Shopsmith Thickness Planer vs. Dewalt

[KyClay]

Hello All,

This is my first post in the forums. I recently inherited a Shopsmith 510 from my Father-in-law. He had purchased nearly every attachment except the thickness planer. I now have the opportunity to purchase a SS thickness planer for about the cost of a new Dewalt DW 734. What are your thoughts on the SS thickness planer? Superior to the Dewalt and worth purchasing used? Thanks!

[bainin]

I recently picked up a Dewalt 734. So far so good. Observing some snipe but I expect it is my fault-not the tool


Is the Shopsmith Planer standalone ? I could never find a stand alone SS planer while I was looking.

If it is the style which needs to be mounted on the SS way tubes- I would opt for the Dewalt.


b

[BuckeyeDennis]

This exact same question came up a while back. The thread below has many different perspectives and insights.

https://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/general- ... 18039.html

And here’s a review of Shopsmith planers over at LumberJocks.com:

https://www.lumberjocks.com/reviews/156

I almost pulled the the trigger on a DW735 myself, but then a great deal on a used SS Pro Planer came along. DW735 owners generally swear by them, with noise being the only common complaint. But I did eventually find a review by a guy who had hands-on experience with both, and he said the Pro Planer was better. But I’ll be danged if I can find that review now.

[KyClay]

Thanks for your input. Yes, it is the type that mounts on the way tubes.

[Hobbyman2]

I don't own a ss or Dewalt planer but my thought would be how hard is it to find blades , belts , bearings and other parts that wear out ? our combo planer / joiner is getting old and some parts are just flat hard if not impossible to find, I could be wrong however my thinking is SS parts should be available for years to come ??

[RFGuy]

I think Hobbyman2 makes a great point as other users have posted on the forum about trying to repair the feed control and motor for it in the past. Don't get me wrong, I love my Shopsmith Mark V mounted planer. I have used it quite a bit and it has worked well for me. Snipe is low to non-existent if you are very careful on feeding it (https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/main ... 23283.html). It is heavy though and a bear to put on and off the waytubes (hard on the lower back). For me, another disadvantage is it only has a 4" depth capacity, whereas the DW734 has a 6" depth capacity. The Shopsmith 4" jointer isn't wide enough to face joint unruly wide lumber. So, if you work with rough lumber a lot, and don't have a wide bed jointer, the planer is a great option for jointing using a planer sled. This is where the planer height comes in...you can make a planer sled for the Shopsmith planer, but with only 4" to work with it is a challenge (see link below). Then if a particular board is severely cupped/warped it may not fit into the planer with the sled e.g. if it is 8/4 or thicker. There are other methods to make a planer sled for jointing, so I am not saying you can't make it work with the Shopsmith planer, but the 4" depth capacity is limiting. If I had to do it over again, I probably would have gone with a different planer knowing what I know now and the fact that I have a small shop and can't fit a standalone jointer in it.

[Erik]

I also debated which planer to purchase. In the end I purchased the Dewalt about two years ago and for me that has been the right decision. I picked the Dewalt over SS for three reasons: 1) it can handle thicker and wider stock, 2) the cutter head can be upgraded to a Shelix cutter and 3) I wouldn't have to lift the SS on and off my 520 (I was looking at used planers to mount to the SS). I have my Dewalt bolted to their roller base and it works beautifully. I have absolutely no snipe and the Dewalt blades are easy to replace.

The Dewalt came with a spare set of blades and I am now on my last edge of the spare set. Because of that I recently purchased a Lux head for the machine, but am waiting to install that when the current set of knives gets nicked. You know how that goes: the minute I ordered the helical cutter I haven't picked up a nick! The Lux is still sitting in its box.

I thought about building a planer sled for the Dewalt because I mill a lot of rough-sawn lumber, but then I stumbled on Phil Thien's idea of using a stiff underlay and hot glue as a planer sled (http://www.jpthien.com/ps.htm). It works so well that I have never seen the need to build a traditional planer sled. My work flow is to use the Thien sled to surface a board (if needed) and then take it over to the SS Jointer to square it up.

I've been using this approach over the summer to build cutting boards. I couldn't be happier with the outcome.

[RFGuy]

Erik,

Beautiful cutting boards. I saw they sell plans/course on making those recently. How much did it cost out of curiosity? By the way, you can get a helical cutterhead for the Shopsmith planer but it is very expensive ($651). Yeah, I tried the planer sled with drywall joint compound and didn't particularly care for it. Thought about making the clamp version that I first saw in a woodworking magazine, but decided against it because of the 4" depth limitation. I have heard of the hot glue method, but haven't tried it yet. I should probably give it a try especially given your endorsement. Thanks.

[BuckeyeDennis]

+1 on the Phil Thein sled technique. It works great, and a 3/4" thick "sled" is all you need. The hot glue makes the entire assembly nice and rigid, and there's no fussy adjusting of shims and such.

[RFGuy]

+1 on the Phil Thein sled technique. It works great, and a 3/4" thick "sled" is all you need. The hot glue makes the entire assembly nice and rigid, and there's no fussy adjusting of shims and such.

Dennis,

Thanks. Appreciate that you like this method as well. I'll probably get to building one of these then. My thoughts are to use 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood for the sled and I might embed some steel C channel in the bottom of it to maintain flatness for the sled bed over time. Only problem is the wife getting upset the next time she tries to find her hot glue gun!