a square shoulder that tends to plug up. I recommend tossing the reducer, and running a 4" exhaust tube from the shroud to a sawdust barrel or collector system Note; this planer works well, and you will be amazed at how quickly the shavings accumulate! Very pleased with this planer! End update. I purchased this as a replacement for an older RIGID planer. That old machine continues to work for resurfacing smaller items, such as 1x2 and 1x4 soft woods such as cedar and redwood. I also purchased this based on my long-standing success with DeWalt power tools in general; and am not disappointed. Usage: resurfacing recycled redwood and cedar planks. (Given the current costs on these woods, often in rough shape from the local home supply marts, this planer becomes an immediate asset!) PROS: Heavy, does not sitter across its dedicated work surface, a smaller re-purposed office table on casters with a rubberized pad under the planer. I can feed material into the machine without it budging (the stand sometimes moves, but not the planer). Easy to set up, easy to adjust; depth meters and indicators all seem easy to see. Appreciate the 4-point carriage lockdown, the cutting head does not move while feeding material, typically long 2x6 planks in my case. My old Rigid was not (rigid), the lockdown was a friction lever and easily over-ridden. Triple knives. I expect these will last a long time on softer woods, no experience to offer when planing hard woods. Feeds material (2x6 planks) smoothly and consistently, no observed slippage. Resulting planed surface comes out beautiful... again, softer redwood and cedar. I can take a planed plank and proceed with staining and finishing with no intervening sanding needed. Very nice time saver. Nyah: The chip exhaust is fairly effective, particularly when looking at the amount of material coming off the knives. Connects to a standard 2.25" sawdust hose, easily redirected to a sawdust barrel or collector system. It's plastic, but so was the old Rigid exhaust and that survived a decade of use. Cord is heavy duty but could be longer; could also benefit with a plug head that sports a clip for keeping the coiled cord from... uncoiling. I have these on my other DeWalt power tools, would be nice to also have it on this machine as well. Small details keep us happy. Cons: regarding chip removal... even with a chip collector, I find a lot of chip blow back onto the feed side. Makes things somewhat messy, dust-wise. Perhaps a vacuum system on the outfeed exhaust would help, but probably will not eliminate removed material from accumulating on the infeed side. Bottom line: recommended for the weekend wood warrior.

Works great, I have been planing 4 inch thick stair treads and the out come has been fantastic. The snipe at the end is either non existent or easily controlled. Easy to operate and adjust as you go.

En general es muy buena maquina, solo hay que afinar bien los ajustes, sobre todo el de el espesor, venia descalibrado por aprox 1mm, la perilla de topes preestablecidos no es precisa, tambien varian por hasta 1mm, el problema es que esta no hay manera de ajustarla, el costo puede parecer elevado pero la calidad y el tiempo del trabajo final vale lo que cuesta, si quieres hacer muebles o productos finos de madera natural esta maquina es indispensable, solo para gente que sabe la diferencia, se debe tener cuidado con la profundidad de cepillado para no forzar la maquina sobre todo en maderas duras, es mejor ir cepillando poco a poco, el manual trae una tabla que indica las recomendaciones de profundidad de desbaste, en conclusion es buena herramienta, la compre de importacion y llego antes de lo indicado y en perfectas condiciones, completamente nueva

I have used this a few times and it works great. The wood comes out smooth and even. No issues

Un cepillo de muy alta calidad. Vale cada centavo. Fácil de operar, seguro y deja la madera muy bien cepillada. Es como un tanque, y por lo mismo es muy pesado. Aunque lo puede cargar una sola persona fuerte, recomiendo que se cargue entre dos.

Quality and works well