Dewalt DW735 does not plane same thickness from one side to the other
rmiles
| Posted in General Discussion on
I just replaced the cutter head in my DW735 and ran a 4.5″ piece of maple thru to test it.
I ran it thru all the way to the right of the bed several times without changing the depth until I did not hear the blades cutting the wood.
Then, without adjusting the thickness of the planer, I ran it thru all the way on the left side of the bed. The planer removed more wood!
There is a .019″ difference in the thickness of the wood between the left and right side of the bed.
The 4.5″ was sent thru the middle of the bed and had .007″ difference in thickness from side to the other.
Has anyone experienced this?
Is there a way to adjust the planer to make the cutter head parallel to the bed?
Thanks
Replies
The bed is pressed steel and I would guess not perfectly flat easily causing your issue. I have placed a piece of melamine coated particleboard on top of the bed extending out as infeed and out feed appropriately supported. This approach may sort out your problem.
Mat from Australia
Did it cut unevenly before you replaced the cutter head? Did you replace the knives or the entire cutter head? I have a DW735 and have never head this problem.
Yes, it happened to me 10 years ago so I don't remember the details. The local Dewalt depot I believe reset the chain on the sprockets.
I'm sorry, but you're worried about a .007 difference in thickness?
Going back and forth across the bed is bound to give you differences on any lunchbox planer. Run a full-width board and see what it does with no angled pressure on the feed rollers. .007" is less than 1/128th of an inch. I've trained my rulers to ignore such things.
I replaced the cutter head with a Shelix, so it's not an issue with the knives.
I agree that .007 is a non-issue for woodworking, it was just an observation.
However the .019 was measured across a 13" wide test piece. I also saw this difference when I ran a 1" piece against both edges of the bed at the same time. When these pieces are placed next to each other the difference is noticeable, and if glued up would require a lot of planing/sanding.
I didn't know why at the time, but I did have a problem when I made a frame for a mirror and butt-jointed the pieces. The jig I used screwing in the pocket screws managed to keep the back of the frame flush, but when I flipped it over the face was not flush. When I sent these pieces thru the planer I staggered them across the planer bed, rather than feeding them end-to-end. I may take it in to a repair shop to see if they can adjust it.
Thanks for the feedback.
I don't own a DW735 but I clearly remember watching a video where they carefully rotated the 4 big threaded upright posts to get the cutterhead parallel to the bed. Sorry, I can't seem to find that video now.
If the difference is .007 then it might not bond properly.Thats a joke by the way.
Not familiar with this machine but on most planers, if the cutterhead is not the issue there should be an adjustment for the jack screws on either side of the table. I would think this would be in the manual.
I haven't, however I replaced the cutter head with a carbide spiral head from Byrd about 10yrs ago and only had to rotate 3 of the cutters 90 degrees once because there may have been embedded sand grain or some other particle that knicked the cutter. I have had the planer at least 15years, it got a rebuild after running 3 12"w x 3"t x 7' long maple sections for my workbench top. The straight stock blade sets were about $70.00 to replace and only lasted about 3 months.
I used the following steps to adjust my DW735 to plane the same thickness across the bed of the planer.
1) I raised the planer all the way to the top
2) I used a dial indicator to measure the distance from the bed to the center groove of each roller bushing. Each corner was different by several thousands of an inch.
3) I decided to only work on making each roller parallel to the bed and did not bother matching the rollers to each other.
4) With the dial indicator positioned under the roller bushing, I loosened the bolt that holds the corner post and twisted the corner post while watching the dial indicator to make the correction. Sometimes the post would twist when the bolt was tightened, so you have to start over.
5) After adjusting one end of each roller I lowered the cutting head down to make a test “cut” on each side of the planer and compared the thickness..
I expected to only have to repeat this twice to get the cutting head parallel to the bed, but had to repeat the whole process 4 times.
The final result was a difference of less than .001 in thickness between the two sides of the planer.
Helpful hint: don’t forget to remove your dial indicator from the planer bed before lowering the cutting head. I am not admitting to have done that!
How long have you owned this machine...more than 10 years? And you've installed a shelix head? Have you ever had the feed rollers replaced? I've owned this same machine for a little over 10 years myself...though about 6 years ago I added a Hammer A3-31 to my shop and so the DW735 is not the main work-horse in my shop anymore...anyway it still has advantages over the big boy for some specific tasks. In particular, milling some resinous woods. Recently I was wiping down the rubber coated feed rollers and wondering what they're life span is and how I would know if they were shot. I suspect that as the rubber dries out and hardens they will compress or erode somewhat unevenly.
Just a thought.
MK
I agree with MJ. Run a full width board through and check the thickness on both sides and see if you get the same results. One other thing that may make a difference: As I am planing down a plank with my 734, I mostly do it by 1/2 turns of the crank until I get close to my final thickness. But, when I do that, I always turn the crank at least a full turn or more and then back to the 1/2 turn mark. This puts load on the same side of the threads each time and compensates for any slop in the cranking system. Give it a try. Maybe it will help.
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