Dewalt 735 Material Removal Gauge

[Jim Summers]

Hello All,

On the DW735 there is a material removal gauge. The manual says to put a piece of wood on the planer bed and lower the carriage down until the gauge reflects the amount of wood you want to remove. Then it says to pull the piece of wood out of the machine and begin planing.

How can you pull the piece out after you have cranked the carriage down? Are they thinking you will stop after each pass turn the machine off and check the gauge each pass? I don't get it??

With my old planer I simply got it to start removing material and then just did a half / quarter / full turn of the handle each pass.

Is the gauge some new high tech thing? Helps with snipe or something?

TIA

[Sonny Edmonds]

It's a rough estimate to me.
I use a digital caliper to check my stock. :)

[Jim Summers]

It's a rough estimate to me.
I use a digital caliper to check my stock. :)


Most definitely for the final dimension. This thing seems to be something that is used for the initial pass or something? I can't figure it. At this point I think I am going to just blow it off and do it my usual way.

If I get my roller stands set properly can I get by for a while without some extension wings? I need to run 60 bdft of cherry real soon. A table with flip up wings are in future plans.

[Brian D Anderson]

Let's see if I can explain this. The material removal gauge is the little red needle thing. You slide a board in, but only a little bit. I believe there is a spring loaded roller(?) that indicates where the cutters are going to be. You crank the height down until the removal gauge reads what you want (1/64th, 1/32 . . . etc). Then it's easy to pull the board out. Turn it on and run it through. From there I just keep rotating the handle (bringing the cutters down) a certain amount (1/8th of a turn or less).

Does that make any sense? Someone will explain it better than me.

-Brian

edit: after re-reading your post . . . I think the removal gauge is best used for the initial cut. It's probably not recommended but you can still use the gauge with the machine on. The board should hit the gauge spring before it contacts the first roller. So you can actually use it for each pass.

[Jim Summers]

Let's see if I can explain this. The material removal gauge is the little red needle thing. You slide a board in, but only a little bit. I believe there is a spring loaded roller(?) that indicates where the cutters are going to be. You crank the height down until the removal gauge reads what you want (1/64th, 1/32 . . . etc). Then it's easy to pull the board out. Turn it on and run it through. From there I just keep rotating the handle (bringing the cutters down) a certain amount (1/8th of a turn or less).

Does that make any sense? Someone will explain it better than me.

-Brian

edit: after re-reading your post . . . I think the removal gauge is best used for the initial cut. It's probably not recommended but you can still use the gauge with the machine on. The board should hit the gauge spring before it contacts the first roller. So you can actually use it for each pass.

Cool enough. I will work with it. Doesn't seem like it is overly crucial to operating this beast.

Thanks again

[Myk Rian]

I'll just put the board under the edge, crank down till the gauge moves up, and push the board in. I don't get why it would have to be taken out.

[Tom Esh]

Cool enough. I will work with it. Doesn't seem like it is overly crucial to operating this beast.
Thanks again

It's really most useful when setting the height for that crucial first pass. With rough stock that's only been face jointed on one side (and may still have high spots on the rough side) I usually check both ends and then back off a half turn and sneak up on it.

[Rick Thom]

It's really most useful when setting the height for that crucial first pass. With rough stock that's only been face jointed on one side (and may still have high spots on the rough side) I usually check both ends and then back off a half turn and sneak up on it.
Yup. Keeps you from unexpectedly hogging off to much in a single pass. I find it particularly useful when I'm looking for only light passes for figured wood to avoid grain tear-out. Of course the machine has settable turret thickness stops as well to prevent you from passing your objective thickness.

[jason lambert]

NOt to hijack the thread but what is the round knob for on the left side labled 1" 1 1/4" 3/4" etc.

[David Cramer]

I believe you are describing the different automatic thickness setttings that come with the machine. I'm not in my shop currently, so I'm not looking at my machine.

When you turn the knob to one of those settings, you then cannot turn the handle "lower/below" that thickness level. I hope I explained that correctly Jason.

David

[Roger Warford]

Brian's got it right. If you can't pull the board out after you lowered the planer head, you stuck the board in too far. Stop the board just short of the first roller. You can actually lower the planer to about the right height, then slide the board in and the needle will rise to indicate the cutting depth (assuming you haven't lowered it so far that the board won't slide in, or left it so high that the guage doesn't engage:)). Make sure your board is flat on the infeed table.

It does help confirm that you won't be taking off more than you intended, especially useful if you are planing a bunch of boards that might not all be the same initial thickness. Just make sure you check the thickest end. You might just find a very uneven board jams half way through if you guaged the thin side (DAMHIKT!:rolleyes:).

The guage doesn't seem very accurate to me. Perhaps I missed some adjustment somewhere.

[Roger Warford]

NOt to hijack the thread but what is the round knob for on the left side labled 1" 1 1/4" 3/4" etc.


When you turn the knob to one of those settings, you then cannot turn the handle "lower/below" that thickness level. I hope I explained that correctly Jason.

Yep. The intent is to make it easy to plane several boards to the same thickness, and to prevent you from making a board thinner than you had planned. Starting with the head set high enough to begin planing a thick board, set the dial to the desired thickness (e.g., 1/2"), then crank the dial down making light passes. The dial will prevent you from overshooting (undershooting?) your desired thickness.

[Art Mulder]

From there I just keep rotating the handle (bringing the cutters down) a certain amount (1/8th of a turn or less).


1/8 of a turn or less? :confused::confused::confused: On a DW735 planer? :confused:
Am I misunderstanding you?

When I plane on my DW735, I usually turn the large knob on the right about a either a half-turn or a 1/3 turn at a time, depending on the stock. I might drop back to a 1/4 turn as I near the end for the "finishing" cut.

But even so, a 1/4 turn hardly takes any stock off. I can't imagine planing wood with only taking 1/8turn at a time.

very puzzled,
...art

[Tom Esh]

...I can't imagine planing wood with only taking 1/8turn at a time.
...art

Imagine highly figured curly maple. Now imagine your frustration when 1/4 turn produces a 1/16 or deeper tearout.;)
Sharp knives and using the slow feed speed help, but some materials just won't let you hog off much.

[Jonathan Spool]

Jim,
Regarding your concern for the infeed and outfeed tables. Until I got mine, I just laid a 4' piece of 3/4 mdf in the planer with a thin wedge on the side to keep it from siding with the stock. I'd use my roller stands to support it when running heavier stock. No snipe! Now I have the infeed/outfeed tables, but the long mdf table worked better!