Funny Stu should mention the incline of the extension wings on the DW735. I
recently attended "lecture" on planers at a WWshow in VA and the speaker
suggested the inclination of the extension wings (towards the cutter heads)
on all brands of planers. Oddly enough, it has eliminated any snipe I had
with the DW735. Once corrected, the Dewalt unit seems to perform almost
perfectly. Since getting the planer, I have always connected it via a 4"
hose to a 2hp DC unit, so I've never had problems with chips clinging to the
feed rollers, but I suppose this could be a problem if one depends on the
planers internal fan to evacuate the chips.
As for the Jet 6" jointer, I bought a used one off of ebay a year ago for
$325 and it too works well. I was required to clean some surface rust off
the unpainted areas and get a second set of knives, but the units does
accurate face planing and jointing as well as any other machine I used. I
suspect that a jointer with a longer (and wider bed) would be even better,
but everyone has his or her budgetary limits.
In short, the DW735 and Jet jointer work well for me.
"Electric Stu" wrote in message
nk.net...
I have the DW735 as well and am very satisfied with it. For the money,
it is a great machine. I was able to turn in some credit card points
for a $500 Home Depot gift card, which I used to buy the planer (and
which helped me clinch my decision to buy it). From another gift card I
had from Xmas, I bought the mobile base, the extension wings, and the
dust chute mechanism, all of which are great accessories. The mobile
base is solid, and helps if you have limited space. While I had minimal
snipe initially (with some practice), the extension wings (properly
positioned on a very slight angle towards the main table) have
essentially eliminated snipe, which is fairly amazing considering there
is no planer head lock. I don't have a bona fide dust collecting system
yet, so I bought the dust chute, which fits well around a 44 gallon
Rubbermaid Brute waste can quite well; I don't have any loose dust from
or clogging of the machine. The blades are not sharpenable, but are
reversible, and are indexed so there is no alignment necessary. One oft
heard complaint is the short life (and high replacement cost) of the
blades, but I've run several hundred (square) feet of oak, maple,
wenge, and bubinga and I'm still on the first side (though ready to
flip them). I also had occasion to speak with Dewalt technical support
to ask a few questions about the unit and they were extremely
knowledable and helpful (with very short wait times to answer the
phone). There was an issue with bad gear sprockets over a year ago,
which have since been resolved.
I am in the process of selecting a jointer, so I can't help you from
personal experience. I was going to buy the PM 54A, but decided to save
up a bit longer for an 8" jointer. I'm thinking about the DJ-20, but I
want to hear some feedback about the new PM PJ882 8" parallelogram way
jointer (a bit cheaper on Amazon.com). Grizzly has an 8" spiral cutting
head jointer G0543, which has had some recent positive reviews.
Hope this helps,
Stu
In article , Steve wrote:
I've had a DeWalt DW735 for almost a year. Excellent machine. I've
planed a lots of quilted, birdseye, and fiddleback maple, walnut, alder,
various rosewoods, some figured koa, and some mahogany with excellent
results. I run it at the lower feed rate. That lower feed rate (192
cuts per inch) is the primary reason I chose this model, since I deal
with a lot of figured wood, and I've had zero problems with tear-out.
I'm still on the first set of edges on the first set of blades, but it's
about time to turn 'em around & use the second edge.
--Steve
Matt wrote:
Here goes, my first post...
I'm in the market for a jointer and a planer.
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