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Thread: Woodmaster W-718 Planer - should I buy?

  1. #46

    shelix head

    Jeremy,

    I had a 20" grizzly with their upgrade spiral insert cutterhead. I planed some painted boards (I know - kringe!) and some salvaged pine that turned out to have a few broken cut nails in it. There was NO noticable damage to the quality of cut. The only disadvantage that I know of for spiral cutterheads is the zebra effect or checkerboard pattern that it leaves on the wood. The shelix is supposed to be the cadillace and leave a better finish. Attached is a photo of what I found AFTER meticulously (or so I thought) sanding a cherry raised panel. These marks are only readily visible after staining.

    I spoke to the salesman at woodmaster while I was ordering all the goodies for my used woodmaster. I was wondering if their spiral heads had the same problem and if it would be worth the upgrade. He aknowleged the existince of such a problem and said that it just had to be sanded out.

    The spiral head DOES allow you to plane at a higher speed on problem woods with little or no tearout and a very pleasing surface. If you have a wide belt or one of the better drum sanders ( the 718 makes a LOUSY drum sander) this should not be a problem. Of course if we all had on of those, the chatter marks we are discussing would be a non-issue.

    David Freed was the person on woodweb who had the original SLR modifications.

    There two more cents!
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #47
    Hmmmmm. I guess I need a bigger, badder, bolder drum sander (or if money were no object and this weren't just my hobby, maybe a wide belt sander!)

    That is excellent information and I appreciate you taking the time to share it with me. Might have just saved me a chunk of change!

    I guess my next move is to decide on keeping the Woodmaster, or just selling it. It seems to be a fantastic machine and I like it, but for a one-man-hobby-shop, maybe I need to do something else.

  3. #48
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Cincinnati, OH
    Posts
    309
    So I just picked up a used 718 and reading this thread, I was wondering how the issue got resolved?

    I have a few things to do before I clean my 718 up, but remain curious about solutions here

  4. #49
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Barnesville, MD
    Posts
    11
    I've had a Woodmaster 718 for 5 years and use it only for planning. I do a lot of reclamation/processing work for a friend who salvages old houses. I've run tons of oak and chestnut through the planner and never had any chatter. I don't use the Woodmaster knives. I buy mine at Global Tooling because they have a better price and seem to last longer. I just ran about a thousand bd.ft. of old, dirty white oak from a corn crib through it at full speed with no chatter marks. The oak was going to be used for flooring. It barely needed to be sanded. I give it a thorough going over after every job and when I change the blades. Its not a perfect machine but so far it has worked well for me.

    Dave

  5. #50
    Quote Originally Posted by Rob Diz View Post
    So I just picked up a used 718 and reading this thread, I was wondering how the issue got resolved?

    I have a few things to do before I clean my 718 up, but remain curious about solutions here
    Well, it's not really "resolved" for me. I still have the minor ridges throughout my boards, but I've decided (at least for now) to live with it rather than investing any more money into the machine until I decide what I'm going go to do with it. I am fairly happy with the machine and it seems to be a real workhorse -- the main complaint just being that which I've posted here. For now, I'm just doing a light sanding on the boards to make them furniture-ready.

  6. #51
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Madison, Wisconsin
    Posts
    489

    I love my 718

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Wingard View Post
    Matthew .. .. .. would you mind posting a few pictures of your version of the hinged motor base ?? ?? ?? I'm about to do one also, and like to get as much info as possible before starting.
    I bought a used 718 a year or so ago and immediately did the hinged mod (almost identical to the one shown in this thread) and added a linked belt. I also added a Wixey digital depth scale and a 6" dust collection port to the top of the machine. I get very little residual shavings when planing and the digital is great, though I had to scratch my head a few times to get it mounted right.

    I don't get any chatter and as an owner of 3 other planers (Dewalt, Robland, Ryobi) I have to say I like the Woodmaster the best. I think $800 is a great price...I paid several hundred more for mine, but it had the propack and was in pristine shape (though about 5 years old). I use a Tormek grinder with planer blade attachment to sharpen my blades and it works great and cuts like a hot knife through butter.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #52
    Thanks for that post and positive comments ... that gives me some more hope for mine. And the Wixey ... what a nice addition. I've considered that too and will probably do that because the standard height gauge is pretty horrible, so I'm usually just going by "feel".

    So if you run a board thru yours, it is finish ready smooth? If you take a piece of chalk on its side and rub it on the board you don't any sign of ridges (you can't feel them with your hand, but the chalk makes them shine -- stain would)

  8. #53
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Central Northeast Texas
    Posts
    54
    Jeremy,

    I have a 725 which I have tweaked about as perfect as one can get. I bought it used - heavily used. I hated the straight knives immediately. It was 2ice as loud as the 12" and 15" planers it was to supplant as my primary planer.

    So I bought the spiral cutter head from WM and it was like a whole different machine. So with that brief background FWIW my planer still leaves the small micro-divot marks in the wood.

    It's just a fact of life that no type of planer, nor style of knives are going to leave a "finish-ready" surface. Not furniture grade anyway. For house siding sure thing.

    I see guys say their planers leave a perfectly smooth surface but I do not believe that is possible. Not with the kind of finish I like to put on a project. there is just no way to get that kind of finish from any planer that I am aware of at any price.

    After all you have done to your machine, if you put a spiral cutter on it, that's going to help you more than all the other mods you made, and your ears are going to thank you every time you run a board through it.

    The roller bearings, power feed motor, and sucking sound the DC make together are louder than the carbide inserts cutting across the board. You can have an actual conversation with someone standing at the planer. You have to raise your voice more than normal but you don't have to yell like you would with straight knives.

    Get the spiral head you'll not be sorry in terms of finish, or decibals.
    Can't complain about a thing!

  9. #54
    Well, Woodmaster has the spiral head on sale this month ... $995 ... decisions, decisions!

  10. #55
    Matthew,

    I'm just about to modify my Woodmaster 718 per your mod, but had a couple of slight worries about it.

    First, you are dropping a 96 lb. motor (replacement cost approx. $600) onto a single Fenner Power Twist belt. That's a hell of a way to tension the belt! I love it, and don't get me wrong because Woodmaster's method is to loosen the bolts and slide the motor... but of course you go all the way to the stops and the belts still screech when they start up, and the head vibrates, etc., and the two belts are obviously of different tension, etc. etc... So the machine obviously doesn't have a factory designed method of keeping the belts tight.

    However, have you considered what putting roughly a hundred pounds of pressure on the cutterhead bearings has on them? Or do you think it matters? Not being critical, just a concern I have before I take the leap.

    And my other thought is, by hanging the motor on a hinge (disregarding the above about weight on the bearings) you have the full hundred pound motor suspended by the two belts. But when you take off one of the belts, it may solve the uneven belt tension issue, but now a very expensive motor is hanging by one belt. And if the belt should break, unlikely as that might be, don't you risk damaging the motor when it hits the concrete floor?

    Again, I'm ready to do it because I'm sick of the vibration and the problems with tensioning the belts. I don't see why Woodmaster designed the machine with two belts on the cutterhead, but that's neither here nor there: I'm certainly willing to get rid of one if it isn't necessary, and I believe you when you say that only one is necessary. But what about those two issues, the weight on the bearings and the chance of damaging the motor if the belt breaks?

    Thanks a bunch. Great photos, by the way.

    Steve
    aka Darren
    Last edited by Daren Rogers; 05-27-2010 at 4:39 PM.

  11. #56
    Hi all,I'm now the proud owner of a 718 and a drum sander,I had to purchase a digital three phase convertor for here in the U.K.I haven't a clue how it all goes together and reading this forum has made me think I've been a fool,it was all so expensive with shipping and customs fees,still I'm wiring up my new shed as best I can and employing a trade lecy to do the rest,I have also put everything on castors so to utilize the space I have,but what I'm reading on the forum makes for a bad choice,so i'll just have to make the best of it and glean any hints from here,wish I had found this forum before I bought,any advice will be appreciated, MAC.

  12. #57
    Quote Originally Posted by DAVID DILLON View Post
    Hi all,I'm now the proud owner of a 718 and a drum sander,I had to purchase a digital three phase convertor for here in the U.K.I haven't a clue how it all goes together and reading this forum has made me think I've been a fool,it was all so expensive with shipping and customs fees,still I'm wiring up my new shed as best I can and employing a trade lecy to do the rest,I have also put everything on castors so to utilize the space I have,but what I'm reading on the forum makes for a bad choice,so i'll just have to make the best of it and glean any hints from here,wish I had found this forum before I bought,any advice will be appreciated, MAC.
    Hey Mac

    I don't think you made a bad choice, it's a nice machine. Over advertise? Yes, but still a good machine none-the-less. Let us know how it turns out for you in practice.

  13. #58
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Central WI
    Posts
    5,666
    Link belts are fractional HP belts and not made for a 5 hp motor. A VX would be better. As to the spiral, I think that is a good choice for the WM. The problem with any molder used for planing is the lack of a chipbreaker and pressure bar in close proximity to the head. The spiral slices wood in a different way so the need for the chipbreaker is reduced and the knives have less tendency to lift the board as it passes by which reduces the need for the pressure bar. Also helps with the snipe on the leading end problem. Part of the reason spirals do so well on some machines but are less noticeable on others. Dave

  14. #59
    I had a Woodmaster 718, and although it was 5 hp and my Grizzly 453 is 3 hp, I can plane faster with the Griz, as it has a higher feed speed than the 20" planers. In the high speed it runs 30 fpm.

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