DW735 dust collection

[Steve Baumgartner]

My DW735 had been throwing increasing amounts of chips and dust back onto the wood, out the back of the machine, and inside the machine, so I finally got serious and looked closely to figure out what was going on. It turned out that a small hole had developed in the back of the fan housing, right below where the outlet emerges. I took it apart and discovered that the molding of the plastic fan housing was mis-manufactured. There is a sort of tongue-and-groove seam that is supposed to connect the two halves of the housing. On my planer, the plastic hadn't filled the mold completely in that part so that the groove sort of faded out into a very thin outer wall with the inner shoulder completely missing. It amazes me that it lasted 6 years before this blew through!

I ordered a replacement housing and after installing it there is night and day difference in how much dust and chips escape! Thought I'd share this in case any other DW735 owners have the same problem. In my mind, this is defective materials, but alas, the warrantee doesn't go 6 years.

[Myk Rian]

I've seen where 2 others had the problem, but maybe not the solution.. I'll keep this in mind if it comes up again.

[Jim Finn]

This has happened to me, with this planer, more than twice when the discharge fan housing was damaged when a knot was torn out of cedar I was planing. I now keep a spare fan and housing on hand.

[Michael Heffernan]

I think it is common with this planer, but many folks aren't aware of it. With the plastic dust shroud, fan housing and fan blade, large chips or knot blow outs when planing can blow holes in the shroud or housing. Happened to me, after many years of heavy use. I replaced the shroud, housing and fan blade and it's back to normal. Sometimes it's hard to see the damage. Any little hole or crack can throw a lot of chips back into the planer and inside the upper case. Guess that's what you get with plastic materials. It's a good little planer for the money though.

[Earl McLain]

I've read of some heavy users of the DW735 just having that shroud wear away from friction over time. The chip ejector is powerful on that machine--a few times I've forgotten to turn on the DC and the ejector sent the chips through 20' of 4" hose, into the separator, lifted the lid and left a pile of chips against the back wall 15' farther away. I only had to clean it up twice before getting the habit of making sure the DC was running!!