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, http://www.wixey.com/planer/index.html
and 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

On 21 Oct 2005 17:27:30 -0700, wrote:

.... snip
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
.... more snip

Bruce,

Thanks for the review; I've been weighing getting something like
this, your review was quite helpful, guess I'll look elsewhere.





+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

There are a couple of ways to do this without buying somthing like this. The
easyest is to put a graduated dial around the hieght adjustment shaft.
Another would be to mount a dial indicator with adjustable stop. Bothe
require a test cut for calibration but once done, you can dial in what you
want.
"Mark & Juanita" wrote in message
...
On 21 Oct 2005 17:27:30 -0700, wrote:

... snip
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
... more snip

Bruce,

Thanks for the review; I've been weighing getting something like
this, your review was quite helpful, guess I'll look elsewhere.






+---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----+

If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough


+---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----+

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 15:27:05 GMT, "CW" wrote:


"Mark & Juanita" wrote in message
.. .
On 21 Oct 2005 17:27:30 -0700, wrote:

... snip

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
... more snip

Bruce,

Thanks for the review; I've been weighing getting something like
this, your review was quite helpful, guess I'll look elsewhere.


There are a couple of ways to do this without buying somthing like this. The
easyest is to put a graduated dial around the hieght adjustment shaft.
Another would be to mount a dial indicator with adjustable stop. Bothe
require a test cut for calibration but once done, you can dial in what you
want.

Yep, those are a couple of other possible approaches I have been
considering. Even went so far as to get a cheap dial caliper with the
intent of modifying it by drilling some attachment holes and devising some
sort of attachment method to the adjustment column. I have a an older
Delta (13" cast iron planer), so I'm looking at how to make the attachments
and allow for calibration.






+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

I googledg for 12in digital calipers, found one for under $50

Use a few Lee Valley magnets and the anti-skid pads and it works like
a champ on my Woodmaster. Had to use a few steel washers as spacers
to get things lined up, and I definitely don't have any slop

John

On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 20:10:59 -0700, Mark & Juanita
wrote:

On 21 Oct 2005 17:27:30 -0700, wrote:

... snip
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
... more snip

Bruce,

Thanks for the review; I've been weighing getting something like
this, your review was quite helpful, guess I'll look elsewhere.





+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The magnets are "Rare Earth type" and the anti-skid pads are
sand paper? Could describe your setup in a little more detail
or maybe send me a pic or two? I think I'm going to use a dial
caliper but I haven't started to try to hook one up yet. Thanks.

Bruce