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Product Reviews
Great planer, September 15, 2003
Reviewer: "mjtripper"
This is the first planer I have ever owned or used so I
don't have anything for comparison but I like it so far.
Out of the box you attach the hand crank and the dust
attachment and you are ready to go. There are two dust
attachments one to attach a 4" hose and another (diffuser
maybe?) for no hose attachment. The directions are pretty
well written and easy to follow. All the adjustments and
work on the unit can be done with the one included tool
that drops into a holder on the top. All the controls work
great and are easy to operate.
First let me say again this is the first time I have ever
used a planer so a lot (okay, probably all :) of the snipe
I got was user error. The more boards I put through the
less snipe I got. It took a little playing around with and
reading to learn the correct technique for moving stock
through so I did get snipe on the first bunch of passes on
stock, more frequently on the end of the boards then on
the front. Most of what I put through was between 3 and 6
inches wide and 2-5 feet long. I did put a couple wider
ones in just to see how it handled it. On a 14in long 11in
wide hard maple glue up I took off 1/16th per pass and got
no snipe or tearout. Then I put through a 10in wide 4ft
long oak board and did get snipe on the end but not the
start. I still think it's technique because it didn't do
it on every pass and when taking off 1/32 I didn't get it
at all. The folding tables aren't out yet, but they will
probably help even more. I'm pretty convinced once I get
the proper technique down I won't get snipe anymore. I'm
getting more and more snipe free boards.
I can't say anything bad about the surfaces. I have had
zero tearout and ultra smooth surfaces on everything I
have put in no matter what I do. The most I have taken off
is an 1/8in while only taking 1/32in on the longer boards.
Most of the time I had it set to 1/16in. Probably 50% at
1/16, 30% at 1/8, and 20% at 1/32. I put through a pretty
good mix of pine, red oak, hard maple, and ash with most
of it being red oak.
The crank turns easily and each turn is 1/16in. The depth
stop is easy to set and is for 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1, and
1 1/4. The removal scale is pretty nice as well, you put
the end of the board just under the edge and turn the
crank. A little pointer moves on a scale to tell you how
much will be taken off. It has a little chart built in
showing the max that can taken off based on board width,
which is nice for me because I didn't know. The thickness
scale is pretty big, easy to read, and easy to set. I only
ran it with my dust collector hooked up to the 4" port,
but it grabbed everything. After running all the wood
through, probably about 4 hours total use, there where 3
little wood chips beside the bed and that's all - the dust
collector had the rest. The thing I don't like about it is
the dust attachment is right in the center above the
outfeed so unless you angle the hose away to the side with
an elbow or suspend it somehow it gets in the way of the
stock coming out. But so far that is my only gripe. This
thing is really loud but I expected that, it's the loudest
tool I have. All the scales and settings where dead on
right out of the box. I do wish the folding tables came
bundled. Overall I'm one happy camper.
Okay, I finally got the folding tables. They are very easy
to assemble and align. Each corner of each table can be
adjusted for height. The attachment points are spring
loaded so they are also easy to take off and put back on.
They do help in supporting the work and seem very solid.
The front table folds up out of the way and stays there.
The rear table however is another story. Because the main
table and the back of the moter/blade assembly are pretty
much even and the pin to hold the table is set back the
rear table will never fold up and stay. When the depth of
cut is set around an inch and the cord is wrapped around
the cord holder the rear table won't flip up more then
around 20 degrees. In my opinion this is a major design
flaw, the main table needs to stick out at the rear by at
least an inch or two to allow the table to fold up.
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The reviews were right, this is a good planer, October 31,
2003
Reviewer: A. Morgan (Kennesaw,
My only two complaints are 1) the knives don't seem to
last very long and replacements are farily expensive for
how long they last. I ran about25 feed of soft maple
through the planer and it looked great, but then I started
seeing little ridges on the boards. I took the blades out
and looked at them to see if they are chipped, but they
looked fine. Reinstalled them and tried again, same
results. I turned the blades over (they are two sided
which is nice) and every thing looked great again. This
time I was very careful to make sure there wasn't anything
on the wood that could cause a problem, but again after
20-30 feet fo board, the little ridges started showing up
again. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to afford new
blades every 30 feet of boards. 2) The output chute is
slightly undersized for the 2 1/2 inch hose on my shop vac.
The manual doesn't recommend using a shop vac because it
fills up so fast, but that's all I have and I'd rather
empty it more often than have chips all over the floor. I
ended up breaking one of my hoses and jaming it into the
output chute and it worked fine, but it would have been
better if it had just fit right from the beginning. Not
too big of a deal because I don't use the planer that much
and I'm planning to upgrade to a dust collection system
soon.
By the way, changing the blades is as simple as it could
be. Everything is accessable and the supplied tool even
has a magnet in the handle to pick up the blade so you
don't get cut. Nice touch.
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no hype just facts, March 15, 2006
Reviewer: John Polta
Love the planer, hate the blades -- may cause a return of
the machine. The first board (soft maple)through the
machine came out with ridges -- obviously nicked blades.
An offset to one blade took care of the ridges and
everything was perfect. No snipe (in/out feed tables
attached), fine finish, good feed. Planed 4 4/4"x8"x100"
soft maple to 7/8" with no problem. Next morning called
dewalt and asked about the nicks. They immediately sent
out new blades. Following day planed more soft maple.
After 2 boards, the feed misbehaved (so I'm thinking --
blades can't possible be dull already, right?). Wrong. The
next board wouldn't feed at all after halfway in (1/32"
cut depth). I yanked it out only to find burn marks. Okay
I'm thinking bad blades due to the nicks and I reverse
them. Going perfect again, but on the 7th board the
problem repeats -- blades completely dull. I resharpened
and get another 6 boards out. Clearly this lot of blades
must be bad. I call dewalt and they are very nice,
claiming that this is unusual and ship out another set of
blades. By now I have the first set of replacement blades
and they are in and so far I have passed the approximately
200 linear foot mark that wiped out the edges on the old
blades. I emailed dewalt and got the following prompt,
courteous response:
"Hello John, and thanks for using DEWALT's on-line
support.
You should get around 6,000 to 9000 linear feet out of a
set of knives, if that helps you figure what you may be
getting. A lot of things can affect blade life. Depth of
cut, width of cut, wood type or hardness, moisture
content, knots, burl, cup, warp etc. all can affect the
life of your blades.
We do have the 90 day return policy if you are not
completely satisfied. Hope that answers your questions."
There is a disconnect somewhere -- I got a total of 400
linear feet out of one set of blades, a factor of >10!
I have also purchased 3rd party blades from Infinity
Cutting Tools. They claim harder HSS (probably more
Tungsten then M2 Steel). They also aver that the problem
with the blades is that they are only 1/16" thick. They
will not make the blades thicker because they stick to
whatever the original manufacturer designs -- this rules
out carbid tipped blades as they need 1/8" thickness. The
fact that Infinity makes these blades points to someone at
Infinity recognizing a market for people disappointed with
the dewalt blades and they get a premium.
The jury is still out for me. The clock is ticking on my
90 day return window and I have another 200 bd ft of soft
maple to plane. I'll try to report back. Approach a
purchase of this machine with caution.
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Poor blades bad roller function, March 7, 2006
Reviewer: James P. Pinette
My Second Planer. Very disappointed with the roller not
strong enough to pull lumber through. I have to pull and
tug. Qaulity of blades extremely poor and costly to
replace. Dewalt hear this! My last Dewalt tool if you
don't find some way to rectify this poor performing tool.
My problem for now is that I have to live with this as I
can't afford another for a while. Not very good testimony
to Dewalt quality and support.
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Can you rate an item less than 1 star? Do not buy this
thing!, March 6, 2006
Reviewer: Neal Shumway
Basically I should have read the reviews before getting
this. If I could give this thing 0 stars I would. I
replaced an older dewalt planer with the 735 and thought
it was a good price for the features. Well, I have planed
about 30 board feet of 4/4 cherry and if your boards
aren't perfectly flat to begin with you are done. I don't
mean twisted and warped, I mean 1/8th of inconsistency and
you are done. Instead of bogging down the motor, the
planer catches it and it kills the rollers. Have that
happen a couple times and you will wish the thing bursts
into flames. I'm sure I will be told I am using it wrong
but I know that is not the case. I have been very patient
with the thing but now I have given up. Going to get a new
planer, not Dewalt.
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Bad Machines;Bad Customer Service, February 23, 2006
Reviewer: Rick Savage
When I contacted the Dewalt Service Center about my
feed/blade problems, the manager in so many words called
me a liar. I told him to take a look at the review page at
Amazon.com and he would see that I wasn't the only person
having the problem. Apparently he did so and in a few days
called me and said to bring my planer in. He took my old
one and they shipped me a new machine. It's not any
better. I am disappointed with my machine and will be
replacing it soon. I shouldn't have to "push" or "pull" my
stock and replace my blades so often. The planer should
have the power to do it, like my old Makita. I sure wish I
had it back. With so many complaints of the same kind, you
would think a company like Dewalt would do something to
fix the problems.
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