Planer Knives

[TV]

I just changed the knives in my Dewalt 735. How is it that it doesn't take long for the knives to not give a perfect surface? It is 10x better than the old knives but I was hoping for a beautiful slick surface at least through the 1st 50 linear feet.

tv

[Gofor]

Definitely no expert, and I have the 734 instead of the 735, but I have run probably 10 times that and am just now starting to see some minor ridges. I doubt the quality of the blades is different.

So, to help us understand:

What species wood?
Is it clean? (reclaimed and /or pallet wood, etc, quite often has grit and sand on or in the grain which will destroy a blade edge in a heartbeat.)
How deep a cut are you taking?
Are you using any chip extraction (ie: shop vac, DC, etc)

Go

[TV]

It is clean lumber. Some of Jeff's spalted maple, I think soft. I had already been planing it with the old knives so it was relatively clean. Of course, the grain in some of the boards is a bit different. I was taking very shallow cuts, probably 1/32 and I have a 2 hp dust collector hooked up to the planers internal dust blower. It started pretty much immediately. It isn't bad but it kind of stinks.

tv

[DavidF]

Hmm, not my experience at all with the knives in my 735. Infact I have had this machine nearly 2 years and only turned the original blades once about 10 months ok, only now am I seeing signs of wear. I have run a fair bit of lumber through it in that time too. Maybe the blades you fitted were sub par, maybe not hardend enough, were they genuine OEM replacements?

[dancam]

I share David' experience. I've run over 500 bdft (CHERRY, W OAK AND SOME DIMENSIONAL) and have yet to flip the original blades.

Overall very very happy with the DW735...it was a sound investment.

Dan C.

[jeff...]

Originally Posted by TV

It is clean lumber. Some of Jeff's spalted maple, I think soft. I had already been planing it with the old knives so it was relatively clean. Of course, the grain in some of the boards is a bit different. I was taking very shallow cuts, probably 1/32 and I have a 2 hp dust collector hooked up to the planers internal dust blower. It started pretty much immediately. It isn't bad but it kind of stinks.

tv

Is the lumber bad? with the grain in the boards being a bit differnt and all - it may be the lumber I cut is so weird your dewalt doesn;t know what to do with it Seriously - The industry calls it soft maple - but it's quite hard in my experiences.

[TV]

Nope, Jeff. The lumber has worked well so far and some of it is quite 'hard'. The 'bit different' is what my wife likes about the lumber. I may have to take the blades out and look at them.

DavidF: I purchased the dewalt knives at WC. So I am assuming that they are made by dewalt for the planer. By the way, can these be resharpened?

As a side note, my wife was a bit apprehensive about buying lumber from the lumber runs. She didn't think we had space. After seeing what has been available and the price, she is almost always telling me to buy.

tv

[DavidF]

Originally Posted by TV

DavidF: I purchased the dewalt knives at WC. So I am assuming that they are made by dewalt for the planer. By the way, can these be resharpened?



tv

No, not if you want the auto indexing to still work. Just flip them over when one side gets dull then get some new ones. Others may have decided to get them sharpend but I would imagine they are pretty hard steel.

[JimmyC]

You may not be able to sharpen them, but you can probably go over them with a diamond hone a couple of times.

Jimmy