Hey Everyone,
I’ve been shopping for a new planer.
Current: Dewalt DW735. This planer has been good to us, but recently, we have been doing a lot more solid wood, and we have been going throught blades like crazy. We pay about 40-45 bucks to sharpen them, but they never quite fit right after that, and we have found we can only sharpen them once before the are useless. I bought 4 sets of blades in the last 12 months (at 80-90 per set.
Needless to say, we are ready for a more industrial machine.
We are ready to invest about $2000-$2600 on an upgrade. I like the idea of buying new, since it will be guaranteed, but with all the shop closings, it is quite possible to get an even better one (without the Gtee).
One thing I want to go better on is the feed rate. I just looked for the FPM rate on the dewalt and could not find it anywhere, so this is hard to measure. I also want the blades to be less expensive to buys and maintain.
Any and all thoughts / experience would be greatly appreciated! TIA,
MT
Replies
Feed rate on the Dewalt is 14ft/min on low and 26ft/min on high.
Page 3 of the owners manual.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
~ Denis Diderot
Thanks for pointing that out! I must've looked for it a dozen times!
I just bought the Delta 22-790x 15 inch planer(im a Delta fan). Im very happy with it, its amazing the difference in the 3 hp machine and the delta bench top i had. plus the 240 volts helps as well. I chose the delta because of the top mount motor and the folding infeed and outfeed. the feed rate is 16 and 30 fpm
If i had more room in the shop I might have considered the the Jet with the quick change blades but its infeed and outfeed are fixed. I think most all 15 inch blades run between 60-90 bucks a set.
Mark Rhodes
Vinworx.com
G0454 20" Planer
http://grizzly.com/products/category.aspx?key=490000
5HP, needs 10 gage wire and 30 amp breaker
unless you do production work and a lot of it, this machine will be all you need to achieve excellent results in the hardest of woods.
With the 20 inch knives, unless you have lots of wide boards, you can keep one side for most of the final passes for a very clean cut.
+ this machine has a built in mobile base that allows for ease of movement and shop clean-up.
Changing knives is ez with only using the provided knife setter.
I have the grizzly 20 inch planer as well. I had problems with boards feeding consistently until I covered the feed surface with a sheet of UHMW polyethelyne plastic. The planer bed rollers would not stay adjusted, now they are not needed. Boards just slide right through.
Mine had no such problem and has stayed in alignment since first set up.
I cant see spending an extra 1K when that money could be put towards a zillon other shop tools, that why I recommended the 20" Grizzly.With a 15", I would have dozens of boards that wouldnt fit thru it.Get the 20" 5HP.
I'm not dissin' the Grizzly, I think it's a great planer. It's wonderful for planing glued up carcase panels, chest tops, etc. I plane a lot of rough lumber, and the planer bed rollers, if set high for clearance, resulted in significant snipe. If set low to minimize snipe, then the planer had more trouble feeding rough lumber. With the UHMW, it feeds everything, and no snipe. This, I think is a feature of any planer with bed rollers.
All my lumber is rough.
I have NO such problems with feed or snipe.
You didnt have the machine set up properly which is the failure of most woodworkers that complain about machines.Its this simple.A $25 table saw with a new Forest blade will cut circles around
a brand new 2000 clam machine with a dull blade.
My complaint (really more of an observation) was that the bed rollers will not stay in adjustment for very long. Certainly, if I were to adjust them prior to each board, or check their adjustment, I'd probably never have seen the feed problems I experienced. Of course, that's just not very practical, and I'd expect the equipment to hold settings through more than a hundred board feet of lumber. My modification of the use of a poly feed bed surface, I thought, might be of interest (or perhaps an improvement) that some list members might appreciate.
It's a well know fact (documented in the instructions, actually) that rougher lumber requires higher settings of the feed bed rollers, and that results in more snipe. As lumber is processed from rough to finished dimension, the feed bed rollers should actually be reset to reduce their profile to minimize snipe. The poly feed bed eliminates the need to do this, resulting in more dependable feeding and less snipe.
There is a slightly used Woodmasteer 24" on Craigslist in Kansas City for $1,500. I bought a 6" Jet jointer from him and saw the planer. It looked new. If I had room, I would own it now.Domer
Well I found it interesting. I have a 15" Griz and it snips some, I just cut longer rough pieces to remove this. Now what exactly are you applying to the feed and output tables. A self sticking sheet of? and where did you get it? Thanks
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I bought a sheet of 1/4 inch UHMW (ultra high molecular weight) polyethylene plastic, available on line from a number of suppiers (onlinemetals.com for example) and fastened it to a sheet of 3/4 inch birch ply. This is sized to my planer bed and is held in place by a couple cleats. This material is so slippery, that boards feed much easier through the machine. Snipe can still occur if the boards are not supported at the beginning and end of the cut, and I, too, have to cut off about 4 inches sometimes to avoid this. I have at times glued side extensions onto a panel to make it longer so the snipe occurs on the waste wood rather than the panel itself. Some amount of snipe is almost inevitable I have found, but the poly feed bed eliminates the need to adjust and readjust the feed bed rollers.
Thanks - I've been looking at General since there are a few places near me that sell them. What I find interesting is that many planers look exactly the same, except paint color. Also, it seems to me that I read in FW a looong time ago (about 11 years, maybe?) that many of the brand names were made in the same factories in Taiwan. (King, General, delta, etc). That is an entirely different topic, but aren't these machines mostly the "same"?I've decided to go with a 20" planer, and I will look into whether a helical cutter.We are a small two man shop, and when we plane, we plane a few hundred feet at a time, but then the machine will sit for a week or two without being used because we are assembling, etc. On the days we do use it, oftentimes we run it all day long, so it has to be durable. In that regard I think the deWalt has served us well. It is very durable. We just can't remove more than a 64th at a time in one pass on a 13" panel.I've looked at SCMI, and they look amazing, but it might be more than our budget right now. I will look into it. Thanks to all!
1 thing to remember.
When using a 20" planer and planing wide panels...................
you need a good chip/dust collection system, especially with any wood that the chips curl.Your only decision is to get the spiral cutterhead or not and if the machine sits for 2 weeks at a time on occasions, that decision should be easy as well.Save the 1K or buy another machine that helps your business MAKE money.The upgrade from the small planer you currently have to the G0454 20" Planer will have you asking yourself - WHAT the hell took me so long to buy it!
If you're running a commercial outfit, you need to have a 20" planer. And while I love old machines, the advent of helix planer heads makes a convincing argument for getting a new machine if you're shopping now. It will quickly pay for itself in saved sharpening costs. I've never used the Grizzly planers but I'd take a hard look at them. My shop has mostly SCMI machinery, which I recommend highly, but I don't know what their planers are selling for now.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?lang=e&id=1
MT,I think David has made the point I was thinking of... If among your principal criteria, knife longevity is important, than a helical cutterhead with carbide knives is a key consideration. I don't think the HSS will give you the same performance. I have never liked having to change the knives on either jointers or planers, and particularly not as often as you apparently have had to.Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
I purchased last year the Jet 20" planer and have been happy with it so far. This planer is exactly the same as the Power Matic planer. It has the spiral head with carbide inserts. in the past I have had and still have the Delta DC-380 15" planer which has been a work horse, As well as a 13" Dewalt 1st generation planer that I only use for job site work and thin planing. The 15" may be on the market soon.
Tony
Dear MT,
Pretty hard to beat these:
1) http://www.grizzly.com/products/20-Planer-w-Spiral-Cutterhead/G0454Z
2) http://www.grizzly.com/products/20-5-HP-Spiral-Cutterhead-Planer/G1033X
3) http://www.grizzly.com/products/15-3-HP-220V-Planer-with-Spiral-Cutterhead/G0453Z
I am partial to the Byrd spiral cutterhead, but I am sure that Grizzly's stock spiral cutterhead will be a HUGE step up from straight knives.
Best,
John
Thanks John -
Will look into these tonight.I am in Montreal, so shipping cross border on the grizzly products might be prohibitive. Appreciate all the feedback so far. Learning a lot and might spend more than my budget. This is just like buying a car... there's always an upgrade for just a little extra!Martin
Interesting - A quick call to Grizzly and I learn they do not ship up to Canada. Apparently they have a non-compete agreement with another company. (Did not tell me which).Hmmmm. Should I move to USA?Will keep looking.
Dear M,
The way things are going here, I would suggest staying in CN, in fact we may come join you!! If you are not close enough to the border to make it worth while, then perhaps Steel City would accommodate you. http://www.steelcitytoolworks.com/products_tools.cfm?section=2&category=9&tool=40280HThey have similar tools although they do not list prices. I know that Grizzly sells through Amazon, I wonder if you could get around their "non compete" that way? Probably not, but it may be worth a shot.Best,John
Since you live in Canada this might be you best option
http://www.general.ca/pagemach/machines/30300a.html It is the same machine as the Grizzly machines that those stateside are recommending and even comes with the helical cutter option. I would strongly encourage you to go with that option. I did, and I change my knives about every four years. Before, I changed them twice a year and cussed every time I did it. The carbide inserts give a great finish and handles gnarly grain very well with little tearout. General International machines are well regarded and you probably can get pretty good service in Montreal.
Edited 2/24/2009 8:06 am ET by terrylee86
Thanks Terry, I am actually planning a trip out to the dealer this week to take a look. If you change your knives every four years how much wood are you planing? We are probably going to do 3-4K bd ft per year. I think we did about 2500 last year on the dewalt.Thanks!Martin
Martin,The life expectancy of carbide blades will of course vary with what you're planing and how much. But just to give you an idea - after some 50 cu.m (about 20,000 bd.ft) of mixed hard and softwoods, I felt it might soon be time to rotate the carbide inserts for the 1st time. I think you could reasonably expect to plane some 100,000 bd ft before you needed a new set of inserts.David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?lang=e&id=1
Martin,
It depends on the year as to how much I would run each year,but I probably averaged about 1,000 bd.ft. a year. Most of the lumber I use is hard maple, cherry, walnut and soft maple and the amounts of each vary from year to year. If I am building a lot of dressers I will use a lot of maple for drawer boxes. I have switched from hard maple to soft maple for drawer boxes and my router loves me for it. I rotated my knives because I thought I should not because they were dull. They just weren't as sharp as they were and at 60 years old I figured who am I saving them for.
Edited 2/24/2009 2:30 pm ET by terrylee86
I've got the 13" Jet floor model for about $850. I love the induction motor and dust collection capabilities, and at this point have zero plans to upgrade to an even more 'industrial' machine. The one thing I like to be different is the steel blades. They knick pretty easy compared to carbide, and I quickly get tracks on the work. I can have the set sharpenned for $20, but it's a pain to ship them out. A carbide blade is also resharpennable at slightly higher cost, and I could also touch it up with a diamond stone.
Brian
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