I just finished installing and testing the new Wixey Electronic Digital Readout on my Dewalt 735 planer. I bought it from Rockler on sale for about $50, regularly $60. I read about it on the Wixey website,
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knew it's limitations. I really like the planer but I wanted a little more precision than the analog gauge that came on the planer. The Wixey readout has a resolution of .005" and also read in 1/32" at the appropriate decimal points. The fractions didn't mean that much to me but that's a feature it came with. It claims an accuracy of .002". Installation took some guess work since the installation instructions are vague but it wasn't too hard to figure out. The instructions require the drilling of two holes in the Dewalt gauge to mount the frame for the digital readout. Instead I removed the factory gauge and replaced it with a piece of 1/8" steel bent and drilled to match the Dewalt unit. It was easy and the digital readout mounted easily. So far so good, right? But that's where the good ended. It came with one battery installed and an extra in a blister pack. The installed battery was dead so I installed the new one. Unfortunately, there's plenty of play in the unit and it's not because of any installation error. There's a sliding scale that slides up and down in the mounting frame as you raise and lower the head of the planer. The scale also slides through the electronic readout box. The scale has room for about an 1/8" of side to side play in the mounting frame and as I wiggle it the electronic readout will change about .005". This same sliding scale is used to measure the thickness of a piece of wood. Hard to describe but if you look at the website you'll see what I mean. Calibrating the unit is very simple with no real room for error. Unfortunately, after running numerous test pieces through the planer, changing the settings and testing for repeatability it usually shows about
1/64" in variance. Usually it was under by about 1/64" but not every time. 1/64" equals about .015". That doesn't work for the projects I make. The reason I bought this was so that I could get some easy repeatability with my planer when I wanted another piece of wood the same thickness as another even after changing the height of the planer. I guess I should've realized that with a resolution of .005" it couldn't possibly be any more repeatable than to within .005". Duh. But it's not even that accurate. I measure the same piece of wood several times and I get a reading that will vary by .005" as I slide the scale up and down on the piece. I will talk to the tech at Rockler Monday morning but I can't imagine what he will tell me other than the unit has room for slop. I think I'll be returning it. At least with the factory analog scale, if I turn the wheel .002" or so I can see the scale move. I may have to go back to splitting lines but it's better than just guessing between .005" and ignoring the inaccuracy. The factory scale may not be very precise but at least it's accurate. Bottom line, it may be good for some people but not if you're concerned about being off by 1/64" or if you don't mind creeping up on the thickness and checking it with your dial calipers. I can do that for $50 less. Anyone else have this unit? I did an archive search and didn't get any hits.
Bruce