Does anyone have experience with the DW735 planer? The features look terrific, especially the dust ejection feature since I won't have dust collection available. I am concerned with the many posts complaining about short-lived knives. Are there knife quality issues with this machine or are these guys getting the results of bad techniques? Are they expecting industrial machine performance from a home-shop tool?
Thanks for any feedback.
Tim Ellestad
Its a great planer. I have run lotsa board footage through one. The dust collection...prolly works *best* when attached to another system. The blades are definately fragile, but if you run fairly good wood (not highly figured) they last a good while. Blades run about $50 and have good edge two sides, so really it's $25 for each new set. For the money, I think it's about the best there is, the next step is an industrial model...
For what its worth... Schroeder
It has disposable blades. Short lived IMHO. I have a portable Ryobi that has multi-resharpenable blades that are the originals. The planer is 18 years old. That said however about the only to get decent blades any more is to go stationary.
Like Leon say's the blades are disposable. Blade life is directly related to the amount, type and condition of the lumber run thought it. New blades can fail quickly if you hit nails, embedded sand, stubborn knots or other debris in the wood. My Jet works like a champ and one set of blades lasted a long time. OTOH, they failed quickly after planning some Liquid Amber that had sand embedded in it. The DW735 look to be a good machine. However, after my 12" Jet finally dies, I'll move to a stationary machine.
Dave
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Had mine for about a year now and it's a nice machine. Posted a mini-review after I got it, so DAGS to read. So far it's eaten everything I've thrown at it, pine to ipe, without a hitch. Minimal snipe, smooth finish on most woods. Heavily figured curly maple needs a bit of scraping to really smooth it out, but figured walnut generally comes out clean. Ran some QS white oak this weekend (about 20 linear feet, 10" wide) and sanding was not really necessary.
It is loud when running so have your ears on.
I hook it up to the DC with a trash can intermediate, so I can't comment on running it without, except to say that when my DC hose slipped off the outlet one time it threw stuff everywhere! Lots of walnut stuff! I'm still finding pockets of tiny walnut chips in corners. Power planing generates a lot of chips!
The blades - I'm on the second side of my first set and about ready to change them out. $50 a year doesn't bother me, but I'm a hobby worker not a pro counting costs.
I'll try to sharpen the blades after I yank them, just to see if it can be done. I've got one of those Makita flat platter water stone turntables with a 1000 grit stone and the blade holding attachment, so maybe it'll work. Some say yes, some say no, so WTH is the loss in trying.
Regards.
Tom
With Robatoy's approval I bought a Delta 15" stationary planer in January. Coupled with 1100 CFM Jet DC I get NO dust or shavings anywhere except in the collector. At first the planer went with out a collector and after truing about 200 bf of oak I shoveled up probably 140 gallons of packed shavings. Now I do "nothing" to clean up. I gave up on my Ryobi dying.
I have a 735. Have not had it for a long time. The cut quality is very smooth. It has an internal impeller system to eject chips forcefully so they do fly across the room. I have had good luck using my extra large shop-vac connected directly as long as I do not take a huge cut. Snipe has been a bit of a problem however so I tend to leave
3 inches on each side of the board. I am hoping that getting the extension tables will help, but I don't expect it to be completely snipe-free. From taking a close look at the blades I think they could be re-sharpened several times before they would need to be replaced, however the cost of sending them out and having 6 sides of 12 inches each sharpened (plus shipping) is about the same as mail-ordering a new set of blades.I would not trust my own abilities to resharpen 3 blades to identical size by hand, and do not own a Tormek, so I think blade replacement will have to do. Unless of course some top shelf sharpening service can return them in a "better-than-factory" state.
I've had one, for about a year now. I don't have any experience with any other planer, so I have no basis for comparison. But I like the 735 a lot.
I bought the portable because I just don't have the room for a stationary planer. I built a cart for it, with decent locking wheels, so its easy enough to get out of the way.
Initially, I did not have the extension tables. There was, occasionally, a little snipe. I've since added the extension tables, and now rarely have any snipe. It seemed to be necessary to adjust the tables so they tip up very slightly away from the planer.
I nicked the blades very early, running construction lumber through it for "practice". The knots in the SPF really dinged the blades pretty well. I was able to offset the blades a tad to minimize the ridging on stock for a while. When there were too many nicks to get away with that, I turned them around, one at a time, and repeated that process. I have a new set of blades ready to install. I think I'll need to do that before I start my next project.
I use the 735 hooked up to my dust collection system with a short length of flexible hose and an overhead bayonnet type disconnect. It does leave a few shavings on the planer table. Nothing to fuss over. I've forgotten to start my DC once or twice while using the planer. This results in shavings being thrown into the piping for some distance, and the stuff in the DC's clear bag moves around almost as if the DC is running. I have a press-fit cleanout cap on the end of one piping run that was blown off due to the pressure generated by the planer's chip ejector!
Before you do that... try honing the ones you have now. I'm on (I think) the fourth re-sharp on the *first* set of blades in my DW735 that I've had for over two years.
I could try that - nothing to loose. But how to keep the edge straight? Or does that not matter very much?
Well, I use the planer-knife jig on my Tormek...
Wet-or-dry sandpaper on a piece of plate glass should give you a good flat surface for honing a straight edge. Up to you to figure out how to hold the blade without cutting your fingers :-) but I think a simple wooden jig ought to do just fine.
I should think it matters a *lot*.
Which I'm sure makes that job fast and fairly easy.
I've been thinking about getting something like that. I have been waiting for a real need, though. I've been sharpening my few hand tools on stones and sandpaper.
Indeed. The double-sided blade makes a holder of some sort imperative. Seems like something worthwhile for which to use some scraps of hard maple, a few machine screws, washers, and wing nuts.
I couldn't think of why it would not. Thought maybe you knew something I didn't.
Easy, yes. Fast... depends on how you define it, I guess. The Tormek is a low-speed grinder that removes material slowly -- which makes it ideal for honing planer blades.
Sharpening tools with the Tormek is so easy that I find myself doing it more often, as soon as a tool begins to lose its edge -- long before it gets really dull. As a result, I'm working with sharper tools than I did when I was sharpening by hand.
The main reason I bought the Tormek, though, was for sharpening lathe tools. The jigs make it very easy to cut the same profile every time.
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