WEN Thickness Planer, Two Speed, 13-Inch Spiral Blade, Benchtop (PL1337)

I'm a retired professional with a Felder 741 combination slider, planer and shaper. If you know Felder, then I don't have to tell you they are one of the industry standards for accuracy. However, I'm sick of building a piece of fine furniture, only to discover that one last piece is too thick, or whatever. That means raising the jointer bed, cranking up the planer head, and in the process losing whatever was setup on the saw.Also, I've wanted a spiral cutter for the planer, but $1,000+ makes no sense when the Felder knives already do a superb job, and of course I would still have the changeover problem. I'v thought about a bench top planer, but that's also around a grand, so not happening.Anyway, I saw some reviews on the Wen 13" with a segmented cutter head. Odd looking cutter head, and the inserts are HSS instead of carbide, but at $400 for the one speed I decided to take a risk. I just unpacked and plugged in this morning. Connected to my 3hp Onida Gorilla using a 4" hose. I then ran a test using 1.5" air dried red oak.Results were a surprise, to say the least. Beautiful finish on both sides, even at the one speed, which is quite fast. No sign of of any cutters out of alignment. Almost no snipe - I did not adjust the tables. Dust collector gets most, but not all, chips. ( I also tried connecting a shop vac which was not that great, so I'd recommend a dust collector).Segmented cutter heads are supposed to be quiet, but brush motor noise makes it about as loud as a knife machine, at least in my opinion. Hearing muffs required. This is not a complaint. For $400 you can't have everything.Bottom line, I'm glad I bought this thing. Once the four sided cutters are dull I might upgrade to carbide, but we'll see. Sometimes HHS produces a better finish than carbide, so I might just buy another set of those, depending on how long the originals last. The question now is longevity. Machine seems solid and weighs 80 pounds, so for my needs it will probably be OK. We will see.Bottom line, doe a great job for less than half the price of a name brand.The machine turned out to be a pleasant surprise, producing an excellent finish.

I've had this planer for a couple of weeks now, but I hadn't used it while waiting to afford other woodworking tools. Today I decided to test it to make sure it worked before time expired to return it on a regular construction grade pine 2x4 with a couple of knots and was impressed. Maybe it doesn't take much for someone who has never used a planer be impressed, but I planed both faces and edges and after a couple of passes on each the board came out baby butt smooth. There was slight sniping on the back end of the board, but it was minor. I hadn't adjusted the feed extensions yet. Do yourself a favor and save yourself some money. Buy this if your an amateur to intermediate woodworker.

My wife and I recently bought a CNC woodworking router and have started a part time business with it. We bought a lot of pine slab wood from an Amish saw mill and were using a heavy duty sander to finish the boards. This planer has made that job SO much easier. It leaves very little effort and leaves the wood very smooth so it takes very little finish sanding. You do get snipe near both ends of the wood, so either have to leave the boards long enough to cut the snipe off or use scrap boards of the same thickness in front and behind so the snipe is left on those boards. The directions say you can adjust the feed trays to stop this but I haven't really tried that. There is also a lot of sawdust scrap, so it really must be hooked up to a shop vac, which works very well. This planer is a little wider than a lot of them and even though 13 inches is kind of limiting, wider planers are MUCH more expensive. We've used it quite a bit over the last few months and it's still going as strong as when we got it without having to change blades yet. Very happy with it.

For an entry level planer, I was quite impressed with the functionality and build quality of this unit. I have not seen WEN with two speeds, so that was a very welcomed addition to the planer when purchasing. It is heavy, so it's best to mount it to a mobile cart to move it about the shop. The cutter head being a spiral cut is a step up from the stock Dewalt's and others that ship with straight blades. The 13" cut is also another great feature to it for planing cutting boards or other material of varying sizes. It says in the manual that the wings are adjusted from the factory, but I had to adjust them after receiving the unit to remove snipe. After doing a very slight adjustment, leveling the infeed and outfeeds to being level instead of the "v" adjustment, I have had no issues. Dust collection on the unit could be better as the shroud does not seal very well and blows a lot of the chips/dust out onto the feed table and around it. Great size unit for 13 inch and very competitive with the more expensive brands.

good planner.mine does not need adjustment out of the box.not much noise - compared to dewalt DW735the non-standard 60mm exhaust connection.I found somebody selling adapter on eBay - solve my problem connecting to 1-1/4 hose

I'm a finish carpnter and woodworker living in Los Angeles Ca, since 1968. Been using the Dewalt 735 series planers for a very long time, thouht I'd switch it up and give this one a shot. Only used it about a dozen times so far on walnut, white oak and vertical grain douglas fir. And am very pleased with the results. It's quieter, lighter, cheaper and easier to operate than the 735. Might also have better chip collection. if these results continue it will pretty much be a great deal. So, very impressed with the performance of this tool to date. BTW chipped blades are easier and cheaper to fix than with the 735.