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 9 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:

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

DEWALT DW734 12-1/2-Inch Benchtop Planer

DEWALT DW734 is a powerful and versatile compact benchtop planer from DEWALT. This planer costs less but offers many handy features like an extra-large thickness scale, turret lock and material removal gauge to make planing easy.

Features

Build quality and design: This Dewalt planer is designed with a plastic frame and aluminium base and structured with four metal columns to ensure solid construction.

Weight and capacity: For plastic design, this planer is much lighter (80 Pounds) than others to be portable in any place. Also, this 12.5-inch structure planer can easily handle up to 12.5-inch wide and 6-inch depth cutting.

Motor: In this planer, you get a powerful 15amp motor which rotates up to 20000 rpm, so you can plane hard to softwoods easily.

Cutterhead: Compared to others in this budget, Dewalt provided a three-knife cutterhead system with 10,000 rpm cutter-head speed to planes wood smoothly with a great finish.

Gearbox: The back point is that this planer only has a one-speed mood, but the 96 cuts per minute cut is sufficient to make this planer the best for finishing tasks.

Depth control: You get a turret depth stop mechanism in this planer to adjust depth accurately from 0 to 1/8 inches to have the desired thickness across the material.

Knives: The blades are easily reversible and disposable. Whenever one side of the blade gets dull, flip it and use the other fresh side to get 30% more knife life, and you can easily change it.

Infeed and Outfeed Tables: DW734 provides foldable extra-long infeed and outfeed tables to support up to 33.5 inches of materials, and you will get less snipe for this.

Carriage lock and Turret depth: Dewalt used four column carriage lock in this planer, giving you more stability and less snipe for a smoother finish. Also, get the turret depth stop so that you can instantly return to the depth used for earlier planing.

Dust port: You get a 2-inch diameter dust port in this planer, which will effectively collect chips and debris from wood to give you a clean work area.

Except for the absence of a two-speed gearbox and price, this is the best thickness planer to buy at around $500 for the solid construction, powerful motor, three-knife cutter head, turret depth stop mechanism and four-column carriage lock system.

WEN PL1303 BENCHTOP THICKNESS PLANER

WEN PL1337 is a versatile high-feed rate benchtop thickness planer from WEN. The powerful motor, compact design and depth adjustable features are the main advantages of this planer.

Features

Build quality and design: Like the WEN PL1252, this planer is also designed with a plastic frame and aluminium base, making it a sturdy construction planer. This lightweight (78.8 pounds) planer can handle 13-inch-wide and 6-inch depth workpieces.

Motor: Here, WEN uses a 15amp powerful motor to rotate the cutterhead at 30000 per minute to handle deep and heavy cutting tasks easily.

Gearbox: You get a one-speed gearbox system where the 26-feet-per-minute feed rate provides 833 cuts per minute to cut your workpiece.

Cutterhead: In this planer, you get a 13-inch three reversible blade system to remove material perfectly from hard and soft woods. Also, as the cutter head blades are reversible, you can easily use the other side to maximize blade life.

Depth control: A handy feature depth controlling knob you get on the top of the planer, which you can adjust from 0 to 1/8 inch to achieve the desired thickness for your workpiece.

Dust port: On the back of the planer, you get a combination of 2-1/2-inch and 4-inch dust ports to remove chips and debris effectively.

Infeed and Outfeed Tables: here, you get height-adjustable infeed and outfeed tables to support long woods. Also, these tables help to reduce snipe while cutting operation.

Safety features: To prevent excess material removal, you get an onboard material removal gauge and a safety paddle switch to prevent accident start-ups.

Expect the snipe issue and noise level; this is the best user-friendly 13-inch benchtop thickness planer to buy at around $360 for the powerful motor, sturdy structure, high feed rate and adjustable depth control system.

CRAFTSMAN CMEW320 Benchtop Thickness Planer

CRAFTSMAN CMEW320 is a small and compact 12.5-inch Benchtop Thickness Planer from CRAFTSMAN. This planer’s main advantage is its solid carbon steel cutterhead, smooth operation and size.

Features

Build quality and design: CMEW320 is a four-column iron and steel frame design thickness planer. This planer can plane up to 6 inches thick and 12.5 inches wide boards. Also, the compact design makes this lightweight but much more stable to carry and use anywhere.

Motor: They have installed a 15amp motor in this planer which is capable of generating up to 8000RPM. However, this seems slow, capable of providing deep cuts in soft and hardwoods.

Cutterhead: This planer has a poly-V high carbon steel two-knife cutterhead system that rotates up to 16000RPM speed to ensure maximum stock removal. Also, the knife is reversible, so you can use both sides for a maximum lifetime.

Gearbox: One-speed gearbox system you get in this planer can give a high feed rate to ensure continuous and easy planing.

Depth adjustment: You get a dedicated knob on the right side of the top of the planer. Using that, you can easily get from 0 to 1/16 inches in thickness to have the desired size.

Infeed and outfeed table: With this planer, you get a small but workable infeed outfeed table that can handle long workpieces and reduces much snipe while planing.

Dust port: You get a 2-inch dust port in this planer to vacuum dust and debris from the surface. The good thing is that you can mount it on either side for a cleaner.

Like the other budget thickness planers, this planer also sounds a lot, but the blade quality and smooth operation make this corded thickness planer a great deal under $350.

WEN PL1252 15-Amp 12.5-Inch Two-Blade Benchtop Thickness Planer

WEN PL1252 is a sufficiently powerful compact and portable benchtop thickness planer from WEN. In this planer, you can easily change blades and adjust the depth as you need to get versatility and accuracy at an affordable price.

Features

Build quality and design: WEN PL1252 is a plastic frame aluminium base lightweight (‎68.9 pounds) but durable structured planer. This planer offers a maximum 12.5-inch wide and 6-inch depth capacity cutting. As the design is compact, you can move it around whenever you need.

Motor: In this planer, Dewalt used a powerful 15-amp motor to rotate the cutter head at 10000 RPM to generate 20000 CPM for deep cutting and smooth operations.

Cutterhead: Wen used two blade cutterhead system here. This will minimize the chance of tear-out, and without much effort, it will remove material.

Knives: The blades they provide are reversible; after one side gets dull, flipping the other side, you can use the fresh one to extend its lifespan, which reduces the blade cost.

Depth Control: Here, you get a depth control knob to adjust the depth anywhere from 0 to 1/8 of an inch to achieve the desired thickness.

Dust Collection System: they have installed a 2-inch dust port with a powerful blower motor to vacuum the chips effectively to keep your workspace clean.

Infeed and Outfeed Tables: Here, you get foldable automatic infeed and outfeed tables that help you use large workpieces and slightly reduce snipe.

Safety Features: Right side of the top corner, you will get a safety switch to prevent unwanted start-ups, and the removal gauge prevents excessive material removal.

Except for the noise issue, snipe problem and plastic structure, this is the best value-to-money benchtop thickness planer to buy for around $300.

WEN PL1326 13-Inch Spiral Benchtop Thickness Planer

WEN PL1326 is another compact and small workshop benchtop planer from Wen. The main advantage of this planer is its constantly smooth finish, spiral cutterhead and price.

Features

Build quality and design: PL1326 is a four-column iron and steel frame design thickness planer. The capacity you get is 13 inches wide and 6 inches depth, a size enough to do maximum large projects. Also, for the compact design, it’s an average heavy (80.8 pounds) planer, making it a portable planer.

Motor: Here, you get a powerful 15Amp motor that gives you 10000RPM power to cut deep and provide consistent planing.

Cutterhead: This planer comes with a spiral cutterhead system that reduces tear-out and noise and ensures a much smoother cut than straight blades. Also, the blade is reversible to easily use all four sides to increase lifetime.

Gearbox: This planer is only capable of providing one feed rate speed. You get a 25 feet per minute feed rate speed capable enough to plane large and small woods easily.

Depth adjustment: Depth adjustment is much easier here; you can easily adjust thickness from 0 to 1/8 of an inch per pass with the knob to get your desired thickness.

Infeed and outfeed table: With this planer, you get a foldable infeed and outfeed table to use long workpieces easily, and this table also helps to reduce snipe.

Dust port: WEN provided you with an adjustable dust port; connecting it with a shop vac, you can easily vacuum debris and wood chips while planing.

Safety: You get a material removal gauge to get the exact cutting depth and thickness every time. This corded thickness planer noises litter bit more than the other planers and get much snipe from this.

But except for the disadvantages, this is a budget-friendly thickness planer under $500.

Mophorn M1B-LS-3302 12.5-Inch Thickness Planer with Stand

Mophorn M1B-LS-3302 is a well-designed compact budget-thickness planer from Mophorn. The main advantage you get in this planer is its powerful motor, feed rate control, safety feature and stand.

Features

Build quality and design: M1B-LS-3302 is designed with a combination of multiple materials like Iron, Stainless Steel, Aluminum, and ABS. All these materials make this planer well durable and compact.

Weight and capacity: The capacity you get in this planer is 12.5-inch wide and 6-inch thick which is well enough to handle large and wide woods. Also, for the compact design, this planer is much lightweight (69.4 Ibs) and portable in any work location.

Motor: Like the other budget planers; in this planer, you get a 15amp motor capable of generating 8000RPM speed to plane any hard and softwood.

Cutterhead: multiple blade cutterhead system Mophorn installed in this planer. The blades are made of high-speed steel and reversible to have durability and longevity and plane the surface smoothly.

Gearbox: You get an automatic feeding system in this planer, and the feeding rate is 236 inches per minute which is well enough to provide a smooth finish.

Depth adjustment: Depth control is quite easy in this planer; using the knob, you can get your desired thickness in each pass.

Dust control: In this planer, you get an inbuild dust port system and connecting with a dust collector, you can easily keep your working surface clean while working.

Infeed and Outfeed Tables: They have included a durable and foldable infeed and outfeed table to have less snipe while handling long workpieces.

Stand: With this model, you get a heavy-duty stand to give you more stability while cutting, and for foldable extension plates, you can portable this table anywhere.

Safety: You get an electromagnetic electric switch and overload protection here to prevent accidental start-ups and excess electricity overload. The louder noise and the dust collection in this planer may not be effective.

But except for these cons, this corded benchtop thickness planer is worth purchasing for under $400.

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.

Delta Power Tools 22-555 13 In Portable Thickness Planer

Delta 22-555 is a portable, lightweight and sufficiently powerful thickness planer from Delta. This is a mid-range benchtop thickness planer for the workers who move site to site regularly.

Features

Build quality and design: This is a four-column design plastic build aluminium base compact design thickness planer. Build quality is much better than planers in this price range and ensures more stability.

Weight and capacity: In this midrange, this planer is much more lightweight than the others to be portable in any place. Also, the capacity is huge; you get a 13-inch-wide capacity and a 6-inch depth capacity to handle any workpiece.

Motor: Like the other planers, they have used a 15amp powerful motor that offers 9400 RPM, but this power is sufficient to plane any soft and hardwoods.

Depth adjustment: In this planer, you can easily adjust the depth up to 1/16″ to get your desired thickness for your project.

Cutterhead: They used a two-knife cutter head system in this planer to get 18000 cuts per minute. The back point is the only one-speed cutting mode that gives you less planing freedom.

Infeed and Outfeed table: With this planer, you will get a foldable adjustable infeed and outfeed table made of nitrile synthetic rubber. Though this isn’t much large, you can still use longer boards on this 22-555 planer to plane woods.

Dust port: You get a fan-assisted chip ejection system in this planer to remove wood chips, but the dust port is slightly narrow, about 2.5 inches which will vacuum less than the others.

Knives: The knives you get in this planer are reversible and disposable, so you can use both sides of the knife to reduce the cost and easily and quickly change the knife.

Safety: You get a material removal gauge to prevent excessive material removal and a lock switch to prevent accidental start-ups.

This planer has a noise issue, snipe issue, also dust port and infeed and outfeed table are not much large and has only one-speed mood but expect all these, this planer is an affordable value for money products and one of the best midrange 13inch portable planer to buy at within $400.

Triton TPT125 12.5-inch High-Performance Benchtop Planer

Triton TPT125 is a versatile and reliable benchtop thickness planer from CRAFTSMAN. Its incredible capability to make a smooth surface, great dust extraction system and sturdy structure make it the best thickness planer within $500.

Features

Build quality and design: CMEW320 is a 4-post column design, comparatively lightweight (65 pounds) planer. Here, you get a 12.5-inch-wide and 6-inch depth capacity to handle any workpiece. The structure is exceptionally sturdy and portable to move anywhere for work.

Motor: You get a 15amp motor here that rotates up to 17500RPM higher than the others, and you can cut deeper and smoothly with cutting speed.

Gearbox: You only get one speed setting here, but the feed rate is well enough to give you consistent and even material removal.

Cutterhead: They provided two knife cutterhead systems in this planer that offer higher cuts per minute to give you smooth operation on hard and soft woods.

Depth adjustment: Depth scale and depth adjustment settings (up to 1/16-inch) are included in this planer to monitor and set at your desired thickness for better results.

Infeed and Outfeed Table: A foldable infeed and outfeed table you get with this planer so that you can place long wood on it, and this will reduce sniping also.

Dust port: You get an adjustable mounted on either side dust port in this planer, which will remove chips and debris easily from your planing surface.

Knife: The best thing is that you get a reversible and disposable knife with this planer which can be used on both sides and remains sharp for a longer time to increase extra lifespan.

Safety: CRAFTSMAN has installed a circuit breaker to enhance safety while planing.

The back point of this planer is the louder noise, snipe and precise depth adjustment expect this; this planer can be considered one of the best in the $450 price range.

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.