Best Wood Planer Reviews and Buying Guide 2020

Main Features

The DeWalt DW735X is first and foremost a tool for the shop. It tips the scales at over 100 pounds so, while you could take it on the jobsite, you’ll probably need some assistance to hump it around.

The trade-off for this lack of portability is a first-class, heavy-duty planer that’s built to last. You’ll be able to take care of pretty much any project from furniture and doors right through to customized millwork.

The 15-amp motor is a powerhouse. It maxes out at 20,000RPM which is capable of turning the blades at an impressive 10,000RPM. The result of this raw power is a planer perfectly placed to deliver substantial cuts in wide and hard material.

With a 3-knife cutter system, you’ll get a little more more mileage from your knives and you even get a free set provided so you can’t ask for much more than that. This goes some way to mitigating the fact the knives have a propensity to dull relatively quickly.

When it comes to changing the blades, DeWalt make life easy for you. Just remove the top section of the planer so the blades and exhaust shroud are fully exposed. Each blade has a handful of screws and when you want to move to the next blade, simply depress a lever so it locks into place.

The 2-speed gearbox is perfectly designed so you can easily boost or reduce the cutting speed. Jack it up to over 100 cuts per minute with any harder wood or dial it back if you’re working with softer material for maximum flexibility with the minimum of fuss. All you need to do is flick a simple switch and you can adjust the speed accordingly.

The DeWalt will accept workpieces up to 13 inches wide and you’ll be able to make cuts up to 6 inches in depth. This affords you the freedom to undertake pretty ambitious projects with substantial pieces of material.

Whether you want to remove fine layers or bigger chunks, you can do so without breaking your stride. The removal gauge and thickness scale help you to thickness any boards to a completely uniform size. The handy automatic carriage lock eliminates any snipe that would mar your project.

Safety is paramount with any power tool and the DW735X won’t let you down in this regard. Thanks to the fan-assisted chip ejection, you won’t get any stray debris on the cutterhead as it’s blown well clear of the machine leaving you to work in a clean, dust-free environment. You can also easily hook up your DeWalt to your favorite dust collection system so you’ve got all bases covered.

DeWalt are famous not just for top-notch power tools but also for their superb guarantees. You’ll get a 3-year limited warranty, a full year of free servicing and you’ll even enjoy a 90-day cooling-off period so if you’re not fully satisfied, you’ll get your money back.

If you’re in the market for an all-purpose planer to set up and leave in your workshop with perhaps occasional use on a job site, the DeWalt punches above its weight.

You’ll enjoy a great deal of flexibility and the ability to work with very large pieces of all kinds of material with excellent results.

The warranty and money-back guarantee come together to remove any reason not to pop this planer on your shortlist.

Check it out and you will not be disappointed.

Next up in our best planer reviews is a more affordable option from Delta Power Tools. If you’re operating on a stricter budget, this thickness planer offers more than serviceable performance even with substantial workpieces at a highly attractive pricepoint.

As with the DeWalt, the 22-555 is not a combined planer/thicknesser but another benchtop unit that will thickness your boards rather than also jointing them.

Read on to see if this inexpensive but effective planer justifies making its way into your workshop…

Delta Power Tools have been in business for approaching a century and they’ve gained a hard-won reputation for producing quality goods that are remarkably easy on the pocket.

This meaty thickness planer has a potent 15-amp motor which is capable of a fairly impressive 18,880RPM topped with a cutterhead speed of 9400RPM. The simplicity of the planer means it’s ideal even if you don’t have much experience and you need to deal with bulkier boards.

The 22-555 can accommodate stock 13 inches wide and 6 inches tall so you are in safe hands even with pretty ambitious projects. It’s built to run all day so perfect if you need to deal with large volumes of material without your planer letting you down.

The unique design with a quartet of columns makes sure that the planer sits stable and steady. It also helps to dampen down any vibration and translates into accuracy and precision without much noise… well, not much noise for a planer anyway!

Losing track of tools is something that blights any woodworker. Delta Power Tools has included on-board storage so you can stash your blade-changing tools and retrieve them without breaking your flow and scratching your head, a real bonus if you’re absent minded and often misplace things.

Height adjustment is a total cakewalk. You can manipulate the rudimentary roller with one hand and tailor the height accordingly. The scale is very clearly marked. If you need to engage in repetitive planing, just lock it into place to save time and effort while guaranteeing complete accuracy.

There are a couple of noteworthy safety features thoughtfully served up by Delta. Although this model is an exposed open space planer, the knives are tucked away so you can’t come into contact with them when the planer is running. The power button is located front and center. If anything goes awry, simply turn it off and the knives will lock and immediately stop rotating.

If you’ve used planers with metal rollers, you’ll be well aware of the tiresome noise they generate. You won’t be plagued by that with the 22-555. Both infeed and outfeed rollers are coated with nitrile synthetic rubber. This tamps down the noise, a useful feature if your workshop is close to the house or liable to disturb the neighbors.

There are a couple of minor downsides with the 22-555 but they are certainly not deal-breakers… They are things to be aware of so you don’t end up buying in ignorance then being disappointed.

You won’t be lavished with extras but then consider the ultra-competitive price tag before moaning too much about this. You have all you need which is all that counts.

3 cutting knives would be better than the pair in place but you don’t really notice a lack of efficiency and the planing results are more than fit for purpose.

This freestanding cabinet-style benchtop planer from JET also serves as a molder so you get excellent value for the money even if you initially wince at the price tag. Bear in mind, too, that these planers are never cheap so the 708524 is actually at the lower end of the range. Considering this, you get a truly fantastic planer fit for most reasonable requirements.

The 1 1/2HP motor is completely enclosed. It delivers 4500RPM and, while its default setting is 110V, a little cheeky rewiring enables it to run on 230V so it’ perfect whatever your needs. You can open a handy side door on the cabinet if you need to check the engine out or tension the belts. This is a nice touch with an fully encased unit.

One area in which the JET truly excels is the perfectly honed cutter head. This is 2 9/16 inches across packing a trio of full-size knives. They are held in place by the traditional wedge system. Although this can be awkward for the initiated, one advantage is the ability to install multiple molding knife profiles without taking out the planer blades. The JET takes more than 40 molding sets so you really are spoiled for choice.

You’ll be able to plane boards 13 inches in width, 6 1/8 inches deep and up to 14 inches long so JET has got you covered even if you need to engage in projects that are larger and more ambitious in scope.

Thinking of bigger projects, you can ramp up the feed rate to 20FPM if you need to remove large amounts of wood in a hurry. This can be dialed back to 10FPM when you want the smoothest possible finish. The slower feed rate is also ideal for any molding you’ll carry out.

The table is cast-iron and measures 19 ¼ inch long and 14 inches wide. There’s plenty of travel. The infeed and outfeed rollers come with a rubber coating so your stock will move seamlessly and consistently. The rubber will grip the wood without ruining the surface for a win-win.

There’s an integrated dust chute and you can connect the JET to a dust collector to guarantee your workshop is safe, clean and debris-free.

There’s really nothing much meaningful you can say against the JET 708524 benchtop planer. Even the price tag is reasonable when you think about the competition and the fact these planers can easily run into figures.

If you’re looking for a multi-purpose planer that would grace any workshop and copes with even large projects with consummate ease, you should give serious consideration to the JET. If you’ve got any doubts about it, bear in mind the class-leading 5-year warranty which will cover you for any unlikely mishaps.

Overall, this really is perhaps the best planer in its class and price range so what are you waiting for?

Go and test one out and see if it gels with your needs.