Dewalt planer maintenance problem

[Dan Friedrichs]

I have a DW733 planer with a Wixey DRO on it. I noticed that when running boards through, the measurement on the Wixey increases by about 0.02" as the board passes through. Once the board is through, I can release the head lock, and the cutter unit noticably moves downward, and the Wixey display goes back to the original value.

Somehow, the cutter unit is moving "up". By wedging a board between the table and cutter unit (powered off), I could easily move the unit up and down a little bit.

I think I determined the problem to be in the threaded rods that raise and lower the planer. They have a groove cut in them which rests in a piece of metal which is screwed to the chassis. This allows the threaded rods to turn, but not move in the vertical direction. On my planer (which is WELL used), the slot in the rod has clearly worn against the piece of metal enough that it is nearly twice as wide as it should be.

I think I can fix this by replacing both threaded rods with new ones.

Questions:
1) Has anyone else had this problem?
2) What do you think about that design? It seems like the rod rubbing against the piece of metal would be bound to create this problem.
3) Since I'm ordering parts, is there anything else that should be replaced/inspected?

[Barry Wixey]

Dan;

I don't usually have a ton of time to get involved in discussions but I just could not resist this one. Especially since you are using our readout on a Dewalt machine that I happen to have had intimate involvement with when I worked at Dewalt.

The main problem seems to me that the head lock is not holding. Even with the slot in the threaded shaft sloppy the head lock should hold the head in place when you run a board through there. I would take a look at any worn parts in that assemble and replace them or at least clean the four corner posts and the the little wrap around brake straps to make sure they grab tight.

You should be able to minimize the head movement with new threaded rods and plates but you will still have maybe .005" unless the head lock holds. (By the way, knowing that heads do move on portable planers is why the resolution on our readout is .005" instead of .001".)

I have the exact same planer and (surprise!) a Wixey planer readout on it and my display does not change when I run a board through. This is probably due to the small amount of material I have actually run through it.

Good luck.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Thank you for the reply, Mr. Wixey. I agree that the head lock is not holding tightly enough, as well. I will see how economical it would be to replace most of that mechanism.

(This planer is REALLY beat up - the previous owner used it to clean up reclaimed barn boards, and it just looks like it's been through years of being fed rocks and nails. Certainly a testament to the quality of the rest of the parts that it still runs as well as it does.)