All Replies on Thickness Planner Buy

I believe i just saw the ridgid 4301? Not the brand new model on sale at HD for $329. It has gotten really good reviews.

Thanks!

AJ

I have the PC commonly seen at Lowes. It’s a direct rebadge of its Delta cousin. All parts, including blades are interchangeable. It works fine. I bought a delta dust collector port for it which reduces the mess to near zero. See my review in the review archive.
IMO, all the smaller lunchbox planers give similar results unless you get into the pricier models that include a cutter head lock. The larger benchtop units also typically have three blade cutter heads instead of two.
All that said, the smaller planers give pretty decent results, but there is a small learning curve to using the There is a knack to setting the indeed and out feed tables and feeding the boards into the machine.

DeWalt had a jointer?

If you could get HD to take a 20% HF coupon, the R4331 at 20% off would be a nice buy IMO…so would the DW734.

Whatever you get, you’d be wise to get one with a dust chute and anti-snipe mechanism of some sort (cutterhead lock or 4-post screw design). AFAIK, the PC or the Griz don’t offer a cutterhead lock.

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

Yes! Dewalt made a few jointers and I have one of them. If you want to look at the jointer, go to my workshop photo’s.

Thanks
AJ

Checkin out your workshop out of curiosity. :)

I would grab the dewalt dw734. It’s a great, solid planer.

-- He who dies with the most tools... dies with the emptiest wallet.

Cool…learnt me something new before noon today!

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

My local HD has the DW 734 on sale for $359.
Might just be a local thing.
They are always reducing their selection of tools.

If your budget is slightly expandable, I’d recommend the DW735. I see them pop up for under $500 occasionally.

You can sometimes get refurbed ones on eBay for $450.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Take a HF 20% coupon to Lowes and get one of the DeWalts, thats what I did….love my DW735 even more at 20% off

Sadface here is that my local hd doesn’t sell the R4331.. They are still selling the R4330

-- My terrible signature...

Doss…a friend had the 734 and hated it…went to the 735 and loves it. I’ve battled with a Delta 13” machine for years (I seem to spend more time trying to keep the tables true to minimize snipe than I actually use it). Wood magazine rated all the “portables” not too long ago and I don’t think any of them passed the snipe test…not a big deal really other than planning on leaving some extra length on both ends to cut off.

Won’t they order an R4331 for you Alexandre?

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

@ Alexandre – I am not aware of a R4331, do you have a link? (I checked the rigid website but couldn’t find it) That said, at home depot I saw the R4330 on sale at close to $300 (could be a local thing). Add in a 10-20% off coupon and that can be hard to resist. However, HD usually only puts there things on clearance if they are discontinuing the model or bringing in a new one, so I believe in the existence of the R4331.

if the 735 is $300+ better than the Rigid, my guess would be that a Grizzly is $300 better than the Dewalt. So for me, I would get the Rigid or a Grizzly.

CplSteel – The R4331 is an updated version of the R4330….it adds a manual cutterhead lock that the R4330 didn’t have (the 4-post thread design is similar to the DW735’s, and it’s supposed to reduce snipe, but I don’t think Ridgid’s application worked as well as the DW735’s, so they’ve added the tried and true cutterhead lock). The R4331 also adds an internal chip impeller, which is a feature the DW735 has. Those are two fairly significant upgrades IMO.

The Grizzly 0505 benchtop has no cutterhead lock, so will be more prone to snipe. Planers are chip spitting monsters, and the DC chute is a $21 option, so figure $365 shipped with the chute. As much as I like some of the Grizzly tools, I’m not seeing much advantage with this one over the DW734 or either Ridgid

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

Yeah, I saw the DW734 at my local Home Depot the other day for $339. If I didn’t already own the DW735 I would have jumped all over that.

-- jay, www.allaboutastro.com

Cutterhead lock is not something that should be overlooked. I have a perfectly good planer I can’t wait to replace because it doesn’t have a cutter head lock. Wait until it snipes a 1/2” deep gouge right in the middle of an edge grain cutting board.

At some point I will be buying the Ridgid. As others have mentioned, dust collection is mandatory on a planer. Not only does it make a huge mess, the chips get tossed back into the planer, raising your board up just enough to cause even more snipe and uneven planing.

-- https://www.etsy.com/shop/KandJWoodcrafts

Thats true, I really want one that locks in. The last thing I want is to burn a hole in my wallet, for a planner that can’t cut straight. Thanks guys!

AJ

if the 735 is $300+ better than the Rigid, my guess would be that a Grizzly is $300 better than the Dewalt. – CplSteel

What? Which Grizzly? The 15” one? Probably. The 0505? Nope. To me they’re not even really the same class (well… they are, but the DW735 is in its own little world as far as form/size is concerned).

I think out of the “affordable” planers you’re going to have a really hard time finding anything better than the DW735.

There are many places that sell the DW735 for about $500 and you can score them for even less on eBay refurb’d. Comparing it to the value of a $200 on sale planer… of course it’s not even close. That’s a big gap in price. But, comparing it to a $300-350 planer, I’d save up and buy the DW735 for the extra $150 or so.

The next planer I’d buy after that starts over $1k.

So yes, if you really only want to spend $2-300, you’re only going to have a handful of quality choices and many people have given the virtues of certain models (all good advice).

I recommend the DW735 only b/c the original poster put a “soft” ceiling at $400 which is dang close to making him the newest owner of a DW735.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

I was never talking about the Grizzly 505.

I didn’t mean to state that the DW735 is not a good planer, everyone who has it loves it. Home depot is selling off the stock of R4330s and they can be had new for $300, and less with a coupon. The R4331, according to the posts in this thread, has a cutterhead lock and will run about $400 which is about the same price as a DW734. The DW735 goes in the $600 range, and the Grizzly I was referencing will run you about $900 shipped. Of course, for another $300, at $1200 shipped they get even better.

I think if the R4330 price falls any farther, it might be the go to winner at $200. The 735 is better, but for me its a tough call to save some money now and get the Rigid, or just save some more and buy the Grizzly…. maybe the 735 is worth it.

Out of curiosity, how many people here use sleds for their thicknessers? In my limited experience with lunch box planners, a quick torsion box sled gets rid of all the snipe issues, because it is the wings, not the blade or rollers, on the lunch box planers that is the problem.

FWIW, Amazon has the 735 with an extra set of knives and the outfeed tables for $569 right now. I plan on buying one next Friday.

-- The quality of one's woodworking is directly related to the amount of flannel worn.

What about the rigid planner? Is it worth the $400 bucks?

My two cents: I’ve run many hundreds of bf through my Ridgid 4330, and have never had a problem with the cutter head moving on me. That said, my next planer will be a Dewalt 735 with the Byrd helical head. Those things can do amazing stuff on highly figured woods that would be challenging for a straight knife planer. I’ll still keep my Ridgid though.

-- John, BC, Canada

I had the Ridgid R4331. After 19 days of using it, it got extremely noisy and sounded like a coffee can full of bolts rattling around. Returned it for a new one, and the second one lasted 10 minutes before the chip blower fan ate up the shroud. I would not buy one again.

I got my money back and bought a Dewalt 735. It’s a vastly superior machine, even when the first R4331 was working correctly.

-- The quality of one's woodworking is directly related to the amount of flannel worn.

I have the 734 and love it. I haven’t had any snipe problems. Comes with outfeed/infeed tables. I’d definitely recommend it.

-- - The mightiest oak in the forest is just a little nut that held its ground.