Looking to buy one in a month or 2. I"m no Norm Abrams, just hobbyist but do bigger builds too. Staying under $500, who do you guys like? It will collect more dust then it will create.

err edit, its late read jointer not planer.

Dewalt 735 has a good rep

There is a steel city one that has a bit of a good rep too

The Dewalt 735 is the one I use.  It will be the last one you buy until you upgrade to a 240volt cabinet planer. I have ran miles of wood through mine. It has two finishing speeds. Blade changing is a breeze.
Can't say enough about it.

+1   I'm in an industrial building, plenty of electricity.  Turn this beast on and the lights dim.  

You may have a ground issue somewhere.


Great little planer.  May be all you ever need.

Small project hobbyist myself and have gotten plenty of use out of my Harbor Freight planer.  Little bit more snipe than I would like, but nothing building infeed/outfeed tables wouldn't fix.  If I ever decided to get serious about building furniture I might consider and upgrade, but the HF planer has been fine.

Could be, but still a fun anecdote.  

I just bought a Dewalt 734 yesterday.. haven't taken it out of the box yet.

I've had a Ridgid TP1300LS for 5-6 years, no problems yet.  I've planed a shit load of rough sawn red oak and maple with it.  Heavy bastard though.

I have had the Dewalt 735 for 15 years now, maybe more.  Previosuly I had a Delta, that ran lots of board feet until the motor finally gave out.
The 735 is a pretty good machine.  It gives a nice smooth finish - it has two feed speeds for dimensioning and finish cuts.  I have done far more board feet with it than the Delta.  These bench top planers are noisy, so ear protection is a must.  It also sprays out fine chips without dust collection.  Right now I just have a small Delta portable DC, maybe only 650 cfm 1/2 HP.  But I do have a trash can cyclone lid ahead of it, which is a must.  Otherwise you will be emptying it every 10-15 minutes, if you are running it hard.
Also, the dewalt replacement cutter blades are not the best - they dull relatively quickly in my experience.  When the cutter blades get dull, the stock doesn't want to feed - you will know it.  Get the replacement blades from Infinity.  They are mosre expensive but last significantly longer.  Get the blade sharpening holder they sell too and you can touch up the blades on some wet/dry sandpaper, for extra use.  HSS - I wouldn't use carbide blades on these benchtop planers.  If you hit a nail or something else hard, the blades have been known to break apart, and when they come apart they destroy the inside of the planer.  You hit a nail with a HSS blade, you only ruin the edge of the blades.

http://www.infinitytools.com/DeWalt-735-Replacement-Knives/products/1649/


Blade holder for sharpening
http://www.amazon.com/Quick-Planer-Jointer-Blade-Sharpener/dp/B00A1Q0U4O/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1441075463&sr=8-6&keywords=Planer+sharpening
I don't remember it being this expensive.  There is another similar brand that is about $20 more.

I used a Dewalt 735 for a few years before upgrading to a stationary planer. On the downside, it gets kind of tippy when planing long heavy boards and it's very loud. On the good side, it does a very nice job of planing and it virtually snipe proof.

That /\ is the best benchtop model made.


True points for any benchtop model but the 735 does better then the rest (lower CoG and less noisy)

If you are looking to save money, search your local craigslist. There is also some WW'ing equipment for sale at very reasonable prices

OP

You can join the edges of boards on a router table.  

Just something to consider before you buy a tool that is going to collect dust most of the time as you say.

Old Ryobi 10 inch.
With an 8 inch jointer I am set.

Hardwood prices go up faster with width than thickness.

I had a Rigid from Home Depot for over 10 years. No problems with it using it about every day. I bought a Jet 20" planer so I gave the Rigid to a friend. He is still using it and its been over a year since I gave it to him. Just my $.02