Woodworking guys...planer question.

I have about seven hundred square feet of tamarack I need to get planed. The boards are 6" x 3/4" x8'. I'm looking to buy a planer and do the work myself. Do you have any recommendations on a good planer that won't break the bank?

I've shoved many thousand feet through a simple DeWalt planer.

What am I looking at for blade life, Ken? I'm greener than a pea when it comes to this stuff.

Well if the wood is clean you should have no problem getting through 700 feet. Might want to buy an extra set of knives just in case something goes haywire. But, just off the top of my head I would guess that I have easily planned 3-4 thousand feet of spruce and pine without any noticeable effect on the blades. You can also resharpen them pretty easily

Appreciate it. Thank you.

I used a DeWalt lunch box planer for decades before I upgraded. And they used to come with a spare set of knives, I don’t know if they still do.

I think that's right Lug. I have had mine since the late 90's so I can't recall if it came with the extra blades or not.

I have a 12" Delta. It has held up to everything but nails.
If you have a disk sander with a guide, sharpening is rather easily.
A little cheaper than a DeWalt.

Save the shaving for the furshed floor

Just be aware that you are more subject to snipe with the little bench top planers so be attentive to not trying to hog off to much in one pass. Also good infeed and outfield tables help as well.

I have a Dewalt. I've had it for about 20 years now. It's done thousands upon thousands of board feet.

X2 that on the infeed and outfeed.. you can get some rollers pretty cheap and fab your own, not hard and it will help a bunch.

I like my DeWalt planer!

Thanks for all the inputs, fellas. I found a Dewalt 735X new and unused for $550. I'm gonna snag it.

what ya doing with the boards?

Be aware that planing only makes the boards parallel top and bottom. If the boards have warp and twist it'll still be there after your done.

Flooring for my cabin.

If you have a Home Depot near you, check out the Ridgid Planer, or the Ryobi. I had an old Ryobi Ap-12 Planer, and must have put over 4000 Board Feet of Lumber through that Planer. Just needed to replace the blades when they got dull.

Grizzly Industrial has a big sale on tools right now.

How big a generator to drive a planer?

How has the work being doing ?
if you can tell which way the tree grew it helps with planing tamarack, usually do the edging and this will tell you with the sound of the planer humming
watch because the pitch of the wood will gum thing up, so every 10 boards put another soft wood through
What is the moisture content, because of after planing the wood may move some more.