Bob wrote:

It appears you are looking at benchtop planers, as opposed to heavier
cast planers. In that class, let me suggest you look and see if there
is a Lowe's in your area that still has a Delta 20-580 13" planer in
stock. These planers sell for $350-$450 depending on where you buy.
Lowe's had them on sale for $229 - an incredible buy. I bought one and
I am very pleased with it. At that price, there is no other
competition to consider.

Bob

P.S. If you have a dust collector, pay the extra $24 for the dust
collection nozzle for this planer. It works very, very well.

I have to agree with Bob that, at $229 the Delta is hard to beat. I
have a Rigid 13" that I like - good finish, low to no snipe, and the
extra inch is occasionally useful.

After running a bunch of hard maple this weekend and being very
frustrated from the amount of chip out I was getting (even with new
blades and very small amount of material removal - less than 1/32) I am
still thinking that being able to feed at slower speeds is a very useful
feature. It depends on what kind of wood you plan to work. If you are
planing very hard or highly figured wood I would consider a planer with
two feed speeds. The Dewalt DW735 looks pretty good in a number of
respects.

TWS