Dewalt 13 Inch Planer
Portable thickness planer with robust die-cast aluminum structure. I like the fact that it rides on four acme screws which I thought was a lot more accurate and easier to get just the exact height I needed. The depth scale on the side was very easy to read and gauge what height I had the planer set to, which is very important. To lower or raise the head, there is a nice large handle on the right side of the machine. With big directions on the side that says one full rotation is 1/16″, it was hard to miss your points. On the left side you can easily set your turret depth stop with a dial for your common thicknesses.
It has an aluminum cast base, sturdy and strong for durability and also aligned for accuracy. It also uses disposable blades that eliminate the need for sharpening. With the DW734, you can only plane at a single speed of 96 CPI. It’s a really smooth finish as well, and I’m sure any woodworker can do well with it.
Very basically, a planer is a cutting tool that makes the top face of a board parallel to the bottom board. You set the cut depth and feed the board into one end. dewalt tools A powered roller grabs the wood and pushes it under the cutter head, which trims anywhere from 1/32” to ⅛” off the top before pushing it out the other side.
I haven’t had to try and have the knives resharpened. The sharpening services I have used don’t get blades as sharp as I would with sandpaper and glass. I’ve run 12 inches of stuff like purpleheart dewalt accessories through it and it does bog down and cause some tearout. But like emart said, that’s to be expected in a lunchbox planer. I have the same planer and still have the original box.
For that reason, a good thickness planer will save you valuable shop time while improving the quality of your work. This was an upgrade on the 734 but not necessarily a replacement because many people still prefer the former model. It, however, features some great upgrades that improve its productivity and also makes it easier to work with compared to the 734. This benchtop planner has 2 speeds at 96 CPI for dimensioning and 176 CPI for finishing. It is better at making deep cuts accurately up to 1/8 in cut depth. It also has 3 blades with a no-load speed of 10.000RPM which helps produce a very smooth finish.
In the month that I’ve had the DeWalt 735, this benchtop planer has saved me time, sweat, and backache, and my finished products have turned out better. While I haven’t used any of the 735s competitors, I don’t think I need to. If you’ve got the budget, I would highly dewalt Hand tools recommend picking one of these up. It figures to be one of the most used tools in my wood shop for a long time. is one of the best benchtop wood planers on the market. It handles all types of wood, from soft pine to walnut and mahogany, smoothly and uniformly.
She was made of cypress and needed some new planking to get her shipshape, and, luckily, we had a cypress mill nearby to supply the 4/4 rough-sawn stock. But then again you won’t get results as with a DeWalt product. This is the reason why serious wood workers go with DeWalt planers. They may spend more money, but they get also profession results that they can be proud of, while the work goes a lot more quickly and more easily. Now with the DW735 you can deal with boards that measure 13 inches wide, instead of just 12.5 inches. This can deal with even tough hardwood, and the controls are much easier to use.
It always takes more than a little trial and error to jam everything back into place. Screwing the dust collection hood back on is annoying, as it’s hard to access the screw holes. Thankfully you don’t need to change knives very often. We didn’t try to max out width, but I can tell you from my own experience with the 735x that it does very well even on wider boards. With planers I always try to take small bites regardless of the wood species, and see how the planer reacts. At least for me I’m never in such a rush that an extra pass or two isn’t a deal killer for me.
In fact the last time we did a planer review was back in May 2011 when we did the Delta Planer. This time we are going to tackle the Dewalt 13″ two speed planer. We hope you enjoy this review as the next planer review will be in another two years. For woods that are harder or more prone to tear out a slower speed might be useful. Personally I think preventing tear out has more to do with the sharpness of the knives and how deep each pass through the planer is. It can bog down if you’re trying to take too much good off a large board, especially with very hard wood.