Best Benchtop Thickness Planer Under $300 $400 & $500

A stationary benchtop thickness planer is an essential machine for your workstation to plane off, shave, and smooth wood for your projects. A corded electric benchtop thickness planer saves time and energy.

A good quality bench top planer costs quite a lot of money, and you cannot buy it regularly. For that, before purchasing, you should know which benchtop planer would be best for your project need. 

I have researched and used many of the quality and different budget planers and chosen the best 6 of them to review for you. So, let’s get all details about the Best Benchtop Thickness Planer Under $300 $400 & $500.

Best Benchtop Thickness Planer Comparison Table:

#6 Best Benchtop Thickness Planer Under $300 $400 & $500

DEWALT DW734 BENCH-TOP PLANER

DEWALT DW734 is a small-size benchtop thickness planer from DEWALT. This planer’s main advantage is its powerful 20000 rpm motor, three-Knife cutterhead, and extra-long infeed and outfeed table. 

With remarkable features, DEWALT provides a three-year warranty and a 90-day money-back guarantee, making it one of the best thickness planers under $500.

Feature: 

Design: DW734 is a square shape, small nice, looking thickness benchtop planer. This planer is designed in a yellow and black mixed body with a dimension of 24x17x21 inches to plane off almost all sizes of wood. 

Material: DW734 is a metal build benchtop planer. The metal parts make it strong enough to handle tough work without any damage but weight it almost 80 pounds.

Motor: This planer comes with a powerful 15-amp motor to provide 20000rpm speed to ensure non-stop large deep, clean milling on any wood quickly.

Cutterhead: Spiral three-knife cutterhead reversible blades used in this planer can rotate at 10000 rpm speed to ensure 96 cuts per inch to make a great finish. 

Knob: A handy adjustable knob you get on the top of the planer to ensure 1/8-inch maximum depth cuts. 

Table: DEWALT included extra-long in-feed and out-feed tables that can support up to 33-1/2 inches long material and ensure fewer snipes. 

Function: You get a cutting-depth scale chart and power button on the front. Also, it comes with a turret depth stop knob to easily return earlier depth settings and has reversible and disposable knives to create clean and custom stock.

MOPHORN BENCHTOP THICKNESS PLANER

This is a powerful all-around performer benchtop thickness planer from MOPHORN. Here you get a 13-inch-wide workbench, a 1800w powerful motor, an automatic feeding feature, and an electromagnetic switch on the front to ensure safety.

Along with the remarkable featured planer, you get a stable standing stand that makes it one of the Best Benchtop Thickness Planer under $450.

Features: 

Design: This is a 20.7 x 18.9 x 27.4-inch square shape black benchtop planer. This planer’s structure is wide, and you can easily plane 13-inch wide hard and soft boards.

Material: The full structure is made of metal, but the outer layers are covered with a hard plastic frame which doesn’t make it dull or weak to handle the heavy workload.

Motor: You will get a 1800W 15amp pure copper motor to ensure fast cutting with excellent accuracy. Also, while running, this powerful motor sounds little.

Cutterhead: This planer is designed to have a two-blade cutter head that spins at 8000 RPM and works so precisely that you won’t need sanding after planning. 

Knob: The knob is placed in a handy position, positioned on the top of the planer; you can easily adjust the thickness and depth to have your desired finish.

Dust port: They have placed a 1.8-inch dust exhaust on the back, and you can easily connect a dust exhaust here to collect removed chips and sawdust. Also, provide a back shield to cover the back while you are not working.

Table: You will get a helpful foldable long infeed and outfeed table here; as your need, you can fold it to store on your workstation and unfold it to hold a long board and extra support.

Duty stand: there is a heavy-duty stand for a stronger fixation of the wood planer. Those stands give you to standard working height. 

Stand: With the planer, they provided a 27.4-inch iron stand that holds the planer tightly, and for rubber feet, while cutting, you won’t feel shakiness. The stand can be folded and detached from the planer for easy storage.

WEN PL1303 BENCHTOP THICKNESS PLANER

Wen PL1303 is a Corded Electric 13-inch benchtop thickness planer from WEN. It is mainly used for an exceptionally smooth finish on re-purposing rough and wormwood.

This package provided three reversible 13-inch SK5 blades and an in-feed and outfeed table. You can purchase this within $400, but by adding additional money, you can add a tool stand and 10-pack blades with this Benchtop Planer.

Features:

Design: It’s a square shape, nice out-looking benchtop planer. The dimensions of this planer are 24×28.25×20 inches which will help you to plane up to 6 inches thick and 13 inches wide boards.

Material: This planer comes in a structure of metal and some plastic frame weight of around 63 pounds, making it a lighter planer to move anytime.

Motor: They provided a 15-amp powerful motor that can generate 30000 cuts per minute, and moving the blades at a 26 per-minute feed rate provides an exceptionally smooth finish.

Cutterhead: In this planer, they have installed three spiral reversible 13-inch SK5 blades. This planer’s blades are made of high-quality carbon steel to shave wood with a smooth finish.

Knob: On the top of the planer, you get an adjustable depth knob to adjust the depth of 0 to 1/8 of an inch. The knob is installed in a handy position so that you can easily adjust it while cutting.

Dust port: Here, you get two dust ports; one is 2.5-inch, and another one is 4-inch dust to easily collect almost 98% of the removed chips and sawdust that will come off while shaving wood.

Table: Here, they provided long adjustable in-feed and out-feed tables to have extra support and limit snipe while cutting.

CRAFTSMAN CMEW320 BENCHTOP PLANER

CRAFTSMAN CMEW320 is a compact standard-size benchtop planer from CRAFTSMAN. The main advantage of this planer is the powerful 15Amp motor and the multi-use Poly-V Cutterhead, which removes maximum stock from the wood.

Not just the cutterhead other features are also remarkable to make it one of the best Benchtop planers under $400.

Features: 

Design: CMEW320 is a square shape ‎23.5 x 17.5 x 15.4 inches small Benchtop Planer. However, the structure is small but can easily plane off large boards and handle a tough workload. 

Materials: This surface planer’s structure is made of metal, but some plastic frame is used on the body to make it lightweight, which does not make it dull.

Motor: They used a 15-amp power motor to generate up to 8000 rpm speed. This motor ensures 16000 cuts per minute, a great choice for use as a material removal on soft and hardwood.

Cutterhead: They have installed the Poly-V cutterhead here. It is mounted on the ball bearings to ensure smooth operation and long life. Also, it can be changed easily and quickly.

Dust port: They placed a dust port on the back of the planer to collect removed chips and sawdust to keep your workspace clean.

Knob: On the top of the planer, you get a handy adjustable depth knob to set how far you want to flatten or shave a block of wood.

Table: Extra-large hard plastic feed table used here; it can be foldable for space saving. 

POWERTEC PL 1252 BENCHTOP THICKNESS PLANER

POWERTEC PL 1252 is a corded heavy-duty base thickness planer from POWERTEC. It comes with a two-blade cutting system and generates 18,800 cuts per minute.

With remarkable features like a crank handle, side handle, foldable infeed table, circuit breaker switch, on-off power switch on the front, and depth scale chart, you get a 1-year warranty for that it won’t be bad to purchase for around $400.

Features: 

Design: POWERTEC PL 1252 is a square shape 24x18x14 inch benchtop planer. It has a robust black design structure and can easily handle up to 6-inch thick and 12.5-inch-wide boards.

Materials: The full structure is made of metal, but the outer layers are covered with a hard plastic frame. The plastic frame makes it lightweight and does not make it dull.

Motor: They have installed a powerful 15-amp motor to generate a 9,400 RPM speed to rotate the blade fast to have an excellent shave in a quick time

Cutterhead: This planer cutterhead does a great job making over 18,800 cuts per minute; it works so precisely that you won’t need sanding after planning. Also, it comes with index pins and a spindle lock for your safety.

Knob: They have put a crank handle knob on the top of the planer. Rotating the knob clock and anti-clockwise, you can easily adjust the depth as your project need.

Handle: On the top, you get a holding handle that you can use to move the planer, and also, by holding it, you can get a better grip while cutting.

Table: You will get a helpful foldable infeed and outfeed table here; as your need, you can fold it to have extra space on your workstation and unfold it to hold a long board and extra support.

WEN PL1252 BENCHTOP THICKNESS PLANER

WEN PL1252 is another benchtop planer from WEN. The main advantage of this planer is its 15amp motor and depth adjustment capability to use any small and big woodworking projects.

WEN PL1252 is the backward version of the WEN PL1303 BENCH-TOP THICKNESS PLANER. The specs are nearly the same as the WEN PL1303 but compared to the feature and cost; it is still one of the best Benchtop Thickness Planers under $300.

Features: 

Design: WEN PL1252 is a 22×23.5×18.25 inches square shape beautiful-looking benchtop planer. This small structure can easily trim off up to 13 inches wide and 6 inches thick boards.

Material: The whole structure is made of metal, but some plastic frame is used here to make it lightweight, and with the provided rubber grip handle, you can easily move it.

Motor: It comes with a 15-amp powerful motor that can generate 20000 cuts per minute, and moving the blade at a 26 feet per-minute feed rate provides quite a smooth finish.

Cutterhead: They have included two spiral reversible 12.5-inch SK5 steel blades here. Blades are very Sharpe to plane soft and hardwood and provide long-time work support.

Dust port: On the back of the planer, you get a 2-inch-long dust port to collect all the dust that will be off the boards.

Knob: The knob is placed on the front top of the planer; it is placed in a very handy position that you can easily adjust the depth of your cut from 0 to 1/8 inch.

Table: You will get foldable in-feed and out-feed tables in this planer. The table will easily hold your longboard and limit snipe.

Buying Guide for Best Benchtop Thickness Planer

A benchtop thickness planer is a costly product to purchase. However, as a costly product, you may have the plan to use it for a long time on your desired projects. 

For that, before buying a benchtop thickness planer, you have to look at multiple things so that it can save your money and important work. So now I am discussing some features which a planner must have.

Materials: To handle the workload, the structure should be strong. For that, make sure the structure is made of metal. The outer cover could be plastic which won’t matter much.

Motor: A powerful motor generates powerful speed. To plane or shave any hardwood or softwood, a 15-amp motor is more than enough to consider for a thickness planer to make your work easier and quicker.

Cutterhead style: Both Straight Blades and Spiral Blades are good for shaving and smoothing. But the spiral cutterhead produces more consistent results than the straight cutterhead. Also, the advantage is when the blade gets dull, you can reverse it to extend its lifetime.

Number of knives: Two or three knives capacity cutterhead is enough for a thickness planer to handle any harder wood.

Note: Avoid purchasing a one-knife capacity cutterhead thickness planer.

Cutterhead speed: Consider a cutter head that can handle or rotate 8000-1000  rpm rotation to provide you with more cuts per minute so that you get a quick and smooth finish.

Capacity: The cutting width is important for a thickness planer. Capable of a 13-inch-wide planer is structurally quite good to purchase, but you can choose a 12-inch wide and 6-inch-thick planer to do all types of projects.

Note: Consider depending on your projects.

Cutting Depth: Consider a planer that can remove up to 1/8 of an inch of material in a single pass. 

Snipe: A planer could remove more surface from a board than the intended level. Pick a planer that reduces snipe so that it can maintain your plan.

Dust port: A wide dust port is important on the back of the planer to collect chips or rip-off pieces of wood that will come off from the board. Consider anywhere about 2 to 4 inches.

Others: Choose one that has table support. Does not weight much, so you can easily carry it and have a strong base to handle the workload.

Price: From $300 to $500 you will get a good thickness benchtop planer to do any project. But within this price, on low price thickness planer, you may get fewer features; on high price thickness planer, you may get more features.

But on my personal usage and choice from $300 to $500 you can choose  DEWALT DW734 BENCH-TOP PLANER, WEN PL1303 BENCH-TOP THICKNESS PLANER, MOPHORN BENCH-TOP THICKNESS PLANER.

Frequently Asked Question

Conclusion

A corded electric benchtop thickness planer is a helpful machine to thicken your wood quickly to save time and labor, but to get these advantages; you have to spend quite a good amount of money to purchase a quality thickness benchtop planer. 

I have reviewed and provided all the information, including a buying guide, so you can easily choose one for your project and workshop. Thank you.