Dewalt 735 (w Shelix Head) or Oliver 10044 (w Shelix head) – which say you?
Dear All,
I’ve been saving and am within 6 months to purchasing a bunch of machines and dust collection to take care some of the grunt work of woodworking. Eventually I think I want to own a jointer/planer combo. In the interim (or possibly permanently if I feel satisfied with what I have), I want to get a lunch box planer.
The Dewalt 735 with a shelix head (can now directly purchase this pre-installed from Byrd) or the Oliver 10044 which comes with the shelix head are the two top contenders). Costs are similar to one another (or not enough of a difference to matter to me). The 735’s 13″ width vs. 12.5″ of the Oliver is nice. Do any of you have direct experience with both units? Does one of them leave less snipe than the other?
This past week, at the woodworking class I am taking, I was able to use a stationary planer to mill down some 7/8″ lumber to 1/2″ and some at 5/8″ for my next project at home (Becksvoort’s 15 drawer cabinet). What a pleasure to have a machine to do that. It would have easily taken me two weekends to get that all done by hand; instead, it took all of two hours. There was a little snipe but nothing a hand plane can’t sort out. All wood would see a hand plane anyway.
Thanks for the feedback.
Replies
I can't say which is better but my decision would be based on warranty coverage.
The Byrd website warns that the DeWalt warranty is likely voided after they modify the machine.
The Oliver has a warranty (1 year on the motor and electricals, 2 on everything else) because the Byrd head is installed at the factory.
Mike
That's a good point. Thanks.
Before you take the plunge, have a look at machines designed for a carbide head.
You may be surprised to find that they are not as expensive as you might think, especially if you are willing to go for a lesser known brand.
Hafco Woodmaster brand do a good planer/thicknesser and it's a lot of machine for the money. Fit and finish is not up to Hammer standard but they are solidly made.
I own a couple of other Hafco machines and a couple of internet buddies are happy with their planer combo machines.
If you can find the coin and a 20A 240V supply, the Hammer A3 range is superb.
I can't help with the specific question being asked, but I will say that I've been using the DW735, with straight HSS knives, for over two years now. It produces wonderful surfaces, as good and often better than my Grizzly G0856 jointer with a 36 insert helical cutter head. I've done 3 blade changes (two knife rotations, one new set), on the DW735 during that time; it's absolutely trivial and the cost quite reasonable (80$ gets you 2 full knife sets, six double edge knives, on Amazon). I know that the helical heads are quieter but personally I wouldn't pony up the additional ~$500
I reached the same conclusion. Any idea how many board feet you've run through it between changes? I mostly will be milling cherry and maple.
Hard to be precise about this, but over the time involved I've bought
about 330 bf of hardwood, mostly cherry, then oak, ash,..... So,
an estimate for me is 110 bf per blade change. But its a really crude estimate; some boards get thinned down a lot and hence go thru the
planer many times. Other boards, not so much.
Yikes. I get at least a couple thousand board feet between blade changes. Probably a lot more. I'm not looking for finished boards. I'm just looking for the right thickness. Everything gets surfaced to final finish by hand after the planer does the grunt work.
Thanks John and JPE. Your answers give me a rough idea of what to expect in terms of ranges. Since a good year of woodworking involves 200 board feet, either way I should be ok. I will also be using a hand plane on everything off of the planer. Will have to see how that influences my blade change outs. All in all a good problem to have. I have been holding off on projects because I don't want to do the hand plane thicknessing.
You must mean 1,100 board feet or more. I buy 110 BF every time I build a major project. I'm still on my first set of carbide inserts on a 15-inch Powermatic that I've put through over 80 projects. It does excellent work and is not very loud.
A year or so back I was faced with replacing my Dewalt 733, which was about 23 years old. I considered all the options. My best choice would have been a 20" Powermatic with a carbide head. I just didn't have the room. I ended up going for the 735 with stock cutters. The HSS in my old 733 were fine. They lasted a long time, and were cheap, fast and easy to change. I'm happy with the choice.
I've been eyeing a 20" planer as well. Need a bandsaw and dust collector first. Then a drill press. Then likely a combo jointer planer (16") due to garage space limitations.
Planer would be near, or at, the top of the list for me.
Thanks All. I'm going with the 735 with the straight knives. I will save the extra money (close to $500) and eventually get the A3 41 16" jointer planer and it will have a helical head. Right now, Rockler has a sale going on in which I can get the 735x (the fold up beds and set of extra knives) and the stand for $750. I have one of the DeWalt stands and use it for my table top mortiser and really like that stand which is I had to purchase separately is like $200. Will pick it up this pm and be done with it.
Considering I'm coming from hand planning my wood to thickness I am sure I will be delighted. I get very happy whenever I use my corded jigsaw (that I got like 20+ years ago) for lots of long rip cuts and consider myself spoiled to have it.
You will not regret the Hammer purchase though there can be a long wait and they are heavy beasts. You do need that 20A 240V supply and to budget on a longer cable and plugs.
I have the same one and it's just superb.
With the digital dial (essential IMHO) it will reproduce board thicknesses to within 0.05 to 0.1mm every time. Gone are the days of creeping up on the thickness - you can trust the dial to be spot on.
I will need to get electrical in the shop altered. I will use the same electrician who set me up when I remodeled the garage 7 years ago. At the same time likely upgrade the lights. I thought I put in enough lights. Not enough.
There's a direct correlation between aging and candlepower.
Yup
Just went to Lowes this weekend and bought two more of those traditional round metal sockets with the clamps that plug into the wall. I recall my dad having them back in the 1970s. I now have four of them above the bench. Then, found 150 and 200 watt equivalent LED light bulbs that pumped out serious lumen (on the order 2000 and 3400 lumen respectively). Wow. Things are indeed much brighter. The bulbs are made by GE and cost $10 and $20. At the rate I'm going, in the garage, I will be visible by the space station.
There will be a significantly better price on the DW735 for Black Friday weekend at rockler. So I hear, anyways =]
It is a great planer - however, in response to increased demand, DeWalt started sourcing them from a different location, and those are noticeably sub-par. If possible, get the lighter yellow box (made in Taiwan) and avoid the more orangey box (made in China).
I bought it last night. I was in the area last night and with gas what it costs I bought it on that trip. Not sure where it was made. I will try not to stress too much about it. (Post edit: It's the more yellow, not orange one). It does have a warranty via DeWalt so I've got some coverage and hopefully if it's gonna break it will happen in that time frame. If not, I will either fix it or get the Oliver or have saved up for the big one I eventually want.
Next up, hopefully, within the next 3 months will be a bandsaw and proper dust collection system. I have a bunch of 8 quarter oak (like 100 feet worth) that needs to be cut to width and I really don't want to do that all by hand.
Hi DPS13, I was at Rockler on 15Nov (getting adaptors so that I could hook up my shop vac to the DeWalt 735; 3ish months out from full blow dust collection in the shop). The Black Friday sale for the DeWalt was up in the store. What I got will be now be $100 less. I was told that since I just bought mine recently and have the reciept, I can come in on the days of the sale and get the discounted price. The staff was already trained on how to do that. $650 for the 735, second set of knives, etended infeed and outfeed and stand is the best deal I've seen in a while.
Good choice, I’ve had my 735 for over 15 years and it works great.
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