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

Couldnt be happier

I have been using this planer for about 3 months, and am still happy with it. A couple things could be better, but for the most part it has been one of those tools that you can rely on to do what it is supposed to.=== The Good Stuff ===* My planer is permanently mounted to a work table with four mounting bolts. These are not included-but they would never guess the right length anyway, so not a big deal. The planer is heavy, the instructions say 80 LBS, but it seemed lighter than that, so you may need a second person to help lift it into place.* Within an hour of opening the box (and most of that time was spent reading the manual thoroughly), I was planing cedar. The tables seemed perfectly adjusted out of the box, and I got very smooth finishes with no snipe at all. Operation is relatively simple and mostly intuitive.* Most of my planing is oak-typically resurfacing oak that I have reclaimed from old furniture or cabinets (much cheaper to buy oak at a thrift store than a lumberyard). It does an excellent job on oak, although you will occasionally get some slight snipe at the ends of previously finished lumber.* I do not have a dust collection system, but my large shop vac attached to the rear port does a very nice job on dust and shavings. I do get a little dust, but very minimal amounts, and most of that is probably blow-by from the hose connectors. If I wasn't so lazy, a more permanent "clamped" connection would work better. I do use a respirator when planing old pre-finished wood- there is no telling what is in the finishes.* After planing about 1200 lf of oak, mostly 5-7" wide, the blades started showing signs of dullness. Cuts were still clean, just not as smooth as they used to be. Swapping the knives turned out to be about a 20 minute project the first time, although I am sure it will be about half that next time. (Careful, real easy to cut yourself).I also added a "lap counter" to the side of the table- the kind track coaches use to count laps. They are about $5, and I use them to track how much wood goes across the planer. One click = 10'. Not 100% accurate, but good for monitoring blade use.* The small gauge to estimate the amount of material to be removed works great! I have found with planing oak that two or three very small passes (1/32 or so) works about the best, although you can sneak by with a 1/16 then a 1/32 without much difference.* I seldom plane anything longer than 8', and so far have not felt the need to purchase or build any extension feed tables.=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===* The height gauge is a bit inexact for my needs. I added a Wixey 850 to the planer, and love it. This should have been a part of the planer to start with.* There is a "hard stop" for common thicknesses. I use the 3/4" one quite a bit, but I find it to be a little unrepeatable (+/- 0.08 or so.. Not a major deal, but occasionally enough to be annoying.. The problem is that while the stop is fixed, you have to rely on "feel" to determine how tight to crank down on the head adjustment against the stop. The Wixey has been repeatable to 0.02 or so.* I wish the in and outfeed trays would fold up. They stick out over the front and rear of my work bench, and I hate having tools get bumped.* The on/off switch is easy to use, provided you are standing in the front of the unit. However at about the half-way point in any planing, you are now standing at the back of the unit, and there is no way to get to the switch quickly in an emergency. As with all my tools, I added "panic buttons to the tables, and in this case, added on front and rear.=== Summary ===While there are some parts of this tool that I wasn't totally thrilled with, they were relatively easy to correct, and the planer is now a trusted and often-used part of my shop. So far it has been used for roughly 75% red oak, 15% cedar and 10% poplar, and has performed well on all of these. I have trued-up some cupped wood without much trouble, although the cups were relatively slight-maybe 1/8 or so.

Worked great right out of the box

Theres only one better, and that's Dewalts 735X. (To compare apples to apples because the X model includes important infeed and outfeed supports, where the 735 non X does not) The good: 1-Very reasonable snipe. It has snipe, so be prepared, but it's minor. 2-Cut quality...3 blade cutter results in a very good finish. Sanding will be minor. 3- It's controls are very good and accurate. 4- It has a dust port to hook to your system or vac.*The bad: 1-It's like almost 90lbs..(Still lighter than the 735X)...it's just the way it is, at least it has handles!. 2- It's not a bad size really, until you put the infeed and outfeed tables on. One can fold up but the other one is blocked and can't. Which sucks because it means a lot of wasted space to store it in small shops (Is there anyone here who has too much shop space!? LOL) 3- The dust collection and port screw on and it's fine for a one time install but, if you want to take the port off (If you don't have collection or are working outside, it's a bit of a PITA, AND, it blocks folding up the outfeed table. Grrr.So, I consider that less than good design. That port should clip on and off easily. (and it would be nice to have a place it clips to for storage.) That outfeed table should be able to fold up for storage. Now, if you are going to collect the chips/dust, be prepared for the volume of chips you will be making. Many vacs will choke.In comparison, I recall and old 735 had the infeed and outfeed tables on sprung ball mounts for easy removal for storage. Better. The 735 also has a fan to propel the chips (far!). Plus 2 feed speeds for twice the cuts per inch, nice when planing hard to sand wood. Negatives about the 735? Even heavier, but just by a bit, and more awkward to move, and more $$$.Full disclosure: I don't like Dewalt, (prefer Festool) because I've owned too many of their tools that had some stupid design flaw or they had some issue (Like the 735 I had was a lemon, sniped like crazy and the feed was horrid), or the biscuit joiner had way to much slop, but I will say, to be fair, Dewalt portable planers are the best choices in the market, bar none.

Exelente máquina mi cliente quedo encantado muy buena exelente

Have had this for over 6 years, it worked perfectly the first year without changing or flipping the blades. Changed or flipped the blades regularly after that. Needed a brush replacement after a couple years then again last year.This is a simple machine. If it's clean inside and out (rollers, lead screws, dust ports, and a waxed table), has sharp blades, is powered by the right plug/breaker and has fresh brushes, the only one thing can make it lose power and that's the breaker on the machine.That's the last maintenance and the least frequent, assuming you don't overload it constantly. The breaker degrades over time, and the replacement is around $13.If I were to buy new, I'd still skip it for the 735 with the shelix head. This can be upgraded but I doubt i will at this point.

After 20 years of using my older thickness planner, I upgraded to this model. It's perfect for the size of my shop and the type of hobby woodworking that I do. It's fairly easy to set up and made of good material.

Excellent piece of equipment. Will buy additional DeWalt products when needed’