Why Did Dewalt Make Their 735 Planer So LOUD!

[Rod Sheridan]

That's what I like about my General 130. She's no lunch box but she's portable and quiet. Really quiet. Could use without ear protection, but I don't.

That's what I replaced, the Silent Power head is about 10dBA quieter than the General............Rod.

[Julie Moriarty]

Julie, go visit someone who owns a Felder or Hammer unit with the Silent Power head, bring a sound level meter with you.

I couldn't believe it the first time I used one............Rod.

I've seen the videos and it's impressive. If I found a few grand sitting around I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

I worked construction for 35 years. I'm used to noise. But when it got really loud, I'd pop in the ear plugs. I've been running power tools in my workshop for almost as long and I always wear hearing protection. When I first ran the Delta planer some 15+ years ago, yeah, it was loud, but tolerable with hearing protection. But the Dewalt takes noise to a whole different level.

The Aearo ear plugs and noise canceling headphones make the Dewalt planer tolerable. Using the same hearing protection with the table saw or the router or the bandsaw or miter saw - all with the DC running - I can barely hear anything. But that Dewalt? No problem hearing that thing.

I've heard you can download a decibel app for your phone. If I find one, I'll run post the numbers here and see how the different power tools compare.

[Julie Moriarty]

I downloaded db:Sound Meter Pro onto my phone. Here's the numbers for the power tools in my garage workshop:

Delta 3/4HP Dust Collector.................90db
Jet 18" Bandsaw..............................94db
Delta Contractor Tablesaw.................98db
Bosch Router (3HP)..........................98db
Dewalt 735 Planer...........................126db



When I get a chance, I'll run the numbers on the Delta planer, now in the hands of my neighbor.

[Bert McMahan]

I downloaded db:Sound Meter Pro onto my phone. Here's the numbers for the power tools in my garage workshop:

Delta 3/4HP Dust Collector.................90db
Jet 18" Bandsaw..............................94db
Delta Contractor Tablesaw.................98db
Bosch Router (3HP)..........................98db
Dewalt 735 Planer...........................126db



When I get a chance, I'll run the numbers on the Delta planer, now in the hands of my neighbor.

Note those are A-weighted (and there are different scales, A is used for hearing related measurements but some very loud things like gunshots are often done on the C scale) plus phone mics aren't calibrated to an absolute scale. The app should be good for a comparison between your tools but probably shouldn't be compared TOO closely to other sounds. It also depends heavily on how far away you are from a noise source and what the conditions are; something in an enclosed room will be far louder than something in a big open field.

Make sure you take your noise measurements the same distance away from your power tools to get the best results.

[David Utterback]

Not surprising that the 735 exceeds the perceived threshold of pain!

Bert's recommendations are spot on. 3 feet from the source is often used for measurements. I think I will try the app to check out the machines in my shop including my brand new Fein dust extractor (which just received poor ratings in a recent post right after I purchased it ).

[Julie Moriarty]

One thing I forgot to mention - All db readings were taken with just the machine running, not under load. I have some more boards to mill today so I'll record the readings under load.

[Jim Becker]

Julie, suggest you check it with both the DC running and the DC not running as you put some wood through...'curious about the results.

[Nick Decker]

"... plus phone mics aren't calibrated to an absolute scale."

This is important, because phone mics have auto level adjustment. When your phone mic hears something loud it turns itself down, so you're not getting a true reading of absolute loudness for the app to measure.

The app might tell you if one machine is louder than another, but I wouldn't use its values to compare to anything absolute, like the chart posted.

[mark kosse]

You should hear my Powermatic 225 when the blades get a little dull. I'll strike fear into the soul. Even 3/4 a ton of cast iron doesn't stop the sound.

[Jay Larson]

No argument from me, although I have a 734. Foam fitting ear plugs and muffs. Still noticeable with the planer and DC running. One more reason why I built my shop in an out building. I don't think it would have been allowed in a basement shop. My neighbor hasn't complained, but I make sure I do not run it later in the evening.

[Nick Decker]

I'm lucky to have tolerant neighbors. The occasional gift of a box or cutting board helps.

[Mark Bolton]

Ill tell you when that 735 will get REALLY LOUD is when you have a batch of material to run and your knives are about ripe, and you dont have a fresh set so you opt to run them with the dull knives. Thats when your world will be shaken.

Straight knife planers are just loud period. Other than for the few nanoseconds when your knives are perfectly sharp on the first board fed you are progressively dealing with duller and duller knives. The more dull they get they begin to slam into the board. When you get boards that tend to lift a little off the planer table (or wait til your around a planer with bed rollers that are set fairly high) you will get a resonance in your ears that will drive you nuts. Pull your ear protection off for a second and it will cross your eyes and make your vision go blurry.

Bed rollers up on our machine with band sawn material that has heavy saw marks will start a resonant frequency that will rock your world.

The take away from all of this for me? Plane lumber as rarely as humanly possible. If your able to pay 50, 60, 70, cents a board foot to have your material pre-surfaced, do it. The cost of the planer, cost of the knives, cost of dealing with the chips, the fact that no small planer is going to hog off enough material to go from dead rough to final planed dimension in a single pass..

Scrap surfacing your material other than when there is no other option possible. From a business standpoint it is the single biggest money loser in our shop.

We all have to do it from time to time but when I have to bring in dead rough material its miserable from the start.

We pay $0.34 per board foot for S2S and SLR1E. I cant handle the chips on a thousand feet dead rough of lumber for that.

[Julie Moriarty]

The under load results were interesting. These numbers are all with the DC running...

Miter saw.........112db
Tablesaw.........104db
Planer..............118db

Yep. The planer went from 126db before feeding in the wood down to 118db under load. It seems whatever noise the DC was making had no effect on readings. I know I can't hear it over the noise of the planer.

As far as the mic on the phone, all I know is my ears hurt when that planer is running, even with ear plugs in. So if 120db is the threshold of pain, I'd say the original 126db on the planer is fairly accurate. IIRC, with my old Delta planer, it got louder under load. The Dewalt definitely dropped the db meter needle under load.

I'd be interested to see db readings with a spiral cutterhead installed on the 735.

[Nick Decker]

No doubt small planers will hurt your ears, beyond whatever present discomfort you feel. My guess is that the dust collector noise is below the level of the planer noise, so it doesn't register.

My hearing is terrible, considerable upper frequency loss. Thank you, Led Zeppelin.

[Grant Wilkinson]

If you have a dust collector hooked up the 735, an easy way to quiet it down considerably is to remove the impeller from the dust extractor that is built in. I did that years ago. I still have excellent dust collection and the sound level is much lower. Much of the noise is from that fast spinning "turbine".