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I would say it depends on whether you want/need the molding capabilities of the JPM-13. After all, you would be paying an extra $200-ish...
As a planer only, the JPM will be a bit quieter (induction motor), possibly more durable (more steel, less plastic) and includes a stand - as compared to the DW735. On the negative, it doesn't have the 3 year warrantee, and the JPM requires a changeout of the gears to change feedspeeds, so you'll probably leave it in low speed, so it's more or less a single speed planer.
So it boils down to the value you ascribe to the molding capability.
But don't forget to add in any accessories. The stand, spare knives - included molding knives can be worth a lot but only if you plan to use them !
FWIW, I have two molder/planers of the same design as the JPM, so feel free to ask if you have any questions.
-Mark
I was all set to buy the steel city due to the helical cutter heads, but after some internet research, found more than a few people who had problems with them. Some had problems right out of the box, and others had problems develop after a few months. Some were due to the ridiculous amount of grease that are packed in the cutterheads. Others had problems with grooves being left in the workpiece, no matter how they turned/aligned the individual cutter heads. In the end, had too many doubts about the steel city, and its too big a purchase for me to take the gamble, especially with this $445 dw735 deal in front of me.
As for the extension tables, I didn't see them, but I didn't look either. I get free shipping w/Amazon, so I just ordered them next day for $47. They showed up this morning...
I am no longer looking at the Steel City. I am leaning more towards the Dewalt 735 and the seller of the Jet planer hasn't gotten back to me so I guess he doesn't want to sell it to me. It sure is hard to pass up the Dewalt deal with price matching and I can take 18 months to pay for it.
Did they give a reason why they didn't do the 10%. The only thing that my Lowe's said was it had to be the same model #. There are only 2 models so that wasn't hard. Other than that, no problems. The only thing that they did say, they couldn't do the extra 5% off if I used the Lowe's card since it was already discounted, but I put it on the card for 18 months no interest.
You might want to consider taking the receipt back to the store and discussing it with someone. It is Lowe's policy to do the 10%. Thats not something that they get to pick and choose. Were you trying to use some other offer at the same time like a 10% coupon, or % back on a store card, etc.? In that case, they don't have to combine offers.
If they say yes, you get back $50. If they say no, you still got a good planer for a reasonable price.
As for the table, I got mine from www.amazon.com .
lol... I ordered the wixey as well. After trying to use the manual dial on the planer, seems like a pain getting reproducible settings if you are trying to plane to something other than one of the standard depth stops.
Used google sketchup to do a quick design of a cart for it. I saw a clever design by someone who built a cart with a door and a 4" hose port. So the cart also collected the wood chips. Add a set of castors or a mobile universal base, and come out far cheaper than getting the dewalt cart ($135) with their garbage can bag chip collector ($45).
Used google sketchup to do a quick design of a cart for it. I saw a clever design by someone who built a cart with a door and a 4" hose port. So the cart also collected the wood chips. Add a set of castors or a mobile universal base, and come out far cheaper than getting the dewalt cart ($135) with their garbage can bag chip collector ($45).
I mounted my 735 on a Delta Miter Saw/Planer Stand. It is built much like a hand truck that opens X fashion to raise the planer to a comfortable working height or fold down so you can tip it up on one end to store it or move it around. With my small shop I never have the room to do planning inside and don't have much room for any more tools, so putting my 735 on this stand has worked out very well. It occupies about 2' X 2' of floor space in the shop, wheels easily out to the driveway, and sets up in just a few seconds (just push a lever and lift into the working height position). The stand also has roller guides that extend out both ends to about 4' from the planer, so the longer boards can be well supported. The stand costs about $180, but was well worth it for the storage, moving, and setup problems that it solved for me. There is a similar Porter Cable stand available from Lowes, but it is a cheaper copy of the Delta, without the roller extensions (it has support extensions but no rollers) and it is not quite as sturdy as the Delta stand.
I'll post a few pictures as soon as the weather (and this site) will let me. (had picture posting problems yesterday).
Charley
I'll post a few pictures as soon as the weather (and this site) will let me. (had picture posting problems yesterday).
Charley
I owned a Dewalt 735 for several years and was disappointed with the life of the cutters. When running hardwood such as Walnut the cutter life is unacceptable. There are some after-market cutters that claim better life. For that reason I think I would lean toward the Steel City though I have no information as to the life of their helical cutters.
I did exactly the same (see earlier comments) -- nice to know I'm not alone! My thoughts with respect to the Porter Cable version now at Lowes are much the same, though it may still be an adequate solution for some. Both the Delta original and its Porter Cable replacement are model 36-136 -- which makes searching out the original Delta design online quite challenging, if one is particular about whether they get an older Delta or the newer Porter Cable.
I chose to drill 4 bolt holes into my DW735's aluminim bed to secure it to the stand and use the 4 mounting plates provided with the stand to serve as lateral stops to each side of the planer so that the bolts hold the planer tight to the stand and the mounting blocks serve to prevent the planer from being able to slide left or right on the stand (especially when the stand is collapsed and the planer is stored on its side. The other mounting option is to mount the planer to some 3/4" plywood and then permanently mount the plywood to the mobile base and the planer to the plywood -- either aproach gets the job done.
I have carefully adjusted the roller guides on mine to be level with the bed of my planer, so I never extend them. I also never purchased the extension tables for me DW735 and yet oftentimes I have no sniping and if I do have snipe, it is very minimal (a mil or so) and quickly leveled with a few wipes with 120grit sandpaper.
I went with the mobile base partly due to space requirements and partly do to the fact that the DW735 is *heavy* at nearly 100lbs (100 awkard pounds)! With my health issues I did not like the idea of moving it into and out of storage, so I needed something mobile that I could keep it permanently mounted to. I don't typically wheel mine out into the driveway, but I do often collapse the base and/or stand it upright depending upon whether I'm in need of either more floor space or more open space on the plane of my tablesaw's top (such as for cutting plywood).
I take it everyone is talking about this porter cable stand setup?
http://www.amazon.com/Porter-Cable-...SZFC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315331588&sr=8-1
I think that I'm going to try my hand at building a cart. A few bucks cheaper, and I think I can add chip collection and get a smaller footprint within my tiny 2 car garage... Could also be a fun project... I'll try to post up pics. If you don't see any updates, then the project did not go well
http://www.amazon.com/Porter-Cable-...SZFC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315331588&sr=8-1
I think that I'm going to try my hand at building a cart. A few bucks cheaper, and I think I can add chip collection and get a smaller footprint within my tiny 2 car garage... Could also be a fun project... I'll try to post up pics. If you don't see any updates, then the project did not go well
Yes, that is the replacement for the Delta 36-136.
I can honestly say that you will have a very hard time getting a signficantly smaller footprint unless you intend to eliminate all auxilliary workpiece support (whether it be tables or rollers). The total width of the collapsible stand is less than that of the DW735 and its length (when raised and horizontal) is no more than about 12" greater than the DW735 (rollers and handle included).
If you need clearance behind the tablesaw (as opposed to floor space) you can literally collapse the stand (horizontall) until the entire planer is projecting maybe 16-18" above the floor. If you need the floorspace, you can collapse it and tilt everything vertical and now the footprint is only slightly greater than the rear face of the thickness planer (say 18"x20" floor space). If you want to run wood through the planer, you can quickly raise it to a comfortable working height -- no stooping down to reach a low-to-the-floor stand. And if you need to move everything outdoors to run a 20' board through the planer, just wheel it out, plug it in and go to work.
I'm not saying you can not build a very nice stand for the planer, one certainly can. One can even build a custom stand with enclosed storage and so forth. I'm only saying that space savings probably is not the best motivation for doing so.
As for dust collection, if you don't already have a DC (with a 1-micron filter) you really should look into one in the near future. Not just for the sake of a cleaner shop but quite simply, and more importantly, for your health. The DW735 coupled with a DC is an incredible solution (just close off all other blast gates before powering on the DW735). In the meantime, if you need chip collection for the DW735, DeWalt sells a trash-can attachment for the DW735 for quite probably less then you could build one -- just realize that it does not provide micron filtration (though most planer chips are large enough to be of low risk).
Good luck with your project, you know we will want pictures when your finished!
Part of my thinking here is that all of my work surfaces are built to the same height. So I would build the stand to put the planer infeed/outfeed tables as the same height as my work surfaces. I'm also considering adding wings that drop down and I've got some of those clamp on rollers from rockler that should do the trick.
Agreed. Space savings isn't the only motivation. The shopmade cart is significantly cheaper than purchasing and when I'm able to get a proper dust collection system, I'll just put more drawers on the cart to get a bit more storage. I already plan to have 1 drawer to give me a place to store the infeed/outfeed tables when not in use.
A DC is on the need-to-purchase list. I'm still in the process of acquiring what I need for a functional shop. Any suggestions on one that would be appropriate and budget friendly for a small home shop? I'm really tired of cleaning out my shopvac...
Thanks!
The woman said that it was on sale by HD. If it had not been a sale item she would give the 10%.
I am glad she let me have it. I tried a store before this one and they refused it altogether. She said it was an online price and did not include shipping ( she was correct). With shipping , it would be the same price as theirs. I just left the store and tried another.
When you're really ready to get into it, you may want to consider starting a new thread on this very question. Just be prepared for information overload and the usual conflicting but passionate opinions on certain specific topics. I take dust collection quite seriously, but nowhere near as serious as Bill Pentz and fans!
Budget wise it is hard to beat the price of a Harbor Freight DC, though I'm no particular fan of HF (especially with regard to power tools), but they do have quite alot of fans (no pun intended) on this and other sites. If you go with a bargain-basement HF, make certain it has 1-micron filters (or find suitable aftermarket filters), so figure that into the price, if necessary. I prefer to invest primarily in mid-level quality tools myself. Personally, I own an older model 2HP (true 2HP) JDS Cyclone-II model DC which, brand new, sold for about $900 4-5 years ago.
I believe the optimal 'budget' cyclone for a home shop is the 2HP Cyclone DC and there are a number of quality options of this class in the $800-1200 range. However, if the budget allows for it a 3HP Cyclone is really the end-all be-all for the home shop -- this size cyclone will accommodate just about anything you might ever want to do in your home shop up to and including accomodating a larger workshop down the road -- but they cost a good deal more.
A good 2HP Cyclone with 1-micron filtration will have adequate CFM (even with 10-15ft of flex hose) for most of the typical home workshop power tools. If possible, running 6" hose will improve that even further and a 2HP Cyclone can make full use of those extra 2" versus a 4" hose.
If on an even tighter budget you can go the route of a portable single-stage (bag-style, though the top bag may be replaced with a pleated filter). These have the disadvantage of passing all waste material through the impellers which can be problematic if you accidentally vacuum a large cutoff or, worse, a steel tool, which can damage the impeller at worst or create a heck of a racket at the better. This style is also typically more work to empty bags and, in the case of true bag filtration (i.e. no pleated filter) tend to clog the bag filters much more quickly which greatly reduces the DC's available CFM. This means regularly beating the bags to break up caked on dust and occassionally washing the filters (if appropriate for the bag material). Just be advised that, IMHO, most woodworkers who initially settle for a single-stage DC ultimately dream of upgrading to a Cyclone within a few years (if not sooner).
Cyclones are typically more efficient at moving large volumes of air and do so at greater static pressures (which helps to offset duct and hose losses) and they excel at concentrating all but the very finest of dust in the primary waste canister, greatly extending the life and efficiency of their exhaust filter. Typically you will want a cyclone that is about 1/2HP or so larger than a single-stage DC to offset losses in cyclonic seperation -- the extra 1/2HP will give you slightly greater CFM but the cyclone will be able to develop more static pressure and maintain greater filter efficiency and life versus a comparable single-stage collector more than making up for the cost of that extra 1/2HP. Conversely, intalling a Thien-style pre-filter ahead of a typical single-stage dust collector likely steals close to 1/2HP from that style DC while also reducing the available static pressure due to losses incurred in the Thien seperator -- which is not to say that a Thien-style upgrade is not a good idea when using single-stage DC's, as it most certainly is. Basically that extra 1/2HP I recommend (e.g. if you would use a 1.5HP single-stage DC, opt for a 2HP Cyclone DC) makes up for the Cyclonic seperation losses while paying other positive dividends as well. In contrast, if you would use a 1.5HP single-stage DC but intend to add a Thien seperator ahead of it, you should probably also add an extra 1/2HP to that single-stage DC (i.e. a 2HP single-stage) to offset the losses imposed by the Thien seperator while maintaing the desired static pressure.
While investing in a good dust collector, it is also an excellent time to investigate ambient air filtration units. Even the best hobbyist-grade DC is going to miss some dust (our tools just are not optimized for the best possible dust capture) and this is what the ambient air filters will remove from the air. While it is best that dust be captured by a DC, thus ensuring that you will never breath in that dust, the ambient air filter will quickly remove from the air the dust that does escape, significantly reducing your overall exposure by greatly reducing both the concentration of dust and the duration of that concentration the operator is exposed to.
When investigating ambient air filtration units, please beware that some units (e.g. Jet and others) list their maximum CFM WITHOUT the installation of filters while others (e.g. JDS) list CFM WITH clean filters installed. The clean filter losses typically amount to about 25-30%. My JDS 750-ER is rated at approximately 750CFM (again, WITH filters) and is directly comparable to Jet's similar unit which they rate at 1050CFM (again, withOUT filters) -- the two units have very similar specs and effectiveness, but at first glance that 1050CFM claim can be very misleading to the uninitiated. When calculating air exchanges per hour for an air filter model you are investigating, the only number that matters is the FILTERED CFM specification (so subtract ~28% from the unfiltered value if the manufacturer does not provide this number).
I hope this has answered some of your questions and, hopefully, brings to mind some new questions. Everyone here at NCWW will pretty much go out of their way to help you when it comes time to decide -- all one need do is ask!
Good luck!
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