DeWalt 735 Planer bed scratches.

[Barrett Sammons]

Hello everyone. First post here but many more to come. I have been having issues with the DeWalt 735 planers and wanted to see if this is happening to anyone else.

I I purchased a 735 from Lowes on Halloween. I brought it home and after I unpacked it and cleaned the bed, I found it had a lot of scratches on it. Not light scratches but ones that will stop your fingernail when you run over it. I took it back and opened another one in the store and tried to check it out but there was grease/gunk on the bed and I was laying down trying to look at it before I took it home. It didn't appear to be bad so I brought it home.

When I cleaned it off at home, I was able to see more scratches on the bed under the rollers and cutter heads. I thought this might be a known issue so I called DeWalt the next business day. They said there should be no scratches and told me how it was packaged from the factory which wasn't how I received either of them.

I complained to the store and they decided to order me another and upgrade it to the 735x. It came in so I went to pick it up and when I cleaned up the bed it had scratches on it as well. They're not as many on this one with a couple ones running north to south on the front right of the bed (which have been on all three of them) and one right in the center under the rollers/cutter head that is circular and makes your fingernail hang up when you run it over. I was pretty mad about this but wanted to see what others have experienced.

I bought the planer to mill rough lumber so I'm worried about this scratch causing the board to hang up and impairing the planing action. I've looked at a few used ones before and they only had small scratches that you could barely feel. I'm tired of dealing with this and wanted to get some feed back on what others would do. Am I being too picky? Should I just return this and look at another model? Order from Amazon instead?

thank you in advance.

[Mike Henderson]

I agree that it shouldn't be that way. But if the planer is okay otherwise, I'd lightly sand the scratches and go with it. There's no telling whether another unit you find won't have problems - either the same or other problems. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.

Mike

[Bruce Page]

Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know I love that analogy.

I agree. I would not worry too much about the cosmetics if the planner functions as it should.
The DW735X is a great planner.

[Jack Lemley]

Run a couple hundred board feet of rough lumber threough the planer and the original scratches will me magically camouflaged with many new scratches ;-) I love my 735 w/Byrd Head.

Jack

[Sam Puhalovich]

I bought my 735 from a guy who had used it to plane rough oak for cabin flooring.
I was majorly disappointed with the condition of the stainless steel bed ... and a replacement was a lot more then I wanted to spend.
I smoothed-out the 'raised' edges with a diamond stone ... applied 3 coats of wax ... and it became a non-issue.

[Barrett Sammons]

I agree that it shouldn't be that way. But if the planer is okay otherwise, I'd lightly sand the scratches and go with it. There's no telling whether another unit you find won't have problems - either the same or other problems. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.

Mike

That's a good point. I haven't run anything through it yet since I have noticed these straight away. I am not sure lightly sanding will do much since they are pretty deep, which is why I was worried about the rough wood getting caught in the scratch under the cutterhead. This isn't really a little surface scratch. It looks like a scratch was shot with a BB as there is a circular indent along with a scratch. I'll see if I can get a picture later. I let the retailer know it was messed up but haven't heard back. I'll try and run some wood through as well and see if there are any issues in that area when it comes out.

Thanks to everyone else as well.

[Prashun Patel]

The fact that multiple packages are showing this 'defect' should tell us that it's a flaw in the design of the unit, not the mis-use of a particular unit.

Even if you get a mint condition unit, you'll probably end up scratching the bed as soon as you use it.

Mine has been scratched and it hasn't really caused an issue; I've always planned on sanding after anyway.

Keep your blades sharp and nick-free, use good dust collection, and wax the bed and you'll get good service out of that unit.

[Mike Gresham]

If your latest 735 was new-in-box when you got it, I would call Dewalt back and let them know they have a problem. It may be that they will send you a new bed.

If you chose to sand the scratches out, you don't have to completely eradicate them. They only need to be smooth enough to not catch or mar the wood.

From what you've said, it sounds as though you think what I thought when I bought my 735 years ago. That I could run a piece of rough lumber through the planer, flip it over and plane the other side and it is ready to go. It didn't work out that way. If you run a piece of distorted (cup, curl or whatever) wood in, that is what you get out only smooth (more or less). That was when I found out what a jointer was for. Granted, you can mitigate that with sleds or jigs of some sort, but then you will have the smooth surface of the sled or jig on the bed.

[Myk Rian]

I don't agree with sanding. Why would anyone do that?

[Barrett Sammons]

If your latest 735 was new-in-box when you got it, I would call Dewalt back and let them know they have a problem. It may be that they will send you a new bed.

If you chose to sand the scratches out, you don't have to completely eradicate them. They only need to be smooth enough to not catch or mar the wood.

From what you've said, it sounds as though you think what I thought when I bought my 735 years ago. That I could run a piece of rough lumber through the planer, flip it over and plane the other side and it is ready to go. It didn't work out that way. If you run a piece of distorted (cup, curl or whatever) wood in, that is what you get out only smooth (more or less). That was when I found out what a jointer was for. Granted, you can mitigate that with sleds or jigs of some sort, but then you will have the smooth surface of the sled or jig on the bed.


Good point. The face on the planer would be flat and not rough since it will be jointed first. This may be a non-issue. I'll check this out later.

[Prashun Patel]

Myk, Your planer produces ready-to-finish results?
Not even my new spiral cutter head produces ready-to-finish results.

[glenn bradley]

Myk, Your planer produces ready-to-finish results?
Not even my new spiral cutter head produces ready-to-finish results.

I have found that "ready to finish" is as variable as any other aspect of our craft; flat, aligned, sharp, etc.

[Al Launier]

I agree with most of the others, but before you "modify" the planer bed, you might want to contact the Lowes store manager to see if they would still honor their money-back guarantee if you remove the scratches & for how long.

[Val Kosmider]

Now you made me go check.

I was just posting about using my DeWalt 735 this weekend for a couple hundred feet of oak. Checking the in-feed, and out-feed tables, there are no significant scratches in in. The bed under the knives is smooth as well.

I have probably run a couple thousand feet of hard wood through the planer: Oak, Cherry, Poplar, and Hickory. There are no significant scratches, and certainly nothing which would require "sanding". I do wax the tables every once in a while, and because of the width/size(lots of 8/4)/weight of the planks which I run through there I need to wipe down the feeder roller with lacquer thinner about every time I use it.

Me thinks if you have gouges in need of sanding you have a factory issue which DeWalt should address. Can't imagine how that would happen, or pass through quality control, but anything is possible I guess.

[Myk Rian]

Myk, Your planer produces ready-to-finish results?
Not even my new spiral cutter head produces ready-to-finish results.


I have found that "ready to finish" is as variable as any other aspect of our craft; flat, aligned, sharp, etc.

It was mentioned to sand the planer bed, not the wood coming out of it.

[Prashun Patel]

Whoops, sorry, Myk. I never sanded my bed either.

[Doug Garson]

For what its worth I have a Ridged 13" planer which has seen moderate use and the bed is as smooth as a babies bottom.

[Brad Adams]

I think we need to see actual pics of the scratches before we come to any conclusions. Show us the pictures.

[Barrett Sammons]

I think we need to see actual pics of the scratches before we come to any conclusions. Show us the pictures.

I'll do my best. They didn't come out that great


This is the bottom right corner.
. 325407

This is the middle of the bed. Hard to get a good photo. This is deeper than the corner scratches.
325408

[Martin Wasner]

Myk, Your planer produces ready-to-finish results?
Not even my new spiral cutter head produces ready-to-finish results.

My $40,000 widebelt doesn't do that either. lol

[Brad Adams]

I don't think I would be worries about those little marks. Most of that could be rubbed out with a little auto polish. The one in the middle isn't going to cause a bit of a problem. Quit thinking about it and get to using that baby!

[Myk Rian]

My $40,000 widebelt doesn't do that either. lol
Read the thread again.

[Barrett Sammons]

I don't think I would be worries about those little marks. Most of that could be rubbed out with a little auto polish. The one in the middle isn't going to cause a bit of a problem. Quit thinking about it and get to using that baby!

The pics don't really show the scratches well. The ones in the corner don't matter all that much since there is no pressure on the board there. The one under the cutterhead is where my concern is. It was also hard to photograph since it is dead center under the machine. I ran a 3" wide board down it with my hand and it hangs up enough that I have to increase the pressure to get it through. I don't know how this will translate when the rollers are pressing down as I am waiting to hear back from DeWalt so I am going to hold off on running any boards through under power but I should hear back from them before I get home this evening.

The pit is pretty deep so I am not sure how much sanding will help unless I fill it in with something first and then sand flat. It is also hard to access that area to work on it. In order to get in there, I would really need to take the base off. But if I'm already doing that, I feel DeWalt should just send me a new bed as that would be the easiest thing provided none of that voids my warranty. And warranty is a concern I have. My worry is that if something happens two years down the road and I send it to them, they could look at the scratches and deny my warranty. I've looked at a few used 735s before I decided to buy new and while all of them had scratches, none of them (except the one where the guy planed a ton of reclaimed wood with nails left in it) had these kinds of scratches.

I don't even know how the middle one would have occurred. It looks like it was done from above but I can't find anything above it that would cause this to happen.

If they put a small piece of Styrofoam down over the bed and lowered the top to meet it, this would all be prevented.

Thank you to everyone who responded. The replies have been very helpful. I should hear back from DeWalt today and hopefully this will be resolved soon.