Planer: 3-Straight Blades or Spiral/Helical Cutter Head
So changing my earlier planer discussion. But still directed toward either the bigger floor standing planers or the DeWalt 735. My current DeWalt 733 gives me some tear out, tear out is really annoying because it’s hard if not impossible to sand out. I get some tear out even using fresh blades, dampening the surface of the board, and a good dust collector. My assumption is that the 3-blade planers with two feed rates will eliminate the tear out. Is that a correct assumption? Or do I really need some sort of spiral or helical head? I’m not really thinking that a finished surface is that important, since I’m sure that I’ll do some sanding anyway. I’m quite the amateur, so saving time is not as important as saving frustration on tearing up expensive wood.
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My 735 gives no tearout when the boards are fed in correctly and already mostly thicknessed with the main setting. the final two passes or three or however many I really need are done with the finishing setting and only 1/4 turns of the wheel and it produces very fine surfaces which so far have only needed 220 or 320 once to get ready for finishing.
I really am fairly new though and have only been using this machine for less than a year so I could be lucky or wrong or both.
I agree with John Baker.
I have the Delta two speed "portable" (which isn't).
And I've done birdseye maple, and tiger maple. Never any tearout.
If I'm planing a wood that seems susceptible to tearout, I'm sure to use the slower feed rate, and less turns of the height-wheel per run.
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I think if you have reversing grain along your workpiece eventually you will see tear-out. The only answer that I know will work is to use a sharp scraper over difficult gnarly grain.
I find that I can minimize tear-out by making very light passes. A new or newly-sharpened blade set works wonders too.
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