Wahuda couldn't have picked a better RU-vidr to review their new planer. Great set up instructions and product review. Glad to see Wahuda has these coming off of the production line and ready to ship.
I have watched this review a number of times & pick up something new every time. Great review! I have had the 10" Wahuda jointer for about 3 years and it is an incredible machine. Perfect surfaces, tough sharp carbide edges, huge capacity (with extensions too), and a terrific value. I have been waiting to buy this planer because my old Delta 22-540 still works beautifully. But when I use my last pair of blades for it, I won't be able to help replacing it with the Wahuda 2-speed here. Having the same inserts for both is a plus. One other thing worth mentioning (along with the 4 threaded corner posts I noted below) is that for those of us using a 110v circuit (with lights in my case), fewer insert cutters decreases the load. So the lower speed is especially good in that case. I've read too often about the Dewalt 735 breaking 20a circuits to risk it on my 15a circuit. And the denser Shelix helical heads, with all their advantages, reportedly pull a greater load than just straight blades. So I really like the spaced out spiral head inserts on the Wahuda with 2 speeds available, along with all the other features you highlighted. Thank you!
Great review, thanks! I purchased the less expensive model and it came with both side panels cracked. Wahuda sent replacement panels, but they would not seat properly because of an improperly-installed bushing. Wahuda sent a replacement unit, which arrived in perfect condition. Customer service was legit, but the whole process took about two weeks.
I'm glad they made it right, and thanks for the feedback on how well their customer service handled it! I thought that would be the case from how responsive they were to the few issues I worked with them on, but it's always hard to tell if that's how a company treats every customer or just the ones they know are doing reviews.
Both of my side panels came severely damaged. Also the spots where the bolts for the cutter head track are secured, were all bulging through the top cover significantly. A week later I received a replacement machine, and again both panels were broken(though less significantly) and the bolts mounts were also still bulging... though again less significantly... Great customer service but ouch, these have some manufacturing issues. I believe they will straighten this out for me but along with pre-purchasing, its been weeks in the making.
Really 2 weeks is not a bad turnaround for something like this. Most places take almost that much time to even replay other than to say your request has been received.
From a new subscriber, if weren't a significant improvement, in more ways than 1, they wouldn't spend money to engineer it differently. Thanks so much for doing an "Expose/Review" on something other than the DeWalt 735x
Excellent review. I like that you gave a good solid review, pros, cons and issues encountered. Equally impressive is Wahuda, because they worked with you, even though you were in the process of reviewing their equipment. I also like that Wahuda is confident enough in their product to allow you to tell it like it is.
Wahuda was really professional too. When I brought some of these issues to their attention, they worked with me to find a solution and never tried to influence what I included in the review in any way.
Glad I could help! Did you order yours recently? I know for a while Wahuda had a stop shipment on these due to the side panels getting damaged during shipping. I was just wondering if they solved that problem.
@@DoresoomReviews I'm looking for the Wahuda planer you reviewed and as of now they still say they 'hope' to start shipping them again by summer. Total bummer because this is the planer I want, but not sure I want to wait indefinitely to get it. Here is the exact quote from today still on their website: We are currently working on re-designing the machines and packaging to protect against any type of shipping damage. The changes involve extensive manufacturing tooling modifications and this process alone will take at least three months. We are looking forward to receiving our next shipment in the summer of 2021. The new Laguna PX|12 looks very similar but doesn't have 2 speeds.
Today I tested for the 1st time the new Wahuda single speed 13'' planer. Once I assembled it and cleaned the cutter head and the tables I ran a 10'' wide 3/4'' pine board through it. Virtually no snipe at all if you want to call a sight mark on the leading end a snipe. It probable measures 0.0005'' if that. Fine enough for me. No cutterhead marks at all like the conventional 2 or 3 knife cutterheads with disposable knives. No ripple or anything. I must point out that I always, I repeat always hand plane all boards that come out of a planer with a smoothing plane. Feels like glass with absolutely no sanding necessary period. With the older heavy duty planers that I have used all my life there was always snipe which we dealt with one way or the other. Sometimes putting a scrap board ahead and behind the board eliminates it almost entirely and even with that I always finish hand plane with a smoothing plane. Just part of the job.
Considering selling my DW735 and getting this, thanks for the review. I only need a planer for rough dimensioning since I use hand planes for smoothing so the single speed is probably all I need. The spaced out cutters are nice, less likely to burn out the motor and trip the circuit. I have their jointer so the shared cutters are nice plus too.
For what it's worth, I ended up keeping my DW735, and I gave this Wahuda to my dad. One of the big deciding factors was how glassy smooth the DeWalt gets the surface, since it's got more cuts per inch than the Wahuda. I do plan on eventually upgrading to a Byrd cutter head for the DeWalt though.
@@DoresoomReviewsthanks for the follow-up, still makes sense in my case since I only need it for rough dimensioning. Just a heads up on the Shelix, since there's always a cutter in contact with the board the motor has to work harder, so it increases power draw and decreases how much you can cut in one pass without tripping the safety. It can be a real pain taking tons of really shallow cuts on harder woods but it's worth it for the blade longevity and noise reduction.
Was it just me or was there something going on with the audio? Crackly and “laggy” at some points. Either way, great video. Interesting looking planer.
Yeah, I hear it too. I proofed it in my video editing software, but only spot checked it after rendering. I used some noise reduction filters to block out furnace noise in the basement. That may have been the culprit.
Also liked your jointer review. Excellent job. I’m liking the Wahuda brand. My goal will be To get a jointer and planer. Thanks for doing an excellent review on their products!
Hello once again. Some lunch box planeres have a locking mechanism for the cutting head. How did you find this machine to maintain a precise thickness setting throughout its range? I just purchased the single speed machine and have not tried it yet.
I haven't needed a carriage lock- the design is self locking. Even when taking heavy passes, it holds its position. The DeWalt DW735X doesn't have a cutter head lock either.
@@DoresoomReviews This should be thanks to the 4-corner threaded rods on which the planer head moves, rather than 2 central threaded rods with smooth corner posts like most planers.
Never heard of this company but this is very interesting. I have looked up the process for retrofitting a DW735 with a spiral cutterhead and it looks to be an absolute nightmare.
I’m a little confused about the relationship between CuTech and Wahuda. They both have a website but there are slight differences between the products. An example would be the coating CuTech has available for their jointers. If they’re both the same company, why maintain different web presences and differences in their products?
I am completely torn over which one I will be keeping. Right now I'm leaning towards the Wahuda, since the length of snipe (when it does occasionally occur) is less than the DW735. Plus, the carbide cutters are a huge improvement over the DeWalt's HSS knives. And the Wahuda jointer I have uses the same cutters, so any replacements I need can be used on either machine. I think if I do keep the DW735, I'll want to upgrade to a Shelix, but that's another $500 on top of an already $600ish planer. The DeWalt does produce a smoother finish (as long as you haven't nicked a knife) and does have better dust collection. I almost never see any chips after planing with the DeWalt, but there was a little bit of cleanup required after using the Wahuda for an extended period of time.
@@DoresoomReviews I've got the older 8" cutech jointer with the 2 sided carbide inserts instead of the 4. I was on the fence about the wahuda jointer when it launched and then fell into a sweetheart deal for the cutech used. I have an older dw733 which has the two harder thick knives instead of the three thin ones on the dw734 and dw735. Truthfully I haven't seen the need for the dw735 yet but I'm not out there working all the time either - every time it goes on sale though I start thinking it'd be nice and wondering if I should sell my older one to help subsidize the new one lol. That new wahuda planer does look nice though - the extensions on the tables look like a nice touch. Really like watching your videos - thanks for taking the time!
@@DoresoomReviews Do you think the DW735 will have more maintenance resources in the future? More videos on how to troubleshoot it. That's my biggest concern. Now that all the manufacturers are doing spiral cutterhead benchtop jointer/planers, I'm doubtful wahuda will be able to compete much longer. I'd hate to buy the planer, then in five years wish I had a more common model so I could find solutions online to any potential problems. That being said, I have their jointer, and it's great.
It's decent, especially with a 4" dust extractor hose hooked up to it. But not in the same class as the DW735, which will inflate the top bag on my dust collector without the dust collector even being turned on.
It does look nearly identical - I think most of the ones that appear to be this style are made in the same factory in Taiwan, with slight differences for each brand. The Jet outfeed tables look like they have some stamped ribs for extra rigidity, but it looks like the cutters might be two sided instead of four sided like the Wahuda. Can you confirm that's the case?
They have a stop ship order on these planers now - something about damage during shipping....I am debating paying $550 for this carbide insert tech vs paying $20 every time I wear out a set of straight blades on my $300 planer.
Other people have reported the side panels cracking, which surprised me since it seemed well protected for shipping. $20 is a pretty low price for a knife set. I think my DW735 was $50/set last time I bought them.
Still works great. I ended up giving it to my dad and keeping my DW735X though. If I hadn't already had the DeWalt, I'd be perfectly happy with the Wahuda though. If I wasn't planning on eventually upgrading my DeWalt with a Shelix cutterhead, I would have kept the Wahuda instead.
Just thought you should know, they must have listened to you. Mine arrived today, and the knives where all oriented correctly at location 1. And the indeed/out feed tables where almost perfect, very little to do. Great machine
Thank you for these reviews, this one and the Wahuda jointer. After watching your videos I'm going to get one of each; looking at these tools do you see any reason that these tools can't be flipped and stored upside down? I plan on building a flip cart for them.
Thanks! Other than how heavy they are, I don't see a reason not to bolt them to a flip cart. If you get the balance right and build it sturdy enough, you should be fine though.
Thanks for the great set-up and performance review. I picked up one of these and am setting it up now. Any thoughts on using Armor-All instead of paste wax on the bed and extension tables? I use Armor-All on my aluminum router table - and it works great. But this is steel, so might not be a valid comparison. Any thoughts? Many thanks!
If it works for an aluminum router table, I'd imagine it will be fine for this steel planer bed. I haven't personally used Armor-all for that purpose though.
Great video! The Wahuda planer doesn’t appear to have a carriage lock to hold the cutterhead tightly in place when passing boards through. Is this a problem?
@@DoresoomReviews Thanks for the quick reply. I’ve been doing a ton of research on helical/spiral cutter planers to replace my old, trusty Ridgid TP1300LS. I was leaning towards buying a used Dewalt 735 and installing a Shelix or Lux cutterhead. I think this video sold me on the Wahuda. It’ll be less expensive than the Dewalt route, won’t require replacing cutter, and still has the two speed feeder and extended feeder tables. Best of all, it comes with 4-sided carbide cutters instead of the 2-sided like on other similar machines such as the Jet and Rikon.
Just had this planer delivered a few days ago and started using it today. Really smooth cuts and ZERO snipe! Didn’t clog my dust collector as was often the case with my old Ridgid. Only minor complaints so far is that the height guage is hard to read (for me) and, as you point out in the video, the rear-facing dust collection port is a bit awkward and I’ll be getting the elbow fitting at Woodcraft or Rockler soon. Otherwise, I’m really happy with it.
Looks similar, probably made in the same factory in Taiwan. The Wen has HSS cutters though, while the Wahuda has carbide. That would cost another $135 to upgrade, assuming they're the same dimensions. Plus the Wahuda has extra long table extensions, which can help reduce snipe
I haven't used it for planing end grain. The spiral cutterhead design is probably better than a straight knife design for end grain cutting boards, but a true helical cutterhead planer would be better. Or just a drum sander if you're doing a lot.
Have you compared the results with the faster speed? I think the faster speed is the same as the non pro model's only speed. I am trying decide which model might be best for me, and curious under what situation the slower speed is needed.
Yes, it should end up the same smoothness with a little more sanding. The only other thing to consider is that the slower feed rate may reduce tearout in highly figured woods.
That's true in general, but the Wahuda manual calls out lubrication AND the torque spec. So it shouldn't be altered, because lubrication has already been taken into account.
It's going to be very similar to the CuTech. The owner of Wahuda explained to me that just about all planers and jointers are made in the same factory in Taiwan, with each company having slightly different specifications that set them apart. For example, this one has the extension arms that the CuTech doesn't.
Watch the gap between the level edge and the planer table, not the bubble. You're not leveling the planer bed and roller to absolute level. You're only aligning them to each other. You could do the same procedure on a 45° incline and it wouldn't matter. Or you could use a generic straight edge instead of a level.
It depends on the type of stainless steel whether or not its magnetic: www.metalsupermarkets.com/is-stainless-steel-magnetic/ I don't remember if I claimed they were stainless, but I don't think Wahuda did either anyway. Could be regular zinc plated steel.
I haven't needed it - the design is self locking. Even when taking heavy passes, it holds its position. The DeWalt DW735X doesn't have a cutter head lock either.
@@DoresoomReviews I stand corrected. In any case, go to Next Level Carpentry. He has the spiral cutters In his DWX735X , but took them out for his latest project. There are pros and cons.
