DEWALT Thickness Planer, 13-Inch, DW735 Model

***update 5/2/2024***
I purchased a cyclone that attaches to a 5 gallon bucket to collect all the chips. This solution required a little tweaking (and a tool to cut the elbow to squeeze it into the planer dust port) to works, but the chips are no longer covering my driveway. It came with a hose, two elbows and a lid for the 5 gallon bucket.

Dust extraction note: No dust extractor is required and I think it might actually be detrimental. The blower on the planer blows things out like a vacuum. This does create an issue when the cyclone doesn’t latch and expects a vacuum to lock the lid in place. I used some small Irwin quick clamps in three locations to lock the lid on and tight. I got no leaking from the side. The exposed top let dust escape, but you can attach your hose with the vacuum off and turn on when done planing if that dust bothers you.

The planer does seem to leave a lot of chips on the blades, in the carriage, and after some use, that starts coming out the front of the machine. I cleaned up my area after every couple of boards. So don’t expect dust free operation. Apart from hating the mess, my concern was that the chips would impact the flatness of the boards. So, heads up.

Noise: My wife said it was loud. I had ear protection on, and it sounded like a table saw/miter saw. She, however, made a note of the noise from her office, and while she could tell I was working with the other tools, she knew I was using the planer. I wasn’t even doing wide hardwood pieces. Mostly cedar and 4-6″ pieces. So, be aware. with my ear protection on it was like any other machine to me.
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Dewalt 735x – purchased/used April 29, 2024

The good:
Set up is easy. Comes with a useful torx tool annd magnet on the handle. For setup Attach the turning handle (need a tool to hold the shank while unscrewing the bolt and screwing the handle on). Need to level the plates (need 36” flat level. (Need small hex key for leveling player, I forgot the size). Attach the dust port. I also opened up the top (for screws) and then the blade cover to check on the blades. It looked like a test run had been done as I found slight traces of sawdust. No excess oil.
The boards ran smoothly. While the blades are sharp, the machine is awesome. I understand that the blades can dull quickly though so fyi.
It pulls the boards right out of my hands and has great power.
It THROWS the chips and you will want a method to collect chips that are not a vacuum. A hose and a bucket or something. The force of the blower looks like it’s easily enough and a vacuum might be an issue. I need to find a chip collector method and I’ll update.
Lots of great YouTube videos on setup, tear down, replacing blades with helical blades.
Looks easy to break down and access parts (although replacing the head looks time consuming)

The bad:
This will likely trip a 15amp circuit. Online testing shows this can spike to 30amps and should run on a 20amp circuit.
The safety on the dewalt trips around 18amps in theory, but online says that the wires connected to it are smaller and they can melt over time when under a lot of load. This can damage the safety mechanism that makes sure the machine doesn’t run when the top is off (and ironically it CAN run when it’s off).
Blades are supposed to dull quickly and are expensive. I’ve run 8 boards about 6” wide and 8’ long once on each side fast and once slow. Performance is good so far. Pine and oak mix.

My final conclusion is that the internet has lots of customization and fixes, which look relatively easy to do, but right out of the box everything is awesome. TBD what I think a year from now. It was between this and the cutech and I ultimately decided on this because cutech never got back to me about questions I asked them. If dewalt fails at least I have some warranty and a ton of videos help me fix myself.

Ya tiene años que la compre Muy buena maquina practica agiliza el trabajo Recomendable

I am a hobbyist woodworker who had considered the DW735 for a while. However, I never really had the need for it. Then I found 2 lumber mills in the area, one that sells rough domestic lumber and one that sells rough exotic lumber. That’s when it became possible to very quickly recoup the money for the planer through savings on lumber.

I decided to buy the DeWalt DW735X because I wanted the infeed/outfeed. The extra set of knives is an attractive addition as well, given the less than stellar reviews of the longevity of the stock knives on this planer.

The planer arrived on time and the box was in great condition. It’s HEAVY (~90lbs), so either get a friend to help, or get a workout deadlifting the beast! The only things that needed attaching were the dust collection attachment, the infeed/outfeed tables and the wheel for the depth control. All of these items installed with the greatest of ease and I encountered no issues with setup whatsoever.

My first test cut was on an extra piece of rough 6/4 ash that I had lying around. This piece had previously been run through a friend’s planer, which got it down to thickness, but still left it pretty rough overall. In fact, I was skeptical about the value of any planer after that experience. But on the very first pass through the DW735 the ash came out butter smooth. Literally. The difference between the surface of that board before it went through the DW735 and after was night and day. AND IT HAD BEEN THROUGH A PLANER BEFORE!

I hook my ShopVac directly to the dust port, so I can’t comment on the strength of the chip ejection. However, I have removed the top in order to check everything out and I can report that there is a substantial fan mounted directly above and behind the knives and just in front of the port, so I have no doubt that the chips created would be tossed a good distance!

The first project that I’ve worked on has been a nice wall shelf made out of solid cherry. I bought ~10 board feet of 4/4 rough lumber that I needed to plane down to 5/8″, 1/2″ and 3/8″ sections. The boards were 4/4 x 8 1/2″ x ~74″. After squaring and cutting the boards to size, I started planing by removing around 1/32″ on each pass. This was taking a while to get down to the desired thicknesses, so I decided to get a little more aggressive. I wasn’t doing anything the machine isn’t rated to handle…the depth gauge shows that up to 9″ wide boards can take as much as 1/16″ off on each pass. So I started taking that. The DW735 was working, but not noticing all that much. Things went much faster after that.

The results of the planing were astounding. My boards are exactly the thicknesses that I need them and they are SMOOOOOTH! And I only used the 96 CPI setting! I sanded the boards with my random orbital to 220 and they are absolutely perfect. I’m pretty sure that they were already ~100 grit smooth after being planed down, again, on the 96 CPI setting. I’m not sure what grit the 192 CPI setting creates, but I’d be shocked if it was less than 120-150.

I have only used the DW735X on a single project. But the ease of set up, the ease of use and the results that I have seen after that single project, along with the savings in lumber costs, have already made me a firm advocate of this planer. If you have access to rough lumber and you work more than a couple of projects per year and you’re considering a planer, DO IT! You will not regret the DW735X!

The pics are the 2 boards, still rough. The 2nd is a single board before being planed. The last pic is of the different boards I needed, planed to 5/8″, 1/2″ and 3/8″.

It was delivered on date advertised. Planer is high quality for what I need in my small workshop. Doing the job that I hoped it would.