DW735 - Lines running along grain

[Dick Fitzwell]

Hi, all,

Got an early Christmas present -- a Dewalt 735 portable planer. Not too shabby for my first planer. I have run a couple boards (pine and maple) through it, and everything appears to be dead on out of the box.

My one question regards some lines running parallel to the grain on an otherwise perfect finish. They are not terribly noticebale, but you can definitely feel them if you run a finger across the board. They showed up on both the soft and hard wood. They appear to be pretty regular. At first, I thought the knives were nicked, but I checked them out and they appear to be smooth and sharp.

As I said, I am a planer novice. Should I expect this kind of preformance, or is something wrong with the planer? These lines will sand out easily, but I thought I was supposed to get a mirror smooth finish with this planer.

Thanks for your wise counsel.

Ho, ho, ho, Mr. Fitzwell

[Nova]

Check the rollers. The pine may have left sap deposits on the feed rollers. Also are you using any form of vacuum chip collection.

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[Leon]

Those are nicks and or high spots in the knife edge. Some times very hard to see on the knife itself and not necessarily on both blades. Sometimes this happens immediately with a new set of blades. Also first hand you are seeing why the slower finish speed is probably going to be a waste of time as you will now have to follow up with a scraper or sand paper, which you should do anyway. Remember this planer is a thicknesser not a finish sander. As long as the lines in your wood are raised you are seeing a normal result of knives showing wear . If the lines are indented, there could be another problem.

As for normal. Possibly if you ran some wood that possible could have had some grit on the surface or imbedded in the surface. But normal after running 25 to 200 linear feet through the planer

[MikeG]

Whether you saw them or not you have a nick there. Shift, if possible on that unit, one blade slightly to one side or the other.

[Duane Bozarth]

...

...

Are they ridges or dents?

If ridges there almost has to be a tiny knick...if dents there's a small deposit on either the rollers or material on the tables. Particularly easy to get w/ pine owing to the sap.

Regarding your last comment -- no power planer is going to leave an absolute mirror finish although it is amazing the quality of finish some of these small guys can do...

[Hansen]

I also have the DW735 planer. It is a very nice peice of equipment. However, I have the same problem as you. It turned out some very nice work till I ran some Hichory though it. I beleive it was from the knots in the hard, dence wood. I flipped the blades over (which is one of the nice things about the blades) and the line was gone. You do have a knick in the blade however until you take the blades off and inspect them (all 3) you won't be able to really see the imperfection. Blades are not cheap, so if you have more time then money (as is my case), a few extra minutes with a sander is what I recomend if you have already flipped your blades. Enjoy your planer, and have a merry Christmas.

Hansen in Wyoming

[Dick Fitzwell]

All,

Thanks for your replies. To clarify, these are tiny ridges on the board. They showed up almost immediately (after a couple linear feet of planing). Are the Dewalt planer knives supposed to be of decent quality?

Thanks, Dick

[Hansen]

Yes, I had a friend tell me that he was able to have them re-sharpened. I don't know how much faith I put into a resharpend blade. Especially when you are dealing with a thickness planer. I have been using my "knicked" blade for better then a year (I got my DW735 for Christmas last year) and it is still doing a fine job. I have developed 1 more very small knick in my blade, but I have run more then 2000 board feet through it. I feel I have got my money out of it.

preformance,

[Duane Bozarth]

Dick Fitzwell wrote: ...

I don't have one so can't judge directly, but what I have seen is that these small benchtop planers all have very light knives in general...it just goes w/ the type of machine they are. I suspect such minor knicks and chips are the rule rather than the exception for them as a class. Maybe someone can post whether there are bad/less bad/good/better/best sources of replacement knives for these guys.

I have an old (as in 30+ yrs) Rockwell Model 13 which has much more robust knives (of course, they come w/ a much more robust price tag :) ) but I don't think I'd want to trade.

[Dave W]

The Dewalt knives can be resharpened many times before tossing them. The best way to keep knives sharp is to wirebrush all stock before planing. When I bought my planer, I got a nick in the first foot of cedar. Shifting one knife laterally is a good way to get rid of a little problem. Dave

[Leon]

The throw away one's?? That would be good news.

[Joe Wells]

DeWalt planer knives aren't meant to be disposable.

[Leon]

IIRC the new model ones with the 3 cutter heads are.

[Doug Miller]

Ya know what? I've noticed the same thing with my DW735, even with freshly-honed and polished knives -- but only on relatively soft woods such as sycamore and poplar. The marks are much less noticeable on soft maple and cherry, and pretty much not there on hard maple, walnut, or oak.

I *suspect* (but have been unable to confirm) that it may be caused by variations in tightness of the blade-mounting bolts, causing the blades to flex slightly.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

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[Doug Miller]

In that case... the knives are nicked.

They are of decent quality. But no planer knife will stand up to dirt on the board, and that's probably how they got nicked.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

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[Doug Miller]

Not for the 735, they can't.

Not, anyway, if by "resharpened" you mean reground. They can be *honed* several times, sure, but there just isn't enough metal projecting above the cutterhead to allow more than a very small number of regrindings.

I'm sure that will be news to the guys at DeWalt.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

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