Hi Stopper60,
Shopping for a planer huh? Sounds like fun to me! I love buying new tools!
There are several different ways you could go. It will depend on your budget, the space you have available and your expectations for your new planer.
Most home shop woodworkers use one of the many available portable planers on the market. The portable planers are typically 12" or 13" wide. Almost all of them use a universal motor. (Motor with brushes, like your router or mitersaw.) Some are light and portable while others are heavy and have almost become stationary units. The advantages to the portable class of planers are; price, weight, very clean cuts due to a very fast cutterhead speed, and their compact size. The disadvantages are time, it will easily take twice as long to plane down a stack of boards with a portable vs. a stationary planer. You will not want to remove more than 1/16" of wood in a single pass with a portable planer. In many cases even less than that. Heavy cuts greatly reduce the life of the motor on a portable. Overall life of a portable will be much shorter than that of a stationary, the stationary planers are just built heavier with more metal and industrial motors.
There are a number of stationary planers that work well for homeshop woodworkers. Most stationary planers found in home shops will be between 13" and 20". They will be built almost entirely of steel and cast iron and weigh from 400lbs on up. They will have an induction motor (Like most stationary tablesaws or bandsaws) of at least 2hp, most will be 3hp or even 5hp. The advantages to a stationary planer are: fast work speed, you can cut 1/8" in a pass in most types of wood. They are built heavy and last long, most are a lifetime investment. The wide planing widths are nice for bigger work like large door panels, table tops, solid cabinet sides, etc. Some disadvantages are price, weight, and size. Keep in mind that many of the stationary models also require 220 volt power.
So, which planer should you buy...
In the portable category. I like the DeWalt DW735. It is one of the heavier portable planers. It is 13" wide and is one of the few portables using a 3 knife cutterhead. Three knives equals clean cutting. The Makita 2012NB is a very well built, no frills planer. If you want gadgets and cool features this is not your planer but if you are looking for a reliable, well built planer give it a look. In the budget catagory, it is hard to beat the Delta TP305. It is the latest reincarnation of Delta's very first portable planer. It is hard to beat it in it's price class. I have one of the TP305's myself. I use it when I need a planer I can take with me.
In the Stationary class. Look at the 15" planers. All of the reputable manufactures offer them. Look at brands such as Jet, Powermatic, Delta, Steel City and Grizzly. In this class usually when you spend more you are buying accuracy. I own a 15" planer made by Jet that has provide many years of trouble free planing in my home woodshop. In recent years many of the manufactures have brought out 20" models that don't cost much more than the 15" planers. You might want to consider a 20" machine if you have the space. Trust me, you can never have too wide of a planer!
A little bit about snipe.....
Regardless what the ads and manufactures tell you, every planer can produce snipe. Snipe is caused by the board not being supported by both the infeed and outfeed rollers at the beginning and end of its trip through the planer. In the past 10 or so years manufactures have made a bid deal about there planers "eliminating" snipe. Most have added cutterhead locks to the planer. The idea is that a locked cutterhead will prevent any cutterhead movement and therefore eliminate the snipe. While a locked cutterhead probably does help, it alone won't eliminate snipe. I have found in my own woodwork that most snipe is caused by unsupported workpieces. As a long board enters the planer the back end wants to drop and the front end lifts, producing snipe. Once the outfeed roller grabs the board and applies the same downward force as the front roller all is well. The same thing happens again when the end of the board passes the infeed roller and now the board is only supported by the outfeed roller. I believe that the best way to reduce snipe is to fabricate the largest infeed and outfeed tables for your planer that you can fit into your shop. The more support you can put under the workpiece, the less snipe you will have.
I hope that this at least gives you a few suggestions and ideas to think about. I will be happy to answer any other questions I may have missed.
Let us know which planer you decide to purchase!
-UtahAV
-Mark
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