Best Thickness Planers for Woodworking (2026)

The Craftsman 5/64" Wood Planer occupies a distinct niche on this page — it is the only manual option, which makes it the right pick when cord access, noise, and portability matter more than throughput speed. At $104, it costs about the same as the WEN electric hand planer but delivers a different kind of control: no motor noise, no kickback on knots, and full tactile feedback as you work the surface. The 5/64-inch depth cap is a real constraint — material removal is gradual, and wide boards require more passes than most woodworkers want to invest. Where the Craftsman earns its spot is on installed trim, door edges, and final-fit work where bringing a 90-lb benchtop machine simply is not an option. If your shop already has a DeWalt or Craftsman benchtop unit for rough dimensioning, this manual planer makes sense as a lightweight complement rather than a replacement. For woodworkers who only need one planer and plan to surface rough stock regularly, start with the 15-Amp benchtop instead — it will handle wider boards faster with far less physical effort. The manual design is a feature for cabinet installers and finish carpenters; it is a limitation for anyone processing volume in a stationary shop.

The DeWalt 13-Inch Thickness Planer is the capacity benchmark on this page — 13 inches wide and up to 6 inches of board thickness per pass means it handles virtually any dimensional lumber in a hobby or semi-pro shop without multiple setups. The dual fan chip ejection system is a genuine differentiator: where single-fan machines pack chips around the cutterhead, DeWalt's twin fans clear debris laterally, keeping the work surface visible and extending blade life between sharpenings. Three-year warranty coverage on the motor and blade assembly outpaces the industry standard for benchtop planers, which matters when this is your primary dimensioning tool. The tradeoffs are real: at approximately 90 lbs, this is a permanently sited machine, and full-throttle fan noise requires hearing protection for sessions longer than 20 minutes. If you are surfacing one board a week for home projects, the Craftsman 15-Amp benchtop delivers similar width capacity at a meaningfully lower price. But for woodworkers processing volume — cabinet shop side work, furniture builds, custom millwork — the DeWalt's chip management system and warranty coverage justify the premium over time. It is built for production cadence, not occasional use.

The WEN 6-Amp sits in the sweet spot for woodworkers who need more speed than a manual hand plane but cannot justify a full-width benchtop machine. The 3/32-inch depth adjustment and parallel fence make it genuinely capable for edge straightening and door fitting — tasks where a 90-lb thickness planer is overkill and a hand plane is too slow. At under $80, it is also the accessible entry point for anyone who wants to add a powered surface planer to a basic shop without a major tool budget commitment. The limitation to understand before buying: 6 amps bogs down on hard domestic species like oak and maple, requiring very shallow passes that slow the work considerably. On pine, poplar, and similar softwoods it performs without hesitation. For occasional home projects where the choice is this or nothing, it is a strong pick. Woodworkers who regularly process hardwood should budget up to the Craftsman 15-Amp benchtop — the extra motor power eliminates the bog-down problem and delivers consistent throughput across species without babysitting every pass.

Brushless Motor provides power and runtime 30,000 cuts per minute achieve a fast removal rate Corded models limit mobility; cordless models require proper battery charge management Beginners should review safety guidelines and practice on scrap material before first project use