DEWALTBenchtop Planer, 15-Amp, 12-1/2-Inch, 3-Knife Cutter, 20,000 RPM, Corded (DW734)

First, a little praise for Amazon. $25.00 discount, free shipping, and free set of spare knives (didn't even know these were included.), resulted in a delivered price of [...]. That's the best deal in town, especially when you consider the free [...] knives.Now, the planer. It's heavy. Really heavy. But that's a good thing. It took only 10 minutes to set up, read the manual, and make my first sawdust. Initial results were excellent. Glass-smooth surfaces on White Oak, Poplar, and Red Oak. Minimum snipe limited to ends of board. No snipe detected elsewhere.Nice fit & finish. Decent manual. Good ergonomics. Plenty powerful.So far, highly recommended. I'll update after a few hundred board feet.UPDATE - 2 Years LaterI'm still very pleased. I've put in excess of 1000 bf through the planer now. It hasn't missed a beat. Unbelieveably, I'm still on my first set of knives. They are a little nicked now due to some hard maple I put through it a few weeks ago, but I'm not yet sufficiently motivated to change them. This machine has served me well, and shows no signs of slowing down. It still ranks 5 stars.UPDATE - 1 Week since Last UpdateI broke down and turned the knives over. I cut myself in the process. Clumsy! A few cuts after freshening the knives made it obvious that I should have done this some time ago. The planer performs like new. Still 5 stars.Update - At 4 YearsStill 5 stars. I turn or replace the knives every 6 months or so. The knives don't like Hard Maple, but all other species do fine (including Walnut & Oak). The results delivered by this planer are excellent.Update - At 6 YearsStill going strong. Just added a Wixey digital readout that I got from Amazon. Still 5 stars.Update - At 12 YearsStill going strong. Feed rollers started to slip, so I cleaned them with a stiff brush and alcohol. Worked like a champ. Back to 100% function. Obviously a great planer.Update - At 15 YearsSeriously. 15 years. My kid is now grown and off to college. The planer still delivers. I planed some Walnut a couple days ago. Fantastic results. Clearly, I got my money worth. Would buy another in a minute should the need arise.Update - At 19 YearsThe planer and I have grown old together. It functions far better than I do. The only problem I’ve had is a broken tab on the dust collection fitting. That’s trivial, considering all the use this machine has had. A great product.

Purchased this after reading many reviews on various sites. Works great. After planing the wood in very smooth and ready for final sanding. The dust collection feature was very helpful, not near the mess as with my old planner. I’d recommend it.

Great and a good value

This is a great product. The only issue I can come up with is the dust collection. You have to take the attachment off in order to be able to close the planer, also, periodically you need to check the dust collection are and vacuum the extra shavings. Other than this issue I 100% approve this product. DEWALT makes good quality products and I have most of the main products. If you follow this item then you can buy it when it goes down on price, usually sales price last a day or so, so buy it when it goes to sale.

Theres only one better, and that's Dewalts 735X. (To compare apples to apples because the X model includes important infeed and outfeed supports, where the 735 non X does not) The good: 1-Very reasonable snipe. It has snipe, so be prepared, but it's minor. 2-Cut quality...3 blade cutter results in a very good finish. Sanding will be minor. 3- It's controls are very good and accurate. 4- It has a dust port to hook to your system or vac.*The bad: 1-It's like almost 90lbs..(Still lighter than the 735X)...it's just the way it is, at least it has handles!. 2- It's not a bad size really, until you put the infeed and outfeed tables on. One can fold up but the other one is blocked and can't. Which sucks because it means a lot of wasted space to store it in small shops (Is there anyone here who has too much shop space!? LOL) 3- The dust collection and port screw on and it's fine for a one time install but, if you want to take the port off (If you don't have collection or are working outside, it's a bit of a PITA, AND, it blocks folding up the outfeed table. Grrr.So, I consider that less than good design. That port should clip on and off easily. (and it would be nice to have a place it clips to for storage.) That outfeed table should be able to fold up for storage. Now, if you are going to collect the chips/dust, be prepared for the volume of chips you will be making. Many vacs will choke.In comparison, I recall and old 735 had the infeed and outfeed tables on sprung ball mounts for easy removal for storage. Better. The 735 also has a fan to propel the chips (far!). Plus 2 feed speeds for twice the cuts per inch, nice when planing hard to sand wood. Negatives about the 735? Even heavier, but just by a bit, and more awkward to move, and more $$$.Full disclosure: I don't like Dewalt, (prefer Festool) because I've owned too many of their tools that had some stupid design flaw or they had some issue (Like the 735 I had was a lemon, sniped like crazy and the feed was horrid), or the biscuit joiner had way to much slop, but I will say, to be fair, Dewalt portable planers are the best choices in the market, bar none.