Dewalt 735X Planer??

[John Terefenko]

I am looking to upgrade my Delta 12" planer that is old and started giving me problems and I just about got every penny out of it. I want to buy the Dewalt735X planer which gets high marks and reviews as the best bench top planer on the market. Now they sell the same planer with a Shelix head instead of the straight blades but it is a $1000 more. But doing some homework I see you can buy the Byrd Shelix cutterhead separately and change it your self for about $600. The Planer is about $650 to $700 so the savings would be about $400. The thing is if you buy the OEM cutterhead you have to take all the cutters off and slide the head through the bearing raceways and then reinstall the cutters. Or you can buy a smaller version and only have to remove one or two rows of cutters to get through raceways. But in the end there is things that get thrown off because of the smaller diameter cutterhead. or I should say features like the depth gauge.

Now with this bit of knowledge that I have I would like to ask if anyone has the planer and with what cutterhead? If you changed to a shelix cutterhead did you get an OEM one or a smaller diameter? What was your experience changing heads? Are you seeing that much difference in cut quality? I am sure the carbide cutters would be smoother in all types of wood. I also understand that the Shelix head draws more amps during cutting than the straight blades so to begin with a 20 amp breaker is in need but with the universal motors on these you can only run for so long and it will overheat and cause the thermal button on the unit to trip or the breaker in panel. Have you seen this happen. I guess what I am asking is if you own one what are the opinions and the pros and cons? Thanks in advance.

[Steve Eure]

i was not aware that DeWalt offered a shelix head for that machine. I have seen where certain companies such as Grizzly offer the 735 with a shelix that you have to install yourself. Be mindful that if you go that route, it may void the factory warrenty on that machine since it was not installed by the manufacturer. If it is now offered by DeWalt. and I suspect that it is not, why would they not install one during manufacturing, which leads me to believe it is an aftermarket head.
I do know some who have had mixed results with this setup. The machines motor is not designed for that type of cutterhead and it tends to heat the motor up too much and blow the circuit breaker. Some individuals have had no issues. It's a mixed bag, Some do, some don't. Personally, I would not take that chance. I have the 735 and although the blades don't last as long as a shelix, they are easy to change with the indexing pins and have no alignment issues. IMHO, as for cut quality, I don't see the point in spending the extra money, especially of there is a chance in voiding the warranty.

[William Hodge]

I use a DeWalt 735 as a finishing planer on figured wood. The straight knives work great. I run it for hours, taking off 1/32".

The motor in that planer is tiny. Asking it to do more than it was designed for will shorten its life.

[Sam Shankar]

I know some people on the forum have upgraded to the Shelix head with great results. I'm a "meh."

The Shelix head for some reason draws more power than the straight knives, and (for me) constantly tripped the protective breaker on the planer. I got so tired of that happening that I hotwired the breaker out of the circuit. If the planer motor burns out as a result, I'll buy another planer (probably another Dewalt, although Laguna now makes a little one that looks good) and put the Shelix head up on the Creek classifieds...for free.

[John Terefenko]

i was not aware that DeWalt offered a shelix head for that machine. I have seen where certain companies such as Grizzly offer the 735 with a shelix that you have to install yourself. Be mindful that if you go that route, it may void the factory warrenty on that machine since it was not installed by the manufacturer. If it is now offered by DeWalt. and I suspect that it is not, why would they not install one during manufacturing, which leads me to believe it is an aftermarket head.
I do know some who have had mixed results with this setup. The machines motor is not designed for that type of cutterhead and it tends to heat the motor up too much and blow the circuit breaker. Some individuals have had no issues. It's a mixed bag, Some do, some don't. Personally, I would not take that chance. I have the 735 and although the blades don't last as long as a shelix, they are easy to change with the indexing pins and have no alignment issues. IMHO, as for cut quality, I don't see the point in spending the extra money, especially of there is a chance in voiding the warranty.

It is an aftermarket company that offers it. There are various companies that sell the carbide shelix style head but again the problem is getting the right size and is it balanced properly. This company says their's is but as I said $1000 more. In this same ad there are a couple detailed reviews that I watched and the guy really explains the differences and what to expect power wise as well as noise wise. the shelix is much quieter. He did call Dewalt about warrenty and got a couple different answers but nothing direct about if warrenty is void. Basically they said yes with stipulations because you use an aftermarket item. The differences in the cuts is night and day from what he shows. That is why I questioned you people that may have this planner. The second poit you bring up is a good one about motor size and tripping that overload. He did in video. What stuck me as odd is the amps these things draw. He planned some red oak and took off 1/32" at a time and both units (one with each type head) and they drew around 31 amps each. Even the better 20 amp breakers are designed to allow over draw but if using for long periods of time, what is happening to that breaker in the panel. let alone the thermal cutout on the motor.

To address your other point about is there an original equipment shelix cutterhead available. Not sure but why does this company make that point in the ad? More investigating is needed.

I have used straight blades for over 30 years and then use my drum sander to sweeten the cuts. I guess if I go this route I will just use the factory blades. The planer is a beast and much better than mine which I do need to replace.

I will watch for further replys to this. Thanks. Here is the company and videos.

https://byrdtoolexperts.com/products...-pre-installed

[Jim Becker]

I have no personal experience with this particular machine, with or without the spiral head, but I have seen favorable comments about using the spiral for both quality of cut as well as a reduction in noise level on what is perhaps one of the loudest thicknessers available. If I were doing this same dance about whether to buy and retrofit or buy already converted, it comes down to how much I might "enjoy" doing the retrofit work myself and the time required. That's pretty much what the $400 "savings" represents...labor and effort. For me, I'm not particularly fond of "wrenching" so, I'd likely opt for the pre-configured machine. But that's me.

[glenn bradley]

The 735 is indeed a fine machine. Once you move to the spiral head price range though I see little advantage in a 735 over a typical 15" floor model. The footprint is the same and the performance comparison is . . . well . . . not there. I have a sort of 60% pricing rule I apply in my decision making. Once the cost of what I am looking at gets to around 60% of "a real one" (I know this is subjective) I just save a little longer and get "the real one". A V8 in a VW is cool but as a daily driver I'd rather have the Bel Air.

[Dave VanDewerker]

I know some people on the forum have upgraded to the Shelix head with great results. I'm a "meh."

The Shelix head for some reason draws more power than the straight knives, and (for me) constantly tripped the protective breaker on the planer. I got so tired of that happening that I hotwired the breaker out of the circuit. If the planer motor burns out as a result, I'll buy another planer (probably another Dewalt, although Laguna now makes a little one that looks good) and put the Shelix head up on the Creek classifieds...for free.

Has anyone ever tested this? When I installed a Shelix head on my 735 it draws no more power than the straight blades, actually less in some cases.
I believe the breaker in the 735 are thermal breakers, once they trip a few times they get weaker and weaker. It will need to be replaced. I have only tripped my breaker once in the nearly 20 years I have had mine. I also use a 10 ga extension cord, a 14 ga extension cord will cause all kinds of problems.
Also if you are worried about the power draw you can remove the impeller off the rear of the motor and save yourself about 2 amps (not needed if you have a good dust collector)

I think a lot of the complaints about the segmented head drawing more power is the fact that they are so quiet that you can actually hear the motor being loaded down and starting to work harder. You can't hear this with straight knives, it just sounds like it is beating the wood to death.

[Dan Friedrichs]

The 735 is indeed a fine machine. Once you move to the spiral head price range though I see little advantage in a 735 over a typical 15" floor model. The footprint is the same and the performance comparison is . . . well . . . not there. I have a sort of 60% pricing rule I apply in my decision making. Once the cost of what I am looking at gets to around 60% of "a real one" (I know this is subjective) I just save a little longer and get "the real one". A V8 in a VW is cool but as a daily driver I'd rather have the Bel Air.

+1. The 735 is definitely the nicest benchtop planer you can buy, but it's still a benchtop planer. Everything about it (from the internal chip blower, to the 120V plug, to the reversable blades, to the integrated storage of the blade swapping wrench/magnet/tool) is meant for portability and jobsite use.

The finish from the straight knives is also very good, especially when sharp.

[John Terefenko]

Has anyone ever tested this? When I installed a Shelix head on my 735 it draws no more power than the straight blades, actually less in some cases.
I believe the breaker in the 735 are thermal breakers, once they trip a few times they get weaker and weaker. It will need to be replaced. I have only tripped my breaker once in the nearly 20 years I have had mine. I also use a 10 ga extension cord, a 14 ga extension cord will cause all kinds of problems.
Also if you are worried about the power draw you can remove the impeller off the rear of the motor and save yourself about 2 amps (not needed if you have a good dust collector)

I think a lot of the complaints about the segmented head drawing more power is the fact that they are so quiet that you can actually hear the motor being loaded down and starting to work harder. You can't hear this with straight knives, it just sounds like it is beating the wood to death.

In the link I provided in the first post is a few videos of a guy testing power consumption and he runs various boards through. His big test was with red oak. There was a huge difference in amps drawn 25 to 27 with straight blades and 31 to 33 amps drawn with segmented head. This was the case in every run through the planer. He was taking off exact same amounts each pass. yes on the thermal breaker and yes on getting weaker. The same can happen with a house breaker. I was surprised how much those things really draw under load when advertised as 15amp units. Misleading for people to set up in a shop. If I had the room and the extra $2500 I would get a floor unit especially if I used it more. getting on in age, the use is less and less but I do need to get something and like to get the best I could afford. The one drawback with this unit it does weigh close to 90lbs so lifting on and off a bench would be a problem. So then needing a seperate bench leads me back to a floor model. Oh how I wish I had a bigger shop. Oh and they were definitely quieter by a large margin. He had a meter on them, but you can actually hear the difference. Again another surprise.

[Mark Wedel]

I have a dewalt 735 and replaced the cutterhead with a shelix. I did the full sized (OEM sized) one, as it didn't seem like the saved one time hassle (only installed once) of getting the smaller cutterhead was worth it.

While the original straight knives on the 735 produce a great cut, I also found that I went through those knives pretty quickly. Or more to the point, if they got a knick in them, the cut was no longer great. At least with shelix, one can rotate only the knives with the nick. I also found that the shelix produces cuttings which are much easier for the dust collector to handle - more confetti like, where as the original knives would sometimes produce more straw like cuttings which would cause the dust collector to jam up more.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the planer and upgrade. At the time I did it, the prices for both the planer and shelix were quite a bit less. I think I was able do get the planer (on sale) and shelix for less than $1000, though I waited a year or two after getting the planer before doing the upgrade.

[Sam Shankar]

I believe the breaker in the 735 are thermal breakers, once they trip a few times they get weaker and weaker. It will need to be replaced.

Did that twice, then hotwired it.

[Thomas McCurnin]

I have the basic 735. Knives are cheap, so if one has a nick, just replace the knives. I never saw the advantage of the helix heads. Just take off small increments.

[Richard Coers]

I thought segmented heads took more horsepower due to the geometry. You may be restricted on how deep of cut you can make on that machine with a segmented head.

[John Terefenko]

You really are not going to take off more than 1/16" at a time anyway and I even do less than that so that is not a problem. yes blades are cheap but that is the problem they are steel and Dewalt blades are cheap to begin with. getting a better grade of steel blades would help. carbide is better. Those inserts are alot cheaper and there is 4 sides so if a nick happens you can just replace one cutter. I do not know if I am talking myself into or out of this.