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

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.

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.

First, a little praise for Amazon. $25.00 discount, free shipping, and free set of spare knives (didn't even know these were included.), resulted in a delivered price of [...]. That's the best deal in town, especially when you consider the free [...] knives. Now, the planer. It's heavy. Really heavy. But that's a good thing. It took only 10 minutes to set up, read the manual, and make my first sawdust. Initial results were excellent. Glass-smooth surfaces on White Oak, Poplar, and Red Oak. Minimum snipe limited to ends of board. No snipe detected elsewhere. Nice fit & finish. Decent manual. Good ergonomics. Plenty powerful. So far, highly recommended. I'll update after a few hundred board feet. UPDATE - 2 Years Later I'm still very pleased. I've put in excess of 1000 bf through the planer now. It hasn't missed a beat. Unbelieveably, I'm still on my first set of knives. They are a little nicked now due to some hard maple I put through it a few weeks ago, but I'm not yet sufficiently motivated to change them. This machine has served me well, and shows no signs of slowing down. It still ranks 5 stars. UPDATE - 1 Week since Last Update I broke down and turned the knives over. I cut myself in the process. Clumsy! A few cuts after freshening the knives made it obvious that I should have done this some time ago. The planer performs like new. Still 5 stars. Update - At 4 Years Still 5 stars. I turn or replace the knives every 6 months or so. The knives don't like Hard Maple, but all other species do fine (including Walnut & Oak). The results delivered by this planer are excellent. Update - At 6 Years Still going strong. Just added a Wixey digital readout that I got from Amazon. Still 5 stars. Update - At 12 Years Still going strong. Feed rollers started to slip, so I cleaned them with a stiff brush and alcohol. Worked like a champ. Back to 100% function. Obviously a great planer. Update - At 15 Years Seriously. 15 years. My kid is now grown and off to college. The planer still delivers. I planed some Walnut a couple days ago. Fantastic results. Clearly, I got my money worth. Would buy another in a minute should the need arise. Update - At 19 Years The planer and I have grown old together. It functions far better than I do. The only problem I’ve had is a broken tab on the dust collection fitting. That’s trivial, considering all the use this machine has had. A great product.

Update May 2017: 1) infeed rollers are awesome, few problems keeping stock feeding into the cutting heads. 2) Snipe: that gouge when feeding material into and when exiting from the the cutters-- DeWalt says that using the cutting head clamp-down reduces this problem -- I agree totally. No snipe on my redwood planks. 3) Chip exhaust remains an irritation: the chips are adequately collected by the plastic shroud over the exhaust, but the 4-to 2.25" reducer has a square shoulder that tends to plug up. I recommend tossing the reducer, and running a 4" exhaust tube from the shroud to a sawdust barrel or collector system Note; this planer works well, and you will be amazed at how quickly the shavings accumulate! Very pleased with this planer! End update. I purchased this as a replacement for an older RIGID planer. That old machine continues to work for resurfacing smaller items, such as 1x2 and 1x4 soft woods such as cedar and redwood. I also purchased this based on my long-standing success with DeWalt power tools in general; and am not disappointed. Usage: resurfacing recycled redwood and cedar planks. (Given the current costs on these woods, often in rough shape from the local home supply marts, this planer becomes an immediate asset!) PROS: Heavy, does not sitter across its dedicated work surface, a smaller re-purposed office table on casters with a rubberized pad under the planer. I can feed material into the machine without it budging (the stand sometimes moves, but not the planer). Easy to set up, easy to adjust; depth meters and indicators all seem easy to see. Appreciate the 4-point carriage lockdown, the cutting head does not move while feeding material, typically long 2x6 planks in my case. My old Rigid was not (rigid), the lockdown was a friction lever and easily over-ridden. Triple knives. I expect these will last a long time on softer woods, no experience to offer when planing hard woods. Feeds material (2x6 planks) smoothly and consistently, no observed slippage. Resulting planed surface comes out beautiful... again, softer redwood and cedar. I can take a planed plank and proceed with staining and finishing with no intervening sanding needed. Very nice time saver. Nyah: The chip exhaust is fairly effective, particularly when looking at the amount of material coming off the knives. Connects to a standard 2.25" sawdust hose, easily redirected to a sawdust barrel or collector system. It's plastic, but so was the old Rigid exhaust and that survived a decade of use. Cord is heavy duty but could be longer; could also benefit with a plug head that sports a clip for keeping the coiled cord from... uncoiling. I have these on my other DeWalt power tools, would be nice to also have it on this machine as well. Small details keep us happy. Cons: regarding chip removal... even with a chip collector, I find a lot of chip blow back onto the feed side. Makes things somewhat messy, dust-wise. Perhaps a vacuum system on the outfeed exhaust would help, but probably will not eliminate removed material from accumulating on the infeed side. Bottom line: recommended for the weekend wood warrior.

I was one of the first to get the DW734 from Amazon. Other than the 3-knife head (with 2-sided disposable blades instead of resharpenable) and some styling details, the 734 planer appears to be identical to the previous model, the 733. I haven't been able to get any detailed info on changes between the two models from any source I researched. It was set up right on the money out of the box except that the cut depth gage is off by around 1/128" (not enough to matter). I was pleased that it came with a dust hood (4"), something not listed in any of the info I was able to get before the purchase. The cut is silky smooth--unless you look very closely in bright light on a darker wood surface (like walnut) you can't see any blade marks at all. The machine functions very well--easy to set up, the controls operate very smoothly and precisely, and each of the features works as expected without needless fiddling. The dust hood, even though only 4", clears chips and dust very efficiently. The only time any chips escaped was when I tried to take 1/8" off of a 6" board (a no-no according to the owner manual), and then I got a little puff of shavings out the feed end. (My setup is a Jet DC1100CK 1 1/2 HP dust collector connected via a 6" shop duct system, blast gate, 6" flex pipe and a reducer to the 734's 4" dust port.) I did have problems with a little snipe when attempting to take more than 1/32 inch in a pass--I may be able to adjust this out of the planer, but I often make two passes anyway: one to thickness and one to surface. I was surprised to have several small nicks in the blades after planing perhaps 8-10 bf of scrap (carefully inspected/cleaned beforehand), probably due to contaminants in/on the boards. In one case a small knot apparently made a nick. This was disappointing as the planer only comes with 1 set of knives and a new set is fairly expensive. Two passes at the same thickness setting makes the nick traces all but vanish, but this means passing the wood thru the planer 3 times to avoid snipe and nick traces. Perhaps the nicks were a result of embedded sand or silica in the particular scraps used, not something that will happen on a regular basis. (Although my Jet jointer didn't take any nicks when I jointed the same scraps.) It appears to have the same fit and finish as the more expensive the Delta 2-speed, but the 734 is lighter and more portable. But I'm told the Delta unit is less prone to snipe. I chose the 734 over the 733 because of its disposable knives (I don't have a very trustworthy sharpening service near me) and because of the 3-knife head, which should save me some sanding. If those things aren't important to you, the older 733 might be a better value, while supplies last. Based on my short experience, I'd recommend the 734. I withheld 1 star because of the snipe and nick problems.

Been "building" for over 55 years, starting as a young teenager ... everything from an outdoor fountain from a dishwasher (base & pump - early teens) to a mechanical strobe light (spinning slotted disc) based on a vacuum cleaner motor (ah, the psychedelic 60s) to finishing basements (including full bath - scored as "professional" by refinance appraisal) and remodeled bathrooms (down to studs) ... but I never had a planer. Closest I came was a belt sander. I've always been a tinkerer by both inclination and training (engineering degree). Recently started to re-purpose a solid wood door into framing for electronic component shelves and spent an hour with my sander doing an OK job at removing the finish from the sawed up door, and only got though about a fourth of it. Decided I could finally afford a planer. Wow! Knocked off the rest of the finish removal in about 10 minutes. Now I'm looking for things to plane. This machine is accurate enough that I could take off the finish without going through the veneer, simply by using the Material Removal Gauge that's part of the planer. I suspect the advice I've seen over and over is very important - make multiple passes at shallow depths rather than trying to take your piece down in one fell swoop. Also, I had one piece with a tiny bit of snipe. Once I learned to lightly hold the piece down at the front edge of the infeed table when starting it into the planer, I saw NO snipe. I'll defer to the pros on how this unit compares to others, but I'm quite pleased even with my limited experience (received it yesterday). Read through the manual twice, set it up as directed (attach crank & dust hood), and let it rip ... err ... plane. I set the planer on a folding workbench (Harbor Freight 47844) with some trepidation but it's so solid and well balanced there was no problem. My only complaint is that the dust hood is held on by three tiny screws and the outfeed shelf can't be folded up for storage until the hood is removed. Since I don't really have a "shop" (until the cars are backed out of the garage) this will be a minor irritation. But if one can leave it set up, no worries.

This is my first thickness planer and I have run approximately 10 BF through this thing. I know, it's almost all the wood in the world. THAT SAID- Out of the box, it ran beautifully and the knives are very sharp. Super smooth finish. Very easy to operate. Just spend about 5-10 minutes screwing around with it and you'll totally understand it. There definitely is 2" of snipe on either side, but as I learn how to feed the boards a little better I think that can be minimized. I bought this to speed up the process of building a new workbench to replace the hand me down monstrosity that came with my garage... I can already tell this will be a huge help. I will try to come back and update the review over time. UPDATE: After one session running about 384 linear feet of 2x4s and 320 linear feet of 2x6s (building a workbench out of Doug. Fir lumber from the big box store), I can say this is a great little machine. It doesn't seem to have any problem taking a 1/16" cut off a 6" wide board. Once you get the hang of feeding boards through it properly there is literally no snipe. It's a little more difficult with boards shorter than the beds. That will take some practice. One really annoying issue though- the dust port clogs really easily if you don't have a DC hooked up to it. After about 10 passes it seems to get clogged and it begins to shoot all the shavings out the front of the machine. I have a 1hp DC, but I don't have a separator on it yet so it gets clogged almost instantly when using the planer.

I'm new to woodworking and bought this when it went on sale on Amazon. I have now used it to plane down some 4/4 cherry to 3/4 for a bookcase and a cabinet that I built and some quilted maple for the cabinet doors. I had to learn how to use a melamine shelf as a planer sled with some shims, but it has worked out ok so far. When I got it, I first build the planer stand that is pictured and although I don't have any experience, this little mobile cart has made it so easy to use. It also folds up and stores nicely in the corner of my shed/shop. I'd highly recommend this stand from woodsmith especially if you're tight on space. As far as the planer itself, it has been nothing but great. Sometimes it seems to have a little snipe, other times, I can't see any. I read tons of reviews and this planer is what everyone says. To note, I hooked up my ridgid 6hp shop vac along with a dust deputy to the 2.5" adapter that comes with this planer. Outside of the one time where I wasn't paying attention and let the dust deputy get completely full, there is basically zero sawdust anywhere. So glad I purchased this tool!!!!

Works great, I have been planing 4 inch thick stair treads and the out come has been fantastic. The snipe at the end is either non existent or easily controlled. Easy to operate and adjust as you go.

En general es muy buena maquina, solo hay que afinar bien los ajustes, sobre todo el de el espesor, venia descalibrado por aprox 1mm, la perilla de topes preestablecidos no es precisa, tambien varian por hasta 1mm, el problema es que esta no hay manera de ajustarla, el costo puede parecer elevado pero la calidad y el tiempo del trabajo final vale lo que cuesta, si quieres hacer muebles o productos finos de madera natural esta maquina es indispensable, solo para gente que sabe la diferencia, se debe tener cuidado con la profundidad de cepillado para no forzar la maquina sobre todo en maderas duras, es mejor ir cepillando poco a poco, el manual trae una tabla que indica las recomendaciones de profundidad de desbaste, en conclusion es buena herramienta, la compre de importacion y llego antes de lo indicado y en perfectas condiciones, completamente nueva

Un cepillo de muy alta calidad. Vale cada centavo. Fácil de operar, seguro y deja la madera muy bien cepillada. Es como un tanque, y por lo mismo es muy pesado. Aunque lo puede cargar una sola persona fuerte, recomiendo que se cargue entre dos.

Easy to use. Professional results. 200.00$ off helped too!

I have used this a few times and it works great. The wood comes out smooth and even. No issues