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Thread: Planer Won't Maintain Thickness

  1. #46
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    This might be a completely off the wall question but is there any chance you had the knives in backwards?

  2. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Lanciani View Post
    This might be a completely off the wall question but is there any chance you had the knives in backwards?
    No. I don't even think that's possible.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  3. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Julie Moriarty View Post
    Clint,

    When considering carbide straight knives and the Shelix, I ran across a Stumpy Nubs video. In it he claimed the Shelix requires more power to run it, or, as you stated, taking a lighter pass. The theory is straight knives give the motor a split second break between knife cuts whereas with a Shelix or spiral cutterhead, there is no break. Does this sound plausible?

    I was thinking of changing to the Shelix once the planer comes back but if that power theory is true, the Shelix is virtually useless. I'm already down having to take passes of 1/100" to avoid tripping the overload. I'm beginning to see the 735 more as a toy than the best benchtop planer on the market. I thought buying the 735 was going to be an upgrade to the Delta 22-540 but so far the opposite has been true.
    I tend to believe that theory myself. Regardless of the reason, I know that I had to take lighter cuts after installing the Byrd head to avoid tripping the motor reset. I was surfacing the benchtop slabs for my Roubo workbench at the time, and manhandling a 12” wide slab of 4” thick hard maple over and over through the planer drove me to getting the A3-31.

    Clint

  4. #49
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    Aug 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by Julie Moriarty View Post
    No. I don't even think that's possible.
    Um, yeah, it is possible. If you just flipped the blades on the short axis when changing from one edge to the other, you would end up with the bevels down (when viewing the knives from above). No doubt that would result in lousy performance.
    -- Jim

    Use the right tool for the job.

  5. #50
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    I read in the operator manual that for best performance the board should be face jointed before planing. It is possible that slight unevenness in a hardwood is giving this little planer fits?

  6. #51
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    I read in the operator manual that for best performance the board should be face jointed before planing. It is possible that slight unevenness in a hardwood is giving this little planer fits?

  7. #52
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Rainey View Post
    I read in the operator manual that for best performance the board should be face jointed before planing. It is possible that slight unevenness in a hardwood is giving this little planer fits?
    Since I don't have a power jointer, I take very light passes, flipping the board every pass until it's flat. I've never had any problems doing that. It's only when the full width of the board is being planed that problems begin.

    After what I've learned thus far, it looks like Dewalt may have known their 13" planer motor couldn't handle most full width boards. Not even close. Rather than installing a motor that could or notifying potential buyers of this fact, they decided to let the thermal overload do the talking.
    “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness..." - Mark Twain

  8. #53
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    A planer won’t remove bow from a board and won’t remove much twist. It will take out localized inconsistencies. Rather than simply plane the material it would be an improvement to face joint roughly by hand prior to planing.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  9. #54
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    True Brian, but did you see the length & width of those boards Julie is working with😳. That is a job for 2 high energy apprentices!

  10. #55
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    Feb 2017
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    Have you tried the planer on different types of wood since the problem started? Didn't see that answer in your posts but if it doesn't act the same on other, softer woods, it is more likely that the blades are not sharp enough. I don't believe I've ever heard or read of anyone having the problem you report on that particular planer. I've owned mine for 10+ years and, other than changing blades, having to clean and wax the table and clean the rollers that grab the wood once in awhile, I have done nothing else to the planer since I owned it. It has been a solid tool for the entire time.

    I know it's sometimes hard to get an answer from Dewalt (or whatever they are these days), but have you tried Dewalt support?

  11. #56
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    Julie,

    Sounds to me like the blades are dull and/or the rollers are slipping and need cleaning. Didn't have time to read all the posts so, sorry if you already changed the blades and/or cleaned the rollers. I know my planer just kind of stops performing when the rollers start slipping a little because there is build up of one type or another. Also, cleaning and waxing the tables (bed and infeed/outfeed) really helps as the wood moves more easily over the surface. Sharp blades, of course, is a key also, but the blades on the Dewalt are hard to keep sharp, especially if the wood you're planing is very hard. I bought the Deulen jig for planer knives, but haven't used it enough to know if it's really worth it. However even if you can get one honing out of each edge of each knife, that means you would get 4 knife cycles out of each instead of 2. That alone seems worth it.

  12. #57
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    Randy try sharpening all three blade as the same time. It’s important to Keep the blades all the same width.
    Aj

  13. #58
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    Already do that; sharpen all at the same time. Since you do 2 at a time and there are 6 sides, it works out well,

  14. #59
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    Thing is that a planer like the 735 isn't really made for high volume use. It seems that at least recently that's been the case with your work. With that kind of use, I would probably have found a more commercial planer by now. For my use, the blades work fine and I've had initial success honing them with the Deulen jig (don't know the full extent of that). If I were to increase the volume of wood I run through it, I'd definitely find a standard 15" planer with a helical head. These issues would not occur with that type of planer.

  15. #60
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    Sorry I wasn’t clear I meant sharpen three edges at the same time with this fixture. The blades have a 45 degree bevel so the fixture is cut at 45.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Aj

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