Infinity blades in DW735

[Richard Ferment]

I have now used Infinity blades in the DW735. I can only comment on my own experience. I am makeing two art & crafts night stands, and two art & crafts chest on chest with QS white oak primary soft maple secondary, and poplar for the drawers.
I started by cleaning the rollers waxing the tables and of course changing blades. First problem! The holes in the blades for the index pins are a bit undersized.Since they do not drop down flat on cutterhead, putting the blade holding plate is a little tricky. After all the screws are tightend you can pull the blade flat to the cutterhead however to change the blade again you have to pry the blade off the cutterhead. Next. The blades are a bit wider than the DW blades. On mine ,depth guage thrown off by 1/32. Next. The little lines that appear after a few board feet are there again.
I personaly see no advantage with Infinity blades.

[glenn bradley]

Hopefully the benefit will be longevity. I hope you'll report back after a few months. Thanks for the post.

[Gary Keedwell]

Hopefully the benefit will be longevity. I hope you'll report back after a few months. Thanks for the post.
Glenn took the words from my mouth. Please post back in the future because there are a bunch of woodworkers, myself included, that really want to get to the bottom of this issue.:)
Gary K.

[Bruce Benjamin]

This is certainly disappointing to hear. This is the first, (reasonable) negative thing I've heard about Infinity, ever. I have the 735 along with 2 extra sets of knives that I got for free. I haven't had the longevity problems others have reported with their knives but longer life is better, right? So I was planning to buy the Infinity set when I needed them. Have you talked to Infinity about this yet? David V. is really easy to talk to and I'd be very interested to hear what he has to say about this.

Bruce

[Lloyd McKinlay]

longer than the DeWalt blades. Yes, I get the same lines but they sand out pretty easily. The installation was very tight on the pins but not a problem. Depth gauge is easy enough to to adjust but I since I'm using 7/8's on my current project I haven't looks at the pre-set stops.

So far I think they are a better blade. I'll know more after I process the last batch of wood.

[jonathan snyder]

Hi folks,

So far so good. I put a set of infinity knives in a while back. One pin hole on one of the knives was a bit under-size, but not a problem. The others were fine. I have not checked the depth gage setting. I'll have to do that. I have only run a couple of feet of birch and walnut through. I will also report back after I use them a bit more.

Jonathan

[Dave Falkenstein]

I too am disappointed to hear of some indexing issues with the Infinity blades. Has anyone had enough experience to report on the newer (replacement) Dewalt 735 knives??? Perhaps the new Dewalt knives resolve the short life problem???

[Bruce Benjamin]

According to the email I received from Dewalt customer support, there are no new blades available. "Hello Bruce, and thanks for using DEWALT's on-line support.
I am not aware of any new blades coming any time soon but it would be possible down the road since I know the engineers and product managers are looking into blade life." I know another poster said he received a set and I can't explain that. Either the CSR he dealt with was just trying to keep him happy by telling him the set they sent was, "New and improved" or the CSR I was dealing with didn't know what he was talking about. They sent me a new set when I inquired about new blades but the packaging is identical to the spare set I already have. It seems more likely to me that there aren't really any, "Improved" blades available and they were just trying to keep the previous poster happy by telling him what he wanted to hear but I easily could be wrong about that. It could also be that they didn't want to give me a new set and wanted to get rid of their obsolete sets. :confused: Either way, I haven't been especially dissatisfied with the original set as I'm still on side two of my original set. They are due for a change though. I don't use them in a production shop and I only use them for hobby use, mostly on oak and Douglas fir.

Bruce




I too am disappointed to hear of some indexing issues with the Infinity blades. Has anyone had enough experience to report on the newer (replacement) Dewalt 735 knives??? Perhaps the new Dewalt knives resolve the short life problem???

[John Brennaman]

I also have the DW735 and am very dissatisfied with the blades that came with the planer. I have sent 3 emails to DeWalt through their Web site and after a couple of weeks I have not gotten a single reply. I would love to hear from anyone who has had a long-term positive experience with either the “New DeWalt Blades” or the ones from Infinity. I will look long and hard at DeWalt's competition the next time I purchase any power tools.

[jonathan snyder]

Hi Folks,

I posted a while back that the DeWalt CSR said they were coming out with a new knife. I don't have the e-mail from them anymore, but here is a direct quote from them

"We have had several customers mention the short blade life. DEWALT has begun to design stronger blades for the DW735, still reversible and not resharpenable, but they should last much longer than the original blades."

The crs Rep told me that had a few new sets at the office, and she would be happy to send me a set. I received an empty bubble wrap envelop with a big hole in the end a few days later. I sent a message back to Dewalt, and two days later, UPS showed up with second day air package. The knives were wrapped in green paper, perhaps they just took them out of the packaging to fool me:rolleyes: , I don't know. I have not used them yet as I already had a set of infinity knives installed.

Jonathan



According to the email I received from Dewalt customer support, there are no new blades available. "Hello Bruce, and thanks for using DEWALT's on-line support.
I am not aware of any new blades coming any time soon but it would be possible down the road since I know the engineers and product managers are looking into blade life." I know another poster said he received a set and I can't explain that. Either the CSR he dealt with was just trying to keep him happy by telling him the set they sent was, "New and improved" or the CSR I was dealing with didn't know what he was talking about. They sent me a new set when I inquired about new blades but the packaging is identical to the spare set I already have. It seems more likely to me that there aren't really any, "Improved" blades available and they were just trying to keep the previous poster happy by telling him what he wanted to hear but I easily could be wrong about that. It could also be that they didn't want to give me a new set and wanted to get rid of their obsolete sets. :confused: Either way, I haven't been especially dissatisfied with the original set as I'm still on side two of my original set. They are due for a change though. I don't use them in a production shop and I only use them for hobby use, mostly on oak and Douglas fir.

Bruce

[John Brennaman]

Anybody have the phone number for DeWalt Customer Service? I can't get them to answer my emails.

Thanks in advance.

[Dave Sweeney]

1-800-433-9258

[John Brennaman]

Thanks, Dave.

[James Biddle]

John,
I've had an excellent experience with the DW customer service. In February, I sent them an inquisition through there website CS. I requested a replacement set of the gears that had not fared well on my machine and voiced my concern over the knive longevity. His response was very prompt and gave me recommendations as to increasing the life expectancy of the knives. He told me to expect both the gears and knives in the next 2 weeks. When I returned from vacation and found no new knives, I sent a follow up email to my CS rep. He apologized and told me he had forgot to order the knives from the parts dept. In 3 days, I had a package with a set of gears and 3 sets of knives. DW CS did very well by me and I expect that it could for everyone if approached in a positive manner.

[Jim Mackell]

Could we get an update from anyone using the Infinity knives?

[paul dyar]

I have the Infinity knives in my 735. It still leaves the lines. They seem to be getting dull as fast as the original knives. I am not overly impressed with them.
Paul

[George Moore]

Has any one tried the Global Tooling blades for the 735?

If they are as good as their other blades they should work very good.

Have a Blessed day.
George

[David Venditto]

Hi Richard,

I had the opportunity to look-up your order in our system this morning. The DeWalt knives you purchased from us in 2006 are a vastly different product to what we have been producing for the last several years. When you said the fit was tight I knew right away you must have gotten one of the few early sets we made with slightly undersized pin holes.

Our current DeWalt DW735 replacement steel knives are thicker than the stock knives and produced with a higher quality steel. They fit perfectly in the DeWalt head and our testing has shown a significant improvement in life over stock knives. The feedback we have rec'd from users over the last several years has been excellent. The knives are a hair taller than stock and this is so you can get one good honing from either side without the knives being too narrow.

We stand behind our product 100% and it is my top priority that you are satisfied with your purchase. As always, if you or any other member of the forum are in any way not completely satisfied with your dealings with my company I will do everything possible to make it right. I am sending you a replacement set from our current inventory which you should find to be a significant improvement over the OEM knives. Please drop me a line to confirm your current ship-to address.

Best regards,

David Venditto
Infinity Tools
813-881-9090 x201
info@infinitytools.com

[Bernhard Boser]

I recently purchased the infinity carbide knives for the DW735 and ran into an installation problem: the infinity knifes are a bit thicker than the stock Dewalt knifes. Because of this, the screws dig into the wood being planed, badly marring the surface.

Has anybody run into this problem? Infinity suggests I just file down the screws (with a belt sander). They also say the screws are sticking out only 0.01" (they come out much more than that). I do not like this solution (do not have belt sander, concerned that the ground screws could strip and oxidize). Does anyone know where I can get screws that work?

I also should add that the carbide knifes fit very tight. It is possible to get them in place, but not possible to adjust laterally if one knife ever gets a dent. So perhaps I got old knifes? (I purchased January 2011).

Bernhard

[Bernhard Boser]

I recently purchased the infinity carbide knives for the DW735 ...


After much arguing with Infinity they eventually agreed to send a new set of knifes, explaining that "There is a small chance the set you have is not within our specification." The new knifes were obviously different: e.g. marked with the company name and packaged in a hard shell (the first ones had no name and were packaged in a plastic wrapper).

The good part is that the second set of knifes fit the planer and do not require grinding the screws or whatever other modifications Infinity was suggesting to make their bad set work. On pine and hard maple the produce an excellent finish. I hope they hold up and will leave additional feedback in a few month.

A final comment about Infinity's website: customers can leave feedback, and I did this. My feedback was deleted, all you can find are two 5-star reviews. If they delete feedback, do they also write it themselves?

I am coming away with very mixed feelings. The second set of knifes looks good and if they hold up are preferable over stock knifes. Infinity's customer service and attitude, on the other hand, make me want to run. Not only did they obviously send pre-production (or whatever) knifes, they only admitted to this once I posted the above message on this site. For the planer knifes their seems to be no alternative, but I certainly will not buy their saw blades.

Hope this is useful. If you order knifes and they don't work in your planer, insist that they send you new ones.

Bernhard

[Marc Dakin]

I too have a DW735, bought it roughly 2 years ago. I just called DW customer service (1-800-433-9258), and told them the situation regarding poor blade quality. The rep said that they changed to a better blade quality roughly a year and a half ago. I asked for them to send me a new set, free of charge, and the rep, no questions asked, said that they will. Good service, and let's hope these are better blades... If I'm not happy with these, I'm going with infinity carbide next time...

ps: I read the above posts - very helpful - thanks everyone!

[Paul Stoops]

I have a friend who also had the tight installation problem and the screw heads digging in with the thicker Infinity blades on his DW735. I don't know if he ever got the problem resolved before he sold the DeWalt and got a larger Delta planer.

[Don Selke]

After reading about all the problems with the DeWalt 735 planers, I am going to buy the Delta again. I have the first generation Delta and it has worked very well for me. I would like to have a 3HP planer but I just do not have the room for it in the shop. The 735 was my first choice but not any more. I have read more complaints regarding the 735 blade life then I can remember here and on other forums. It also seems like no one can get a correct answer from DeWalt concerning the redesign of there blades. With the economy the way it is, I do not see DeWalt changing there blade design to satisfy customers who bought one of there specialized tools. With the home building industry the way it is, they are not selling many tools.

[Glenn Kramer]

I have both the Infinity HSS and Carbide knives for my DW 735. Last January I began the construction of a Benchcrafted Roubo from Eastern Maple. A substantial milling job for the 735, so I purchased the Infinity knives and started with the HSS models, thinking I would have the carbide knives as back-up. The Roubo bench is done in addition to several other Eastern Maple projects. Infinity HSS knives are planing Cherry today. When this first set of HSS knives is dull I am quite anxious to try the Infinity carbide knives. I am very please with the HSS knives. Currently I'd estimate they have lasted 4 times longer than DW stock knives.

I will qualify this by saying I take light cut and slow feed rates.

IMHO, Glenn

[Mike Henderson]

After reading about all the problems with the DeWalt 735 planers, I am going to buy the Delta again. I have the first generation Delta and it has worked very well for me. I would like to have a 3HP planer but I just do not have the room for it in the shop. The 735 was my first choice but not any more. I have read more complaints regarding the 735 blade life then I can remember here and on other forums. It also seems like no one can get a correct answer from DeWalt concerning the redesign of there blades. With the economy the way it is, I do not see DeWalt changing there blade design to satisfy customers who bought one of there specialized tools. With the home building industry the way it is, they are not selling many tools.
I had trouble with my first set of blades in the 735. I called Dewalt and they sent me a new set free. That set has lasted quite well - no complaints.

Mike

[Brian Gumpper]

I recently purchased the infinity carbide knives for the DW735 and ran into an installation problem: the infinity knifes are a bit thicker than the stock Dewalt knifes. Because of this, the screws dig into the wood being planed, badly marring the surface.

We sell a carbide tipped knife set for DW735 and this question comes in often. The carbide tipped knives are thicker than the steel ones because you need enough steel to braise the carbide to. Because they are thicker, you don't need that support bar that goes over the original steel knives. You'll find that if you pull that bar out you'll have no more issues.