DW 735 Planer for Pine ?

[Marc Jeske]

Hey Folks - New here, second post.

I'll go and fill out profile a bit tonight.

Considering a DW 735, almost exclusive use will be 1" SYP already S4S from local lumberyard when I buy them, just to clean them up even better, get rid of factory ripple, etc.

And occasionally small quantity to thin down to 5/8" or even 1/2".

My lumber will have tight knots.

My pieces will be up to 8' long. Usually 6" or 8" wide.

The wood may not be super dry, maybe high as 14% I think.

Need to buy a meter, then go to the yard.

I did Advanced search and have read most of the DW 735 posts, will finish tonight.

I've read about the extension tables need, no problem. Would do that anyway. Don't want to be chasing boards before they hit floor.

Anything to be aware of peculiar to pine ?

Resin loading problems?

Knife damage from knots ?

Any ballpark wild estimate how much it will do till blades need service?


Lastly - A totally different use, would be less than 100 lin ft of already S4S Oak , probably 12% or dryer 2" x 12" x12', with a good sturdy and long in and out roller tables.

Any trouble there?

Thank you all... EXCELLENT Forum.

Marc

[Grant Wilkinson]

My 735 sees pretty much everything. On the pine, you may find that the knots nick the blades. The stock blades are not very durable. You can stagger them a very little bit to offset nicks. The biggest issue that I have with this planer is that the knives are considered expendable. They are not to be sharpened according to dewalt. However, I cheat. The spec is that the blades cannot be less than x" wide. I forget exactly what that is, but you can look it up. So, I take light passes on mine with a belt sharpener to get a bit more life out of them. Honing gets me a bit more.

You don't say how much of the pine you are planing. If you are in a commercial situation, you may want to consider a planer with a helix head. Many have replaced the head on a 735 with a helix head, but for me it is just not cost effective. The head costs almost as much as the planer. Plus, according to Dewalt, swapping out the head kills the warranty, so waiting until the warranty has expired anyway may be a good idea. The helix heads make the motor work harder.

[Larry Frank]

I have the DeWalt 735 and love it. I put a set of Infinity knives in it and they work well. I often clean up 2x4 and 2x6 pine with no problems. I do cut out any large or loose knots. I just finished running a 100 bf of oak and ash through it with great results.

For heavier work i use a 15" Jet planer.

I agree that for many situations a helix head is just not cost effective.

[Jon Grider]

SYP is very hard, particularly the knots. You may find your knives dull quickly, so it would be a good thing to have an extra set handy.

[Marc Jeske]

I glanced at the Jet, and see it's almost roughly 4 x the $, and still plain blades, helix ballpark $700 more.

Myself, right or wrong, If I was gonna spend 2k, I would try to get mid century Old Iron.

Ya, I've seen the Byrd head online.

Quantity I will be running- I would estimate 1500 face sq ft in first six months.

If my part time idea takes off, I then would consider a "better" machine.

So, experienced guestimate, how much stock will one set of blades do?

Will they last me that first 6 months? Marc

[Andrew Hughes]

Not very long if the pitch is set and the knots are hard.If Syp is anything like the white pine you will have lots of maintenance cleaning.
The good part your shop or work area is going to smell great.:)

[Jon Grider]

I glanced at the Jet, and see it's almost roughly 4 x the $, and still plain blades, helix ballpark $700 more.

Myself, right or wrong, If I was gonna spend 2k, I would try to get mid century Old Iron.

Ya, I've seen the Byrd head online.

Quantity I will be running- I would estimate 1500 face sq ft in first six months.

If my part time idea takes off, I then would consider a "better" machine.

So, experienced guestimate, how much stock will one set of blades do?

Will they last me that first 6 months? Marc



The blades on the 735 are reversible, one of the nicer features on this machine. 1500 BF ? Hard to tell, a lot will depend on the number and the size of the knots. The fact that the lumber is at 14% MC may help the knives stay sharp a bit longer. The knives are about $50.00 for oem's, which is not all that bad for two cutting surfaces. Of course there are better ones out there, Infinity and Holbren come to mind. I think I would have an extra set on hand and be ready to order another set if needed.

[Keith Outten]

My experience is that pine is one of the the worst wood species you can ever put in a joiner or planer. I have been sharpening my own planer blades for twenty years and in that time I found that pine destroys the edge of my planer blades quickly. Start with a perfectly sharp blade and after an hour, if you look at the blade edge with a magnifier you can see that the edge is ragged, not necessarily dull but the edge is breaking down from a combination of the the heat and the high resin content.

Consequently I haven't planed or jointed pine in many years, I rarely ever allow it in my shop and i never use pine for projects other than framing.

[Randy Heinemann]

I would agree that you will probably use 2 to 3 sets of 735 planer blades. Some places sell a 2-pack (6 blades) of the OEM Dewalt blades for $90. A look online might get the cost down to $40 per set. While I've never tried the Infinity blades, they get good reviews for longevity. How many times you replace the blades depends, to some degree, what you plan on doing with the finished wood and whether you are willing to sand the ridges from chipped blades off. I found that the ridges can usually be easily removed through sanding or a little hand planing.

I also would agree that you will likely be doing a lot of cleanup to get rid of pitch and sap buildup on the blades and rollers; possibly other parts exposed to the wood during planing.

The oak shouldn't be a problem.

With the Dewalt 735 you will need to be careful that all knots are truly tight. Several years ago I hit a knot that didn't seem loose but was. A knot chunk got thrown through the blades of the impeller that throws the chips and dust out the dust port. The result was a broken impeller blade as they are plastic. Not a big deal to replace, but time to receive the part and the expense involved.

Do some projections of blade replacement cost with various amounts of feet you can get from one set over the 1500 feet to determine if it might be worth it just to get a different planer with or without a helical head. I recently saw a Rikon planer with helical heads for about $600. This is not a great planer, I'm sure, but it might do what you want for this type of work and deal with the issue of frequent replacement of blades. I have not researched reviews of this planer so I don't know what the expected results are. To be clear, this is not a recommendation; merely a suggestion of another alternative. Again, for the price, I would guess it's not a great planer and the number of carbide inserts is probably less than a more expensive planer. Since I didn't see anything indicating what you were doing with the wood, the result might be acceptable for your purposes.

[Charles Lent]

I have a DeWalt 735 and I am very pleased with the quality of board surface that it leaves. I have planned many different kinds of wood, including pine, and even TREX with it. The result has been much better than my former Delta lunchbox planer, but I have never planed 1500 bf of any one kind of wood. You will need to clean it up after several hours of use no matter what wood you run through it. I am on my second set of reversible DeWalt blades and have another spare set. Then I'm going to try the Infinity blades in it. Blade life will vary a lot, depending on what you run through it. Snipe is almost non existent if your in and out feed tables are adjusted right. For 8-12' boards, you should have some roller stands set the same height as your in and out feed tables at about 6' distance from the planer on both ends.

I have my 735 mounted to a miter saw / planer stand. It's a Delta, but it's the same as this one from DeWalt https://www.lowes.com/pd/DEWALT-Rolling-Universal-Miter-Saw-Stand/50030592?cm_mmc=SCE_BINGPLA_ONLY-_-ToolsAndHardware-_-SosHandHeldPowerTools-_-50030592:DEWALT&CAWELAID=&kpid=50030592&CAGPSPN=pla{ifdyn:dyn} My shop is small and I do all of my planing in the driveway. With the planer on this stand the combination stands up on end like a hand truck in the shop, taking very little space inside. It rolls out into the driveway and then lifts into position easily (has gas springs in the stand help with the lifting). Then it folds just as easily and rolls back into my shop. I have bad knees and cannot carry the 735 any distance by the handles, but I can easily move it around and set it up when it's on this stand. Since the stand's mounting rails are spaced for a miter saw, you will have to make a plywood adapter to go between the stand and the planer. I used a piece of 3/4 cabinet birch plywood and drilled mounting holes in it for both the 735 and the stand's rails, then bolted everything together. I did this about 8 years ago and the combination has worked perfectly together. For the chip collection, I have the DeWalt hose/fabric barrel cover, which has worked very well (if the cover stays on the barrel). I understand that this option no longer available, but Black and Decker makes a very similar looking accessory for a hand held leaf vacuum that I think will work. It may even be the same since both are made by the same parent company. If you want a barrel attachment chip collector for your 735, you should look at this B&D product as a good possibility, but I haven't actually tried it

Charley

[Nick Decker]

I almost bought the Dewalt planer stand a while back, to mount my 10-20 drum sander on. Found the Delta stand for less money on Amazon, and yes, it's identical to the one with the Dewalt decal on it.

[Marc Jeske]

Just wanted to note what I said above - "Quantity I will be running- I would estimate 1500 face sq ft in first six months."

Not sure if that was the correct way to say it, but I used the word "Face", not "Board" feet , cause the planer deals w surface area, not volume of course.

So, cause I'm doin both sides, on about 750 board ft of 1" stock, I doubled to get Face ft.

Si ? Marc

[Andrew Hughes]

I totally understand what your thinking.Your going to buy wood from a lumber yard that's been planed and straight line ripped.Bring it home and pass it thru a new bench top planer.
Hopefully it will do a better job then the lumber yards planer.
Good Luck

[Bill Dindner]

If it's anything like Doug Fir you should be fine, I've ran about 800 BF of various wood on my DW735, mainly Doug Fir, still on my first Blade

[Ryan J Carpenter]

I was recently considering this planer for hobby shop work and ended up going with the Grizzly G0815. It takes up slightly more space than the Dewalt but for a few hundred bucks you can get an induction motor and resharpenable knives. With the rubber out feed roller, surface quality is great ( most of my stock is also S4S and it cleans it up well). Ultimately it was a vessel for a Byrd head as I did not want to invest that kind of money on the head and have a universal motor.

[Paul K. Johnson]

I've had no significant issues with mine and it's mostly seen a whole lot of pine.

Two things though. First, I thought my knives were all chipped up and I replaced them with a second set I had. When I looked at the ones I took out there wasn't any chipping. There was just a bunch of tar and wood bits adhered to the back of the blade.

The second thing is that every once in a while a knot comes loose inside the machine. It makes quite a racket and you're sure your machine is going to need some replacement parts. That's happened to me several times and so far I haven't found any damage.

It's very loud and your dust collector needs to be able to keep up with the exhaust or be attached very solidly. Otherwise it will blow the hose right off.

[John Connelly]

Having worked in a shop that went through several of these 735's, planing thousands of feet of clear sugar pine, there are a couple of things to be aware of. First of all, the pitch from the pine will stick to everything. Plan on having to clean the rubber feed rollers frequently and clean and wax the bed often. Second, the dust collection used must be up to the task. The planer's internal dust collection struggles with wide boards, leaving a layer of dust and chips on the board which will find themselves stuck to the outfeed roller and then the infeed roller or the bed on the second pass through. The dust outlet works best if it see's no restrictions such as flex hose or tight elbows in the first couple of feet. A large collector is a must, no shop vacs. The last concern are the knots. The material we ran was clear with the occasional pin knot or pitch pocket. They would almost always leave a nick on a knife. Large knots will cause premature dulling of the knives. Dull knives will create more dust than chips and the pitch laden dust will stick to everything (including the cutter head, knives and dust collector impeller). Plan on a lot of down time for cleaning and knife changes. The planer is certainly up to the task if you keep in mind the pitch and dust concerns. I still use a 735 in my shop although it is in a "pine free zone".

[Dan Hahr]

A couple things... I have the 735 and a Delta 15" machine. The 735 is hands down the best small planer I in that price range. Mileage on the blades is purely subjective though. It all depends on what you put through it and how you do it. The slightest bit of sand on the end of a board and your blades are nicked or dulled. In fact, after the first couple of feet you will probably see nicks appear, definitely after the first knot. But longevity just depends on what is acceptable to you. The knives will plane very well for a while with several nicks, but you will have to deal with the ridges. I have planed 14' 2x6s in mine with no issues, as well as thousands of board feet of everything from cedar to maple to kempas. (Don't plane kempas; trust me...)

Dan

[Marc Jeske]

After studying all replies, I've decided to use a better grade of SYP w no knots.

I did not need the knots aesthetically,although they were acceptable for this project, clear is even better for what I need to do.

Just originally wanted to keep costs down was the idea.

And getting a MC meter.

I expect to still have the pitch accumulation / cleaning issues.

And understand importance of clean stock, NO sand, etc.

So I think I'm good for now.

Thank you all for your help. Marc