The UK's bestPlaner Thicknessers2022 Review

The Makita 2012NB/2 Thicknesser has a 1,650-watt motor that delivers up to 8,500 rpm. It has a 304 mm cutting width and a 150 mm cutting depth.

This Makita planer thicknesser is one of the best thickness planers around. It feels very sturdy and has large infeed and outfeed tables.

Setting and adjusting this wood thicknesser is simple and the results achieved are excellent – very smooth and accurate. The head clamp reduces the risk of snipe and helps you produce finished timber that is perfect from end to end.

The kit includes a wrench, magnetic holder and dust extraction hood.

Overall this thickness planer is simple to use, easy to adjust, relatively quiet and produces excellent results.

The Triton TPT125 Thicknesser has an 1,100 Watt motor that provides 17,500 cuts per minute. The machine has a 317 mm cutting width and can cut wood up to 152 mm thick. It has large infeed and outfeed tables, a dust extraction chute and a circuit breaker for safety.

This thicknesser is one of the best small planer thicknessers for ease of use and quality of finishing. This finisher is a little slower than the DeWalt thicknesser, especially on hardwood, but it still gets through the timber pretty quickly. This machine is lighter than other tools in this guide but still feels strong and sturdy.

The Triton planer thicknesser does the job well and is excellent value for money.

British tool company Lumberjack make some surprisingly good kit for DIYers. With everything from pillar drills to chainsaws to choose from, they’re fast becoming one of the more recognisable names out there. The 1,500 Watt PT330B benchtop planer thicknesser is an impressive machine.

This portable woodworking planer has a massive 330 mm cutting width, which is easily the biggest capacity for thicknessing on my list. With a maximum cut depth of 152 mm as well, you can fit some serious size pieces of wood in this machine.

The no-load speed of 8,500 rpm and maximum planing depth of 2.8 mm per pass is impressive for a benchtop planer. It means you can get a lot of work done without needing to make too many passes. The 7.5 m per minute feed rate isn’t too bad either.

What I really like about this hefty woodworking tool is how robust it is. Weighing 35 kg, it’s not a flimsy toy and everything feels well made. You can easily swap parts out, and they’re readily available including the double-edged blades.

The DeWalt DW733 230V Portable Thicknesser is a professional tool that has all the power and spec you could ever need from a workshop planer.

The machine has an 1,800 Watt motor and a no-load speed of 10,000 rpm. The infeed and outfeed tables are large and sturdy. It has a cutting width of 317 mm and a thicknesser capacity of 152 mm. The thicknesser is supplied with a dust shroud and adaptor, Allen keys, spanner and blade changing guides.

This DeWalt planer thicknesser does an excellent job of planing timber. The headlock facility locks the head in place to minimise any movement in the cutter and this provides a smooth finish. The thickness scale, material removal gauge and graduated depth crank make this machine quick to set up and easy to use. The planer produces smooth cuts that are accurate to a depth of 1/10^th of a millimetre. It is also not too noisy considering the way it powers through the timber.

These features make this one of the best planer thicknessers on the market at this price range. This wood thicknesser is well built, easy to use and produces an excellent finish on both hard and soft wood.

With close to a century’s worth of experience, German tool firm Scheppach know what makes the best thickness planer for DIYers. This isn’t just a thicknesser though, it can be used as a jointer to square up rough bits of wood as well.

Sporting a 1,250 Watt motor that spins the blades up to 8,000 rpm, this Scheppach planer is more suited to small pieces of wood. With a maximum cutting width of just 204 mm and height of 120 mm, it’s not the best in its class, but it’s enough for most DIYers.

The twin blades can take off up to 2 mm per pass, so combined with the feed rate of 6.28 m per minute you can get a reasonable amount of work done in a short space of time. Adjustments are made with a series of hand wheels and cranks, and four rubber feet help to keep the vibrations down.

This is a highly useful machine for the home woodworker because it’s effectively two tools in one. If you’re serious about making things square, then planing down to thickness, this is a good machine for you.  

British tool brand Silverline have been around since 1978 and are well known for their budget-friendly kit. Their take on the best bench planer for woodworking is their 344944 planer. It’s a solid and simple machine that gets the job done if you don’t want to splash the cash too much.

Loaded up with a big 1,800 Watt motor, the blades spin to an impressive 12,000 rpm. This fast-moving planer can take off up to 3 mm of material per pass, and each blade is double-sided, so you get twice the life out of them. The integrated dust collection port is ideally placed too.

This machine has a maximum cutting width of 150 mm, and to help you deal with odd-shaped pieces of wood or even plastics, there’s a detachable fence on the side of the table. This can be angled anywhere between 90° and 135°, depending on the job at hand.

There’s no auto-feed function on this planer, you simply pass the material across the blades. There’s an anti-kickback device to stop any nasty accidents, as well as a large emergency stop button just in case. It’s a lightweight and low-cost option for DIYers who need to improve the shape of their timbers.