Dewalt DW735 Planer for short hardwood boards?

[Steve Mathews]

There is a Dewalt DW735 Planer being offered locally for a decent price and I was thinking it might be a nice compliment to my Jet 20" Planer. The Jet works just OK on larger pieces of wood but I just acquired a good stock of short hardwoods that are perfect for small boxes, etc. and thought a smaller planer might work out better, especially if retrofitted with a spiral cutter head. It might even fit on top of the Jet to save some space. Is it worth the purchase? I hear mostly positive reviews on the Dewalt.

[Jim Morgan]

Honestly, it depends on the price.;) I've had mine for 10+ years, used mostly on short (down to about 10") hardwoods with straight knives, taking off 1/64" per pass. It's noisy and, relative to a planer like the Jet, slow, but it generally leaves an excellent surface, suitable for light sanding or scraping.

[Steve Mathews]

Honestly, it depends on the price.;) I've had mine for 10+ years, used mostly on short (down to about 10") hardwoods with straight knives, taking off 1/64" per pass. It's noisy and, relative to a planer like the Jet, slow, but it generally leaves an excellent surface, suitable for light sanding or scraping.

Some reviews of retrofitting this planer with spiral head cutter state that it leaves a 240 grit sanded surface. Do you think the retrofit cost (about $500) is worth the improved surface finish or are the straight blades finish good enough?

[Mark Wedel]

I think quality of the surface with new HSS non spiral blades and a carbide spiral cutterhead are about the same. But those HSS blades tend to degrade quickly - before I upgraded, I kept a couple extra sets around because they could quickly loose an edge or get nicked.

The carbide ones can also get nicked - but at least on those, you could rotate just the few cutters affected. The lifetime of the carbide cutters will likely pay for themselves over the very long term. But if you only plan to use the dewalt for the occasional use since you have another planer, you might not need to replace the HSS blades very often and be fine with them.

In your situation, I'd first but a replacement set of HSS blades (since who knows the conditions of the ones on a used planer) and see how they work out. That isn't that much of an expense (certainly a lot cheaper than upgrading to the spiral cutterhead)

[Mark Gibney]

I had a DeWalt for many years, but I restored a Powermatic 100 (12") and put a Byrd helical head in it. I didn't use the DeWalt for a year and so decided to sell it. I haven't missed it.

It did great work when I had it, and the set of straight knives it came with lasted an extraordinarily long time.
However, it was crazy loud too. The helical head has vastly reduced tear out on reversing grain. If you're making boxes what sort of grain will you be working with?

If you decide to just work with the Jet can you make a sled to hold several small pieces to go through the planer at one time?

All that said, if you do buy the DeWalt you might love it. And if you don't love it you can probably sell it for the same money you bought it for.

[William Hodge]

I have a 20' Powermatic planer and a Dewalt 735. I use the Dewalt as a finish planer, and the Powermatic as a roughing planer. The high speed steel knives in the DeWalt leave a perfect finish. I only run planed wood through it, and only remove 1/32" each side. No rough lumber, and the knives stay real sharp. I mostly Sapele.

[Andrew Hughes]

My suggestion is to get the 735 and use infinity Hss not the oem stuff. I have a pm 15hh but used to have a 735 with infinity carbide tipped blades. The 735 left a far better surface then my insert head. On everything ebony,figured maple ordinary domestics. Superbly sharp knives and very lite passes make a 735 a finish planer.
Im against a insert head in a 735 because it just wasn’t designed for the inserts and the xtra power needed for that type of scraping cut.
735 knives are indexed with pins on the head there’s not setting with jigs or dial indicators. A agreement many use to by insert heads in jointers because setting knives is too difficult.
If your interested I can post a easy fixture to sharpen all three 735 knives including carbide tipped one at the same time. Sharp wins every time with woodworking.
Im not going to post the jig without interest from contributing creekers. It very top secret privileged info. :)
Good Luck

[John Kananis]

I had my 735 about 15 or 20 years before I sprung for a floor model. I never got rid of it, still in the back room... just in case. Great planer, punches way above its pay grade but I would personally never put a helical head in it. It works wonderfully the way it was designed to run.

[Jimmy Harris]

Anytime I've experienced tearout with my DW735, I just take a smaller bite and it clears up. You can plane against the grain with the stock knives, provided they're sharp, if you're not trying to take off too much. My only complaints with it are the noise and knives don't last long. For me, they never last long enough to get close to dull. They get chips and leave tracks like crazy. But you can shift them and flip them, so you're not constantly replacing them.

I wouldn't mess with a helical head. It doesn't add anything in practice and risks overheating the motor.

Also, I don't know what benefit a smaller planer would add for you. I feel like snipe is more of an issue with that planer if you don't use sacrificial boards. And at that point, might as well use the big one and not mess with the added space it takes up or wasted money and time spent changing a second set of knives.

[Earl McLain]

It's been 8 years or so since i swapped my factory DW735 head for a Byrd. I'm overdue to rotate all the cutters for the first time. That said, i was changing the straight knives 3-4 times/year. Definitely a better finish on figured wood with the carbides. And, long term, it's proven to be a good economic move for me. Experience of others may vary.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I just have the stock planer and it has been fine for me. The stock blades are easily resharpened for less than a buck an inch and sand paper can easily smooth the finish.

[Robert Mayer]

The spiral cutterhead is 100x better than the straight knives. It took me about 3 hours to change it out. I havent even rotated the knives on mine yet and its had a lot of lumber run through it the last 3 years. It leaves a 220 grit finish. The cutterhead is also a lot quieter than the straight blades. I will never go back to straight knives again.

[George Yetka]

I would put time and money to making your jet work better than OK before adding a lunchbox planer.

[Rob Sack]

You might want to look into a Dispos-a-Blade system if you get the Dewalt. I installed it on my 12" jointer and it leaves a glass smooth finish. The replaceable knives are easy to change and last a long time. What used to take 2+ hours to change knives since my jointer didn't have jack screws, now takes minutes. Changing the cutter head to a Byrd or similar unit was just too expensive, not to mention requiring major disassembly of the machine.

[Richard Coers]

You can run shorter boards through any thickness planer if you butt each piece to the previous, or run them on a particle board sled. Certainly cheaper than a 2nd machine!

[Prashun Patel]

I don't think the width of the planer has much to do with it's ability to handle short stock. Anything under 12" is a challenge to run through any planer. I'd make a carrying sled for this purpose. Also, CA gluing the piece to the sled (using blue tape between each piece and the glue) is a safer way to prevent snipe or grabbing.

I had the DW735 for years. It's a great planer, but if I had the 20" I wouldn't be looking to get another. I do wish for a drum sander at times... That's a horse of a different color and very appropriate for smaller, thinner, daintier things.

[Steve Mathews]

The idea of using a sled for smaller boards honestly never occurred to me. I plan to give that a try before investing in another planer. Reducing or eliminating snipe on these small pieces would be a bonus.

And giving member Prashun added credit, the sled could also be used on my dual drum sander. I'm hoping the extra surface area on the sled will help carry the pieces through the machine instead of them stalling over a drum.