I'm thinking of buying a thickness planer, i'm ignoring the cheap Ryobi's
etc based on hearsay from friends.

Does anyone have any opinions on the Makita 2012NB ?
Or any other suggestions, what to look for, recommended modles/brands etc?

Thanks

"Peter Mance" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of buying a thickness planer, i'm ignoring the cheap Ryobi's
etc based on hearsay from friends.

Does anyone have any opinions on the Makita 2012NB ?
Or any other suggestions, what to look for, recommended modles/brands etc?

I am pretty happy with mine. Snipe isn't too bad, blades are easy to
change, seems to have plenty of power.
I bought it because it was the lightest one on the market and I had to move
it from a shelf to a stand every time I used it. If that's not an issue for
you, you might want to look at a cheaper heavier one.

I bought the Dewalt DW 735 after using a cast iron Delta for many years. It
works very well. The blades are easy to change, the dust ejection is superb
and it has the capacity needed for my shop. The only complaint is that the
knives are thin and no matter how careful I am they get little nicks leaving
raised ridges. The boards sand very easily but it is annoying.
max
"Peter Mance" wrote in message
...
I'm thinking of buying a thickness planer, i'm ignoring the cheap Ryobi's
etc based on hearsay from friends.

Does anyone have any opinions on the Makita 2012NB ?
Or any other suggestions, what to look for, recommended modles/brands etc?

I am pretty happy with mine. Snipe isn't too bad, blades are easy to
change, seems to have plenty of power.
I bought it because it was the lightest one on the market and I had to move
it from a shelf to a stand every time I used it. If that's not an issue for
you, you might want to look at a cheaper heavier one.

I have been using a 12" Delta for the last 5 years and it is going strong.
It does fairly well on the 5" by 5" by 10' posts I did but I am going to
upgrade to a 20" Grizzly because I need to be able to finish plane 8" thick.
The 12.5" Delta seems to be a better machine.

--
Art Ransom
Lancaster , Texas

www.turningaround.org

"Peter Mance" wrote in message
I'm thinking of buying a thickness planer, i'm ignoring the cheap Ryobi's
etc based on hearsay from friends.

Does anyone have any opinions on the Makita 2012NB ?
Or any other suggestions, what to look for, recommended modles/brands etc?

Last time I looked the 13" Ridgid was one of the best buys around in a
breadbox type, if they're still making/selling them. Don't know whether you
can find them in Oz.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 10/22/05

I like my ryobi planer as well. It has plenty of power. After about
fifty 16 footer boards, I got a slight nick in the blade, which didn't
bother me to much because these boards had some really rough boards
with knots. One thing I recommend about flipping the reversible
blades. Mark with a sharpie the side you are about to flip before you
remove them. If you drop it, its very hard to tell which one had the
nick.

Jeff

I've got the Dewalt 734, and so far am quite pleased with it. You have
to hook it up to a dust collector, though...it lacks the internal fan
the 735 has that ejects the chips, and a shop vac doesn't have the nads
to get the job done. Once I got my dust collector...problem solved.
It also lacks the two-speed feature found on the 735, but it's about
$100 - $120 cheaper too.

And as for snipe, I have never, and I truly mean never, sent a board
through that came out with one iota of snipe. I was impressed!

on 10/26/2005 7:05 AM said the following:
blades. Mark with a sharpie the side you are about to flip before you
remove them. If you drop it, its very hard to tell which one had the
nick.

Good tip. Thanks!

wrote in message
oups.com...
I've got the Dewalt 734, and so far am quite pleased with it. You have
to hook it up to a dust collector, though...it lacks the internal fan
the 735 has that ejects the chips, and a shop vac doesn't have the nads
to get the job done. Once I got my dust collector...problem solved.
It also lacks the two-speed feature found on the 735, but it's about
$100 - $120 cheaper too.

And as for snipe, I have never, and I truly mean never, sent a board
through that came out with one iota of snipe. I was impressed!

Amen on the DC!!!!! My DW734 could easily overload the shop vac, and had a
lot of chips blowing out around the cutter head/feed area. The only time I
ever had snipe was if I had a looooong board and didn't get around the
output side to support it, or if I forgot to lock the head(DAMHIKT)!

--
Nahmie
Stupidity is not considered a handicap, park elsewhere.

My DW735 also shows a couple of the nicks in the blade, even though I
am quite carefull of what goes in. Often using a wire brush to clean
off the board.

Since most of my board are not 13" wide, I always try to move them
around a bit when planing to even knife wear and I can often make my
final pass where I know there are no knicks.

Since the machine is a 4 blade machine, it is also possible to just
flip one single knife as well.

How many of you have to blow out the bed after passes of not too wide
material? I found when planing down some 2.5x3.5 blanks, I had to
blow out the bed every pass as there were enough chips on the bottom to
possibly become an embedding issue.

I've not yet taken the cover off to check if the dust hood has some
stuffed on the sides or the neck causing the problem.

Alan

arw01 wrote:
My DW735 also shows a couple of the nicks in the blade, even though I
am quite carefull of what goes in. Often using a wire brush to clean
off the board.

Since most of my board are not 13" wide, I always try to move them
around a bit when planing to even knife wear and I can often make my
final pass where I know there are no knicks.

Since the machine is a 4 blade machine, it is also possible to just
flip one single knife as well.

How many of you have to blow out the bed after passes of not too wide
material? I found when planing down some 2.5x3.5 blanks, I had to
blow out the bed every pass as there were enough chips on the bottom to
possibly become an embedding issue.

I've not yet taken the cover off to check if the dust hood has some
stuffed on the sides or the neck causing the problem.

Alan


I've got the DW735 also, though I'm pretty sure it is has a 3 knife cutter
head. I've never seen much more than a few (I'm talking 2 or 3) small chips
(closer to sawdust, really) lying on the bed. I did, however have an oak
knot come loose after passing though the blades, and the knot wedged itself
between the bed and the outfeed roller. 2 sprockets ended up busting into
several pieces. I ordered 4 replacements so I'd have an extra set on hand
along with some e-rings. IIRC, total (including shipping) was around $10,
and the stuff arrived about 3 days after I ordered. I've certainly learned
my lesson about planing thin material with knots. (Don't do it.) The first
incident I had was planing some thin pine, and the knot got sucked up and
caught in the chip ejection fan. Lovely smell of melting plastic ensued...

Pros for the 735 are that there is no snipe whatsoever (I've got the
additional infeed/outfeed ramps), dust ejection is unbelievably fantastic,
and it has 2 feed speeds. Cons are that it is pretty pricey, and it weighs a
ton (if portability is a concern). Blades are also a touch pricey,
especially since they are listed as disposable, but I've seen comments on
this group indicating that they are, in fact, resharpenable.

-John

Thanks for the input everyone, now how about the Makita 2030S as an
alternative?
Does anyone known wnything about this combination thicknesser /jointer?

"John Girouard" wrote in message
...
arw01 wrote:
My DW735 also shows a couple of the nicks in the blade, even though I
am quite carefull of what goes in. Often using a wire brush to clean
off the board.

Since most of my board are not 13" wide, I always try to move them
around a bit when planing to even knife wear and I can often make my
final pass where I know there are no knicks.

Since the machine is a 4 blade machine, it is also possible to just
flip one single knife as well.

How many of you have to blow out the bed after passes of not too wide
material? I found when planing down some 2.5x3.5 blanks, I had to
blow out the bed every pass as there were enough chips on the bottom to
possibly become an embedding issue.

I've not yet taken the cover off to check if the dust hood has some
stuffed on the sides or the neck causing the problem.

Alan


I've got the DW735 also, though I'm pretty sure it is has a 3 knife cutter
head. I've never seen much more than a few (I'm talking 2 or 3) small
chips (closer to sawdust, really) lying on the bed. I did, however have an
oak knot come loose after passing though the blades, and the knot wedged
itself between the bed and the outfeed roller. 2 sprockets ended up
busting into several pieces. I ordered 4 replacements so I'd have an extra
set on hand along with some e-rings. IIRC, total (including shipping) was
around $10, and the stuff arrived about 3 days after I ordered. I've
certainly learned my lesson about planing thin material with knots. (Don't
do it.) The first incident I had was planing some thin pine, and the knot
got sucked up and caught in the chip ejection fan. Lovely smell of melting
plastic ensued...

Pros for the 735 are that there is no snipe whatsoever (I've got the
additional infeed/outfeed ramps), dust ejection is unbelievably fantastic,
and it has 2 feed speeds. Cons are that it is pretty pricey, and it weighs
a ton (if portability is a concern). Blades are also a touch pricey,
especially since they are listed as disposable, but I've seen comments on
this group indicating that they are, in fact, resharpenable.

-John