# A real workhorse



## TheFridge

Same here


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## mmax

Ditto to all you said.


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## johnstoneb

Same here. 
I did find an additional safety feature on mine. The breaker on the planer tripped on me I had been planing red oak steady for about 1/2 hr. After resetting the breaker I turned the planer back on without backing off the cut. The drive belt melted almost instantaneously, that probably saved further damage in the gear box. 
The replacement belt is spendy $35. I don't know if Dewalt meant it that way but it worked.


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## fuzzface

I've had mine for about ten years. Changed the blades a couple of times. I've run many miles of lumber through it, and still works great. Dust collection is great. Thanks for sharing.


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## pintodeluxe

I agree with everything but the part about the blades being excellent. I was cutting about 250 b.f. between knife changes, and it seemed like a bit much. I switched to the Shelix helical cutterhead and am now very satisfied with the machine. 
It's no 20" stationary planer, but it hardly qualifies as a portable planer either. 
It's a great tool.

By the way, it's not the blower that makes all that racket… it is the universal motor and the straight knives whipping through the air like paddles. I took the blower fan off mine, and it made no difference in the noise level so I put it back on. What surprised me the most is the no-load noise level decreased significantly with the Shelix head. 
Thanks for posting.


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## runswithscissors

Pintodeluxe is right. I disconnected the blower from mine to see if it would lower the noise, and it made no difference. It is mostly the knives, though the universal motor does contribute some. After the DW 735, I had a Rockwell-Invicta 13" with an induction (and therefore much quieter) motor, and it too howled like a banshee. I now have a Jet JJP12 HH combo machine with helical head, and it's much quieter, though I still use earmuffs because I can't afford to lose any more hearing.


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## walden

Great review and comments. I just picked up one of these used and look forward to using it. I was doing all my dimensioning by hand before, so this will be a major upgrade.


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## dustyal

Squirming in my chair trying to decide planner choices. I have Delta lunch box planer and it works. Leaves some snipe on both ends, but satisfactory for $$80 price deal. Use my buddies 15 inch Grizzly and it is really good, stationary machine. Used my friends Dewalt lunch box planer and I was very satisfied. Used a friend's D375 and it was great. THEN when back and used the Delta lunch with a replacement spiral cutter. It was better than great, and much quieter.

So, what to invest in, I think spiral cutter for reduced noise, and less chip out on figured wood. But then out of budget authority from Mrs Banker. This 735 might be good compromise, and then spiral head a few years down the road.


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## philba

Yeah, a spiral (or shelix) is the upgrade to get. If you have a decent base unit (I have a 3HP 15" griz), it's like night and day. My Griz+shelix is very quiet and cuts super clean. In addition, I can plane highly figured wood that would have had major tear out with the old straight knives. I've stuffed some super hard wood (like Jatoba and Rosewood) through it with no problems. Very happy with it. Would never go back to a straight head.


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## Dedvw

Im not a big fan of mine. My blades become gouged easily and it doesn't plane any thinner than 3/16". I also think its about 10dB louder than the cheap Delta lunchbox it replaced.


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## Green_Hornut

I swapped out the standard cutter head and replaced it with a Sheilx cutter head. Made a world of difference. Spendy upgrade but takes the DeWalt to a whole new level. Sound way down, cuts a surface that needs very little sanding, and reduces tearout considerably. The cutters are carbide and last exponentially longer than the standard HSS knives.

Sheilx has great instructions on how to do it and it only takes standard tools to get there. If you have the cash and do a lot of planning like I do I highly recommend it.


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## Lenny

This is a nice review with great comments. However *mramseyISU* you make no mention of the 2-speed feature of the unit, nor has anyone who commented. Are you using it? Is it valuable to you, particularly regarding figured woods?

I appreciate the honesty of *Dedvw*'s comments. Let's face it, we do the research and take the plunge to buy a product. From that point our opinion is tainted since we WANT it to be a good product. That said, I have owned the DW735 for over a year and I am basically happy with it. The 2-speed feature was a selling point for me and I do like it. I tend to use the slower speed (more cuts per inch) to make my last one or two passes and it does leave the surface smoother than the faster cut speed. I sold my Makita 2012NB to buy the DeWalt. The Makita was/is a fine tool and I really had no issues with it other than the typical snipe. I was enticed by so many reviews and woodworkers hailing the performance of the DW735. I don't regret my purchase at all but, other than the chip ejection and 2-speed feature, I feel the Makita was at least equal in performance.


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## mramseyISU

To all the guys suggesting the Shelix head, yes that would be amazing to have one of those, just a little hard for me to swallow buying a part that costs just as much as this whole machine did. For that kind of money you're 2/3 of the way to a big grizzly with a spiral cutter, might as well do that.

Lenny, I didn't mention the 2 speed operation because I don't really find that it does much for me. Sometimes I'll run it if I'm having tearout on a gnarly piece of wood but I normally don't run anything other than oak though it and that's pretty easy going with the grain normally.


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## DrDirt

Great planer. I got a big helical unit now though, so I am struggling with the idea of selling it…..Maybe I an a collector at heart, cant let it go (still have my truck I bought in 1988 when I got a 'real' job)

Based on Craigs list I shoudl be able to get ~400-450 for it, with the spare knives and extension tables, but I am in Salina, KS. So I have a pretty small pool of potential buyers.

To Lenny - I rarely use the higher speed. I always use the 179 cuts per inch not the 90. But I am never 'Hogging' a lot of material. Suppose the higher cuts per inch shortens blade life a bit.


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## Finn

I have had this planer for five years now and like it. Only problem I have had is , while planning red cedar occasionally a knot comes loose and destroys the plastic chip extracting fan housing. I have repaired and/or replaced it about four times now.


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## KarnWoodworks

I've 


> Great planer. I got a big helical unit now though, so I am struggling with the idea of selling it…..Maybe I an a collector at heart, cant let it go (still have my truck I bought in 1988 when I got a real job)
> 
> Based on Craigs list I shoudl be able to get ~400-450 for it, with the spare knives and extension tables, but I am in Salina, KS. So I have a pretty small pool of potential buyers.
> 
> To Lenny - I rarely use the higher speed. I always use the 179 cuts per inch not the 90. But I am never Hogging a lot of material. Suppose the higher cuts per inch shortens blade life a bit.
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> - DrDirt


I've got the same one!


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## DakotaHeirlooms

I recently ordered a DW735X to replace my old DW734. Note the difference between the DW735 and the DW735X is that the DW735X comes with an extra set of blades and the extension tables. The machine has worked as advertised so far. I can't feel any difference on the finish between the 2 speeds. Snipe is negligible. I think the complaints I've read about the blades not lasting is because the user is taking too much material at a time.

The only problem that I had with the DW735 is the dust collection, that although much improved over the DW734, I wasn't able to simply connect the system I had used with the DW734. As a Lumberjacks contributor has previously commented, the ejector fan is very powerful - I made the misteak of turning the machine on with the chip ejection port pointing toward my work bench. The result was that the bench was the cleanest it's been since I built it many years ago.









I tried to connect my Rockler 4" hose to the DW735, but the 4" accessories that I use to hook up my SawStop to the Rockler wouldn't fit the DW735. I have a ShopSmith DC3300 with a 2¼" hose, and it wouldn't fit on the DW734. I went back to the dealer, explained the problem, and the salesman told me how sorry he was, but that didn't solve the problem. Since I still had the DW734 with a DW7331 Dust Collection hood, and it had a 2¼ adaptor (DeWalt part number 429615-00 at a cost of $6.27), I tried it on the DW735 Chip Ejector, but it was too big. 









Then I had a bright idea: What if I wound some duct tape on the Chip Ejector, which would effectively enlarge the outside diameter? But the duct tape didn't work. When I slid the DW734 2¼" adaptor over the DW735 Chip Ejector, the tape "scrunched" up. Then, I remembered that I had some Gorilla Tape, and tried that. Voila! Success! However, one small problem. I had used too much Gorilla tape, and I couldn't separate the two pieces. (I did eventually get them apart and removed enough of the tape to hold the two pieces securely, but not so much I couldn't separate the two). 

























I hooked up the ShopSmith vacuum and my "modification" worked fine. The only problem was that the chip ejection port is located directly over the outfeed, and could possibly interfere with a board coming out. Back to the internet and found a ShopSmith Vacuum attachment Elbow (part number 514521 at $7.76) that mated with the DW734 Adaptor. While I was on the ShopSmith site, I also ordered a Hose Connector (part number 515430 at $6.89) so I can hook two 2½" hoses together.

The whole process proves my theory that if you give a Norvegian enough black coffee and Gorilla Tape, wonderful will happen.


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