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


"Ellestad" wrote in message
...
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

"Ellestad" wrote in message
...
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



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.

"Ellestad" wrote in message
...
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


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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On Tue, 5 Sep 2006 12:42:45 -0500, "Ellestad"
wrote:
Does anyone have experience with the DW735 planer?

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

"Teamcasa" wrote in message
...


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

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.

On Tue, 5 Sep 2006 12:42:45 -0500, Ellestad wrote:
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?

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!

--
Art Greenberg
artg at eclipse dot net

In article , lid wrote:

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.

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.

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

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 12:30:26 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:

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?

--
Art Greenberg
artg at eclipse dot net

In article , lid wrote:
On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 12:30:26 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:

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?

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.

Or does that not matter very much?

I should think it matters a *lot*.

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

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:46:06 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:

Well, I use the planer-knife jig on my Tormek...

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.

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.

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 should think it matters a *lot*.

I couldn't think of why it would not. Thought maybe you knew something I
didn't.

--
Art Greenberg
artg at eclipse dot net

In article , lid wrote:
On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:46:06 GMT, Doug Miller wrote:

Well, I use the planer-knife jig on my Tormek...

Which I'm sure makes that job fast and fairly easy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 should think it matters a *lot*.

I couldn't think of why it would not. Thought maybe you knew something I
didn't.

Nope.

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

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.