On Dec 7, 8:40 am, "jd" wrote:
I have to disagree with the other comments. This machine is at best a toy.

I finally had to replace my old delta 12" planer after 12 years of heavy
use, it finally dies. The DW 734 was supposedly the "best" 12" planer on the
market, so I picked on up. It absolutely sucks. here's my experience so far
(I've had it for a couple of years now)

out of the box - missing parts, customer service very time consuming, and
required multiple calls to get the missing parts sent. Had three separate
promises to ship parts, they weren't actually shipped until the third time
(took over a month to get the missing parts)

I've got one. I had no missing parts. It comes almost fully
assembled. Very strange.

basic adjustment was OK out of the box, but not great. spend a couple hours
tuning it up, and it is a lot better.

Mine was excellent, but it's now in need of a tune. Definitely
doesn't hold as well as a bigger planer.

snipe, DC hook up etc are about the same as anything else I've used in the
12" size range.

I've got the in/outfeed tables and get almost none ever.

blades dull almost instantly, are very expensive to replace. don't bother
trying to work with anything with figure, and if you are working hardwoods,
expect to replace blades almost daily.

Yeah, the blades are definitely pricey. You'll want to go to eBay for
sure. I'm up in the air as to how fast they dull. It seems too quick
relative to other planers I've used. What's weird is that I use Esta
(Dispoz-a-blade) knives all the time and they are really, really
good. And these appear to be identical. Perhaps they use cheaper
steel, or they don't hone to as high a grit. That said, I think I'd
have to be really pushing some stock through to have to change the
blades daily. This isn't a production level machine.

lacks power - a decent drum sander will remove stock faster than this will -
especially on wide boards. If you make a habit of working on anything over
6" wide, expect to take truly miniscule cuts. Even with that, expect it to
overheat and stall on a regular basis. I typically take cuts at about 1/128
(according the scale on the dial). In hard maple, 8" wide, I can get through
about 4 1/2 feet of stock before it stalls.

That's not my experience. I've run a lot of maple through mine, as
well as beech, birch and even jarrah and karri wood. You can't hog
off material, but I routinely take off close to a 32nd a pass.

If you actually hook up to a permanent dust collector system, changing
blades is a PITA becaus of the way the chute is designed.

Feh.

Loud does not even begin to describe this machine.

Oh yeah - it's really, SCREAMINGLY loud! Put in some plugs and then
put on your earmuffs for sure.

This thing is so crappy that I actually prefer to use my drum sander for
flattening and thicknessing. I save the planer for dealing with pine and
other softwoods that would gum up the sander.

If you are looking for something to occasionally run a small board through,
it may be OK. For any real use, its simply a waste of money, time and space.

Space? It's like 18" square! Now weight - that's a different story.
This thing is definitely dense, so you don't want to be lugging it
around too much.

JP