The Best Wood Planer To Complete Your Woodshop
Whether you’re a professional working with wood crafting for years or love to get involved in DIY woodworks projects at home, you would have required a sturdy thickness planer at some point. Thickness planers come in all different shapes and sizes, but the only ones you need are those that withstand the test of time and your strength.
Thickness planers are used to shave off the surfaces of wooden boards to make them smoother or eliminate rough spots and inconsistencies. You can use them for making DIY wooden frames for your family pictures at home or shaping up your cabinet doors. To make your woodwork a less exhausting job, we bring you the best thickness planers for commercial and domestic use in 2023.
Let’s take a look at some of the best wood planers with a wide range of different qualities, features, and strengths.
- KAKURI Woodworking Japanese Thickness Planer - Best Overall
- WEN 6530 6-Amp Electric Hand Planer - Runner Up
- PORTER-CABLE Hand Thickness Planer - Honorable Mention
- DEWALT Thickness Planer - Contender
- CRAFTSMAN Benchtop Planer - Also Consider
- Bosch PL1632 6.5 Amp Thickness Planer - Also Consider
- Makita KP0800K 3-1/4-Inch Thickness Planer - Also Consider
Best Wood Planers Buying Guide
There are many different kinds of wood planers out there for all scopes of the woodwork. Whether you’re professionally using these items or like to fix things around your home, you need to carefully evaluate which wood planers will do the best job for you.
For this very reason, we bring you this guide that will help you choose the suitable thickness planer depending upon your use. The most important things to consider while buying a thickness planer are as follows.
Model Type
Model type of a wood planer essentially means the body of the wood planer. There are three different types of thickness planer models available. These three types are handheld, stationary, and benchtop thickness planers. We’ve covered all of these models in the products listed above. However, let’s take a look at which model can be the best for you.
Handheld wood planer
Handheld wood planers can either be manual or electronic. Manual handheld thickness planers are mainly used for minimalistic woodwork, which is primarily done at homes. These wood planers are suitable for incredible precision and small workload. If you believe that is what your work requires, then a manual handheld thickness planer should be your go-to.
Electric handheld thickness planers can be larger and heavier than manual ones. You can also use them for greater precision and more heavy-duty work than just scraping surfaces.
Stationary wood planers
Stationary wood planers are bigger, require more maintenance and security, and usually have to be set up on a desktop or working platform. These wood planers are best for professional and commercial use as they are complicated and can only be used appropriately by a professional. If you have large woodwork projects at hand, these should be your first choice.
Benchtop wood planers
Benchtop thickness planers are a variation of stationary thickness planers. Professionals also use these wood planers for heavy-duty work. However, they are lighter, smaller, and more convenient than a stationary wood planer. They are also portable, allowing professionals to carry their wood planers to different workplaces or areas.
Size
The size or capacity of a thickness planer is also an essential factor to consider. Thickness planer sizes vary from 12-13 inches wide to 25 inches wide. Depending on the nature of your work, you might find thickness planers with 12 inches wide boards enough, or you could need a 20-inches wide board for better cutting and less gluing, especially in a professional environment.
Cutter Head Style
There are two different types of cutter head styles that you might come across while looking for a wood planer. One is the straight knife that is as long as the cutter head goes. The other one is a helical or spherical cutter head. Choosing cutter heads is a critical one that can entirely change your experience with thickness planers.
Straight knife cutter head
The straight knife cutter head usually consists of 2 to 4 knife blades placed together and called knives. These knives have to be replaced now and then when they wear out; finding new blades is another task. The knives also don’t give a perfectly smooth finish no matter how hard you try.
Helical cutter head
A thickness planer with a spiral cutter head is a better option for professionals who need greater precision and smoothness in their products. A helical cutter head consists of small square-shaped cutters placed together that help in producing a smoother finish for your work. These cutters are much more powerful than straight knives and leave almost no tear-out or uneven surfaces.
Motor
The motor of a thickness planer is essential in determining how much work you’re going to get done with the device. Choosing a suitable motor can help you elongate your wood planer’s life and save your electricity bills.
There are two types of motors used in thickness planers. These are universal motors and induction motors. Induction motors are more powerful, robust, and sturdy than universal motors. They also weigh quite more than a universal motor which is why they are best suited with stationary and fixed wood planers. Mainly used by professionals, these heavy-duty planers and their motors can provide long-lasting support for woodwork.
Universal motors, on the other hand, are smaller, weigh much less, and are the perfect choice for handheld thickness planers.
Consider your power needs and voltage consumption before investing in a motor.
How To Use a Wood Planer
If you’re new to using thickness planers, this video from DIYForKnuckleheads may be helpful:
The Best Wood Planers Models of 2023 in Detail
KAKURI Woodworking Japanese Thickness Planer
– Best OverallThe Japanese-manufactured handheld block plane is an excellent example of high-quality Japanese craftsmanship. This mini-size, portable wood planer comes in a heavy-duty, wear-resistant oak wood body and a razor-sharp blade that you can use for elongated periods without wearing out. The blade, made of high carbon Japanese steel, can be sharpened with a whetstone to get better results.
This easy-to-carry, mechanical wood planer is the perfect tool for chamfering, smoothing out edges, and angled shaving on wooden items. Since the tool functions by a pulling force, it is easier to work with by applying the required strength. The single-handed use also allows for greater precision.
- Portable and easy to carry
- Made of high-quality Japanese steel
- Pull planer requires less power
- Difficult adjustment of blade
WEN 6530 6-Amp Electric Hand Planer
– Runner UpThis electric handheld wood planer by WEN is an excellent option for heavy-duty work without carrying a bulky planer around. At only 6lbs, this wood planer comes with a 6A motor that produces up to 34000 cuts per minute. An adjustable dial provides you the luxury of choosing 16 different cutting depths from 0 to ⅛ inches.
An attached rabbeting guide in the tool allows users to make perfect rabbets in their woodwork. You can create rabbets of up to 7/10th of an inch by adjusting the height using the rabbeting guide.
The handheld electric wood planer is fully equipped with a dust collecting bag, multi-directional dust chute, kickstand, a parallel fence bracket, and an onboard adjustment wrench for protection and professional finish.
- Powerful motor providing 34000 cuts per minute
- Safety equipment like kickstand and dust bag
- Rabbeting guide and chamfer groove
- Plastic kickstand may not be durable enough
- No support to place your other hand
PORTER-CABLE Hand Thickness Planer
– Honorable MentionThis electric hand planer comes with a 6A heavy-duty motor, dual side dust extraction, chamfering grooves, a 10-step depth adjusting knob, and an aluminum shoe for precise cutting. The 6A motor has 16,500 rpm for the smooth removal of wooden pieces. The depth knob allows easier control of planer settings and depth.
This wood planer works to get your job done fast. Whether it is chamfering, cutting up segments, or simply leveling the wooden surface, the 5/64 inch depth cutter takes minimal time in giving you the results. Three chamfering grooves also make chamfering edges easy and adjustable. The 11.5-inch aluminum shoe provides added security and control to the tool.
- Dual side dust collector to keep working area clean
- Depth knob with ten steps
- Three chamfering grooves for precise chamfering
- The adjustable knob is also used for support, leading to accidents while working.
DEWALT Thickness Planer
– ContenderDEWALT brings a powerful unit in this thickness planer with dual speed settings for better finishing and precise edge-cutting. The powerful desktop tool comes with a 15A motor with 20,000 rpm. You can easily place the power tool on your desk and feed it to the wooden boards that need work.
The wood planer also comes with removable feed tables, extra blades, and a stand hose adapter. The three-knife cutter head provides a faster and more precise cutting experience. It also enables elongation of blade life by dividing the pressure amongst three-knife heads. The two-speed gearbox helps you choose between cutting speeds of 96 and 179 CPI.
- Three knife cutter head
- Dual speed gearbox
- Fan-powered chip ejection for cleaning
- Replacement knives may not be as effective as the original ones.
- Motor life can vary depending on usage.
CRAFTSMAN Benchtop Planer
– Also ConsiderThis benchtop planer is equipped with a 15A motor powerful enough to work on hard and softwood surfaces. A Poly-V cutter head allows maximum stock removal for more efficient scraping, shaping, and shaving of wooden surfaces. The solid steel, easy-to-change dual knives work with great precision to deliver smooth results.
Not only are the knives high-quality with high carbon steel, but they are also double-edged for a long-lasting lifetime and sharp edge cutting. The 8000 rpm cutter makes your work easier. A vacuum dust-collecting port helps keep the machine and your working space using suction technology.
- High-carbon steel, double-edged knives
- Dust collecting port
- High feed speed
- Can leave snipes
Bosch PL1632 6.5 Amp Thickness Planer
– Also ConsiderThe Bosch wood planer is equipped with a 6.5A motor with 16,500 RPM speed, allowing faster stock removal than ordinary wood planers. It is also a great option for hard and softwood and provides a sleek and precise, smooth finishing. The tool stand is supported by springs to keep the blade away from the working surface to keep them both safe.
Ease of access is extensively supported in the tool by providing a simple shape that makes it easy to insert the device from any direction in the workplace. A perfectly placed handle for support and directing the tool is covered with soft grip material to make the work go easy on your hands.
- 16,500 rpm speed motor
- Guide fence with a protective shield
- Separate scales to set your depth and inches precisely
- Blades can get scratched up by the wood.
Makita KP0800K 3-1/4-Inch Thickness Planer
– Also ConsiderMatika brings you a powerful electrical handheld wood planer with optimal weight and power output. The ratio of the output power this tool provides to the weight, which is only 5.7lbs, is very high, making the tool an efficient instrument for woodwork. The 6.5A motor coupled with the two-blade cutter head with 17000 rpm provides higher power, a smoother finish, and quick removal of wooden parts.
You can easily set up the blades by yourself through the easy blade installation process. The blades are dual-edged, allowing you to reverse them for a longer lifetime and better quality.
- Double-edged blades
- 17000 rpm cutter head
- High power-to-weight ratio
- It does not come with a dust bag
- Can be noisy
People Also Asked
Replacing the blades on a thickness planer is a pretty simple task. All you need to do is unscrew the old blades, carefully remove them, clean the area and place the new blades in safely. Once you're sure they're aligned and leveled, you can screw the blades and use them on a scrap piece of wood to test.
A snipe occurs when the wood moves towards the cutter head blades, and a deep cut is made on it. This is a usual occurrence when you feed in your stock to the wood planer. To avoid snipes, hold down the stock to keep it at the required distance from the blades of the thickness planer.
Dust collectors should be mandatory with all wood planers, but unfortunately, they are not. Dust collectors are crucial for keeping your machine as well your workspace clean and debris-free. When shaved chips from a thickness planer accumulate, they can cause harm to your wood planer.