September 27, 2007

Ridgid R4330 13" Thickness Planer with 3 Blade Cutterhead

Ridgid has recently released a new 13" Thickness Planer and it looks like it's got all the right standard features, as well as a few new ones.

The planer has a 15 amp motor, nice fold down infeed/outfeed platforms, a chip diverter, as well as a place to plug your ShopVac – either 2-1/2" or 4" - to minimize dust (and there will be a lot of dust). Also included are some tools to help you change out the blades, or rather, flip them over, as Ridgid is thankfully using two sided blades. And don't worry about trying to index them, that's taken care of too.

There's a side-mounted depth adjusting hand crank, as well as a little gauge that tells you how much material will be removed with each pass. Additionally, there are eight preset stops, handy for planning multiple boards.

All in all, this looks like a nice, solid planer. It's available at Home Depot for somewhere in the range of $350. This puts it at a slightly lower price than its competitors, who are in the high $300 to $400 range.

At Home Depot.