Sporting a 1,250 Watt motor that spins the blades up to 8,000 rpm, this Scheppach planer is more suited to small pieces of wood. With a maximum cutting width of just 204 mm and a height of 120 mm, it’s not the best in its class, but it’s enough for most DIYers. While all the planers produced a “smooth” finish to the touch, there was quite a variation of smoothness resulting from the milling marks and scallops. The DEWALT DW735X was by far the best finish of all the samples we planed. The amplitude of the milling marks was consistently smaller and there was very little “scalloping” of the surface compared to all the other planers. This is likely attributed to the powerful motor and excellent blades. In addition, the 735 has three blades in the cutter head. Coming in 2nd place was the Triton TPT125 followed by the Ridgid R4331 in third place. Both the Triton and Ridgid had similar results. Coming in 4th was the Delta 22-590 with minimal milling marks but noticeably more scalloping. Blade Change Evaluation Here we are again trying to rank the tools in our Head-to-Head and give you a winner. The more of these we do, the more we learn, and in this evaluation we’ve taken a slightly different approach. Some of the categories that we set out to evaluate we decided not to include in the final ranking. However, we did provide information from that category as we feel it’s valuable to some readers. Planers can also tear out small chunks (scallops) from the surface. Between the milling marks and scallops the board could require more or less sanding to create a finished surface that will take paint, stain or clear finish well.

Most of the planers utilize a bolt to adjust the table vertically with a captured nut to hold the adjustment bolt in place. All of the units had a similar table adjustment but one. We were very impressed with the Makita planer and its setscrew adjustment. The Makita machine had, by far, the easiest adjustment method of all of the planers. The four setscrews were easy to reach and we found it easy to dial in the proper adjustments. If you have any volume of work to do, this will pay for itself RAPIDLY in terms of time and cost savings. Im very impressed with the quality of the machine as well as its performance, for the very reasonable price. Is it easy or difficult to change out the blades on any given machine? Our crew took each machine and armed with the instructions and the tools in our workshop changed out each blade on each machine. Obviously, the planers with three blades would take more time than the machines with two blades. But is this process easier on some machines that others? I have just looked at your planer review and I did not see any tests for cutterhead “paralleladigitty” or dust collection compatibility and performance. I have owned “portable” planers over my 40 years in the trade. Several 12-1/2″ Delta’s, easy portability. A P12(as I remember)Hitachi, the real deal! Two Ridgid’s, the current model returned when the warrantee repair center couldn’t understand that the cutterhead MUST be parallel. In addition, the earliest versions’ dust evacuation fan did not require any dust collector. The most current offering NEEDS a dust collector?! I still had my previous version which I have returned to. The machine itself about as noisy as a table saw when spinning by itself, but the cutting noise is perhaps less noisy, less shrill than a table saw when planing. The total noise volume is significant though, in the same league as a table saw at work. i.e. Noisy! Protect your ear drums and use ear defenders.

The 31.5cm max width has a curved input around the entry edges. What this means is that if you insert a long plank slightly skew, the curved edges will slowly push the wood straight if the wood being planed is put in at an angle. Another nice touch, it self straightens your product. I'm giving 4 out 5 stars, just for the fact I had to return my old device and wait on a replacement. The replacement was at my house, in less than a week.

Also, very long and unintentionally twisted planking will come out at the same angle it goes in at. The inner chamber is less than a foot long and the front and rear ends of planking, if twisted, won't self straighten. Only the centre foot or so is steadied and planed level. A twist in a plank may be by several degrees, but that twist may exist over several feet. You need a manual hand plane to eliminate that. British tool brand Silverline have been around since 1978 and are well known for their budget-friendly kit. Their take on the best bench planer for woodworking is their 344944 planer. It’s a solid and simple machine that gets the job done if you don’t want to splash the cash too much. We wanted to know how each machine performed at maximum loads (which results from cutting at the maximum depth in a single pass that the manufacturer recommends). More specifically, we wanted to know which planer pulled more power (maximum amp draw) and which one had the best feed performance relative to its no-load condition. I was looking to set up a micro woodworking shop as I have limited space and looked hard at what was available and came across Triton initially via Men in Sheds. I then looked at the story behind Triton and then where I could buy their product. I selected Yandles and it was a good decision. I am a more than capable DIYer as I spent my school and university holidays ladding for tradesmen.The blades come sharp! They are easily removed (with magnets supplied) and turned around so the other side (also sharp!) can be used.

The twin blades can take off up to 2 mm per pass, so combined with the feed rate of 6.28 m per minute you can get a reasonable amount of work done in a short space of time. Adjustments are made with a series of hand wheels and cranks, and four rubber feet help to keep the vibrations down. Above you can see a graphic showing the ratio of the no-load feed rate compared to the average loaded feed rate (average feed rate for the materials we planed). This just gives a good relative comparison of how the motors performed under load. The DEWALT 735X and the Triton TPT125 were able to keep the feed rate much closer to the no-load rate compared to the rest of the field. Ear defenders: The the roller housing the cutting blades within the machine takes a couple of seconds to spin up to speed, and when planing volumes of work, you do want to be wearing ear defenders, unless you are just putting one or two planks through per day. It is loud and will be heard by the neighbours too. We did rank this category as it’s a great way to evaluate the power of the planers. The top three included the DEWALT 735X, Triton TPT125 and the Delta 22-590. Maximum Depth of Cut Performance

Entry for Triton TPT125 Planer platen

You should also wear a dust mask, safety goggles and ear defenders when using your planer. Never wear loose clothing, such as ties, scarves or jewellery, when using the machine as these can get caught in the rollers. Loaded up with a big 1,800 Watt motor, the blades spin to an impressive 12,000 rpm. This fast-moving planer can take off up to 3 mm of material per pass, and each blade is double-sided, so you get twice the life out of them. The integrated dust collection port is ideally placed too. We’re not going to rank this category as we feel a bench-top shop tool like this will always require some setup and fine tuning. Of the 8 planers Makita definitely has the best system for making those adjustments.

Pre-Test Inspection and Adjustment– We looked at how level the infeed and outfeed tables were, we adjusted them, and noted how easy or difficult the process was. Im thrilled with the build quality of this capable machine. The essential bits that sandwich wood, like the machine head element and base of feed plate are strong, heavy and robust (metal). The plastic housing is very much a non-issue as far as strength and performance goes and helps keep the price down without sacrificing performance. The sheer volume of shavings (I mention this just in passing) is like other planers - i.e. substantial. You'll have unlimited free pet bed shavings or material for the meat smoker, for life. (Just be sure not to use the kiln dried treated nor green-stained timbers in either case). While we’re not ranking this category we do feel the data is interesting and informative. As you can see above the DEWALT DW735X pulls some serious amps under load. It points to the much more powerful motor in that unit. The power difference was clear during the planing operations as it didn’t seem to care what we ran through it. But it’s important to note if you’re going to buy the DEWALT DW735X you MUST have a dedicated 20A circuit as it’s not going to run well on a 15A circuit. I did have a lot of difficulty in removing and inspecting the blades as the retaining screws were so tight that the tool that is supposed to open them got damaged at the tip. Finally had to get the dealer to help loosen the screws with better equipment. I have reassembled the blades and now can remove them easily for sharpening or replacement. It is a great machine and well worth the money paid for it. It looks and feels solid and strong. Glad I got this unit.What it won't do is square up wood that was cut on an angle (or a deliberate mitre or slant) like a parallelogram. If the face you feed into the machine has a continuous and uniform angle cut into it, it will level the face but maintain the angle. Its very nice to be able to pull rough timber from a skip and have it transformed into perfect planking which looks both shop bought and also new, in just a few minutes with a couple of passes. The machine holds planks steady when they are fed in edge ways, too, so all sides of planking can be worked on all sides. We applied blue chalk to the surface to highlight the milling marks, and scallops, for a visual inspection. We also evaluated the smoothness by simply feeling the surfaces. While very subjective, we ranked the planers based on the samples of Maple shown below. Remove them and search YouTube where you'll find a simple video on how to sharpen the blades yourself (easy!).