DW735 Planer problem UPDATE 1

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well as they say in places where cricket is played "Rain stopped play" today in my shop. Well not quiet the rain but my DW735 told me it had enough of the abuse and broke.

It all started with me needing to prepare some raw cherry boards to glue up as draw fronts on the router table.

Given my jointer is out of action i decided what better way to get to warm up than take my No7 and flatten one side on the bench.

With that process completed in short course i did not stop to check the overall thickness of the board . (totally my fault once again act in haste repent at your leisure. )

So everything started out fine as i sent the board through the planer for thickening and boom the board gets stuck. Quickly tried to increase the thickness to release the board and got it out.

Then knocked off the extra thickness with the No 7 and tried to put it through planner again. Cutters roared into action but there was no roller drive taking place.

Unplugged and raised the table and then tried it again to see if the rollers were turning. no such luck.

Unplugged again and took side covers off and what do you know found the problem

20141005_115510.jpg

One of the roller drive sprockets had snapped in half. Whats interesting to note is that this is kind of like a sintered steel material dont look like it was a defect in fact looks as though its cast and chosen this way as a means of protecting the gears and the machine.

Found the replacement at Ereplacement parts

http://www.ereplacementparts.com/sprocket-p-71266.html

They only cost $4.77 which is what makes me say they cast.

I am not complaining its totally my dumb actions that caused the problem but while i am at it given this is only $4.77 i thought i would check in here and see if anyone can recommend any other bits and pieces the have had to replace on theirs during the course of use.

I know about blades and i have thought of the belt but the belt is $38 so i think rather than have that lying around for the just in case i pass on that.

But any other bits people have found have given way for whatever reason. ?

Cool thing is the easy access and Ereplacement also has some tips to check on at the bottom which i have already done. nothing else jammed up in my case.
 
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Looks like I would be buying at least three of them in case it happens again or the other two were weakened by this ordeal.
 
I don't know of anything else to look out for but, I bought a six-pack of these and have them all over the shop. I'll guesstimate a few things while I'm working as a matter of course but, I don't like to guess at things when it comes to feeding machines. I wonder if there is a pressure setting for the feed rollers. I know I backed mine off quite a bit from the factory default and stock going into my planer still cannot be stopped by anything human once the feed rollers are engaged. My thinking is that skid marks would beat a gear replacement any day ;-)

P.s. +1 on buying a spare. After the Delta fiasco, I am skittish on parts availability. I had to make trunnion parts myself for my drill press as they are available <read with an eerie echoing voice> . . .
NO WHERE . . .

. . . . . . NO WHERE . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . NO WHERE . . .
 
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Rob, I have the old DW733 so I don't have much to add. I did want to chime in just to say that I use eReplacement parts quite often too. I do go to them first to find the part number but then take the part number to Amazon and check there. I find (more times than not) the same part and usually for less money and if you have a Prime membership the shipping is free. That is a very big plus living on a rock in the middle of the ocean. I do the same search for most anything I buy online and it is a bunch due to so many things that are not available here.

I've always hoped one day my 733 would die so I would have the excuse to get the 735... I've heard so many times they have a lot less snipe than the older models.. but in reality, if this one breaks, I'll be looking a eReplacement for parts and fixing the thing! LOL I did replace the belt on mine several years ago... always happens at the worst time ;)
 
I haven't broken that part on my 735 but did break the dust shoot fitting that the collector house attaches too. The plastic is very narrow where the pin pops in to hold in place and it doesn't take much twisting to break it.

Jack
 
I have the DW735 but not sure what to tell you about what happened to you. I use the built-in gauge to check how much I'm taking off a board. Crank the assembly up, put a board in place, lower the assembly until I'm taking a reasonable cut, pull the board back, turn the motor on and start feeding. No problem.
 
Bill,

I think the board Rob ran through was thicker on one end. He started it in the planer at the thin end and the board got too think for the planer to continue feeding it and locked up.

Jack

I have the DW735 but not sure what to tell you about what happened to you. I use the built-in gauge to check how much I'm taking off a board. Crank the assembly up, put a board in place, lower the assembly until I'm taking a reasonable cut, pull the board back, turn the motor on and start feeding. No problem.
 
Yup Bill only seeing your post now but Jack is absolutely correct. Was entirely my own fault . In my haste i did not properly check the thickness. I looked at grain orientation and had used my jointer plane to flatten one side. In doing so i had made a bigger wedge of the raw badly cut cherry that i purchased as a tree that had been cut up and dried. I put the board in considering the direction of the grain and not checking on the thickness and paid the price for my error.
Glenns got a real good suggestion to put those all calipers (i call them veniers) all over the shop next to machines.

I just like to make a note here about replacement parts.

I was going to buy my items at E replacement parts however they fit into one of those web based US companies that have structured their international shipping in such a manner that it is disproportional to the cost of their products for an international customer. Yeah Canada is considered international, crazy to me.

So i found a local place called http://www.toolpartscanada.com/ that seems to be a new place to me and they are offering the same kind of service with parts only slightly more expensive but in reality they just taking into account the exchange rate and not the gouge us factor.

I cannot comment yet on the service they offer, the cool thing i like about ereplacements is they say its in stock or not. These guys say if its in stock you get it in a few days, otherwise its a week or so. Thats not quite what i would like to hear when ordering online but i thought i would give them a try. We got our Thanksgiving weekend coming up so i am not going to be able to get to fitting the parts even if they arrived before then. Time will tell how they perform. Thanks for the input guys.
 
Burning daylight

Weather here is changing rapidly and i cannot wait for the local parts supplier to get those parts I ordered to me. ( Just for the record Canadians forget about using the guys i mentioned in my previous post, non existent customer service or status reports).

So i had a brain wave the other night and wondered if i might be able to braze the sprocket back together.

Well today i gave it a go and started by using my Dremel to gently put a small bevel on the edges of the cracked bits and then dunked the bits in some acetone to clean . Then proceeded to braze the sprocket halves back together.

After a bit of filing and cleaning up here is the result.

Dewalt planer sprocket brazed side a.jpgDewalt planer sprocket brazed side b.jpg


There is nothing i enjoy more than fixing something in this kind of way. I have no idea if this is going to hold and work. Wish me luck. I only wish to get a single board planed so i can get my router table door fronts done before the snow comes.

Have just enough time to assemble and test before i have to get ready to head out to the annual rodeo at the Royal Canadian Riding Academy . Hope it holds long enough and when the new parts finally get delivered I will replace.

Welds are not pro quality but somehow i think they might just do.
 
Dunno if you have a tractor/Farm supply store there Rob, but both of the ones we have here in town have sprockets and such on the shelves. Might be worth a stop in with your broken part to see if they have anything similar.
 
I do not have anything to add to the list of replies except this.

I absolutely KNOW how they were make. I know because I used to make them. Well not me, but I worked in a place that manufactured very similar if not those gears and sprockets. I was a design engineer and designed tooling used to make that stuff.

They are made in a powdered metal process. That is where metal is made into a vine powder, like flour, then poured into a complex multi-part mold (the tooling I designed) then pressed under 10-20 tons per square inch. The part - called a compact is ejected, then sent through a furnace at about 1800-2000 degrees to be sintered. In the sintering the metal particles are sorta melted together.

The Powdered Metal or PM as we affectionately call is is a VERY high volume and VERY low cost was of manufacturing. The quality is lowers but so is the cost. More than not - the PM part will do the job and do it well. There is always compromise.

So - how long did you own the DW735 without any problems? How many board feet did it run? It only failed WHEN?

This is NOT a casting - and that sprocket was NOT cast.

There is a huge differene between PM (sintered) and casting.

Also - there is a HUGE difference between PM - and what a lot of people call "pot metal".

Casting requires machining - and that is not machined.

If - it was cast and machined it would cost $40 - not $4 and if the DW735 was made to the standards of such quality as a cast and machined sprocket - the DW735 would likely cost $1200 or more.

The replacement part at e-parts could have easily come from the same manufacturing batch as the original part. It is VERY likely that the replacement part was made in the exact same mold in the same company as the original. There might be some identification marks on it.

Anyway - this may not mean anything to anybody - but - That IS how it's made.
 
I was thinking about a DW735 some day. I have an older Grizzly portable & my Dad's planer a Belsaw 12" with a 5 hp motor & a rip attachment. After seeing this i think I'll just hang onto what I already have. Thanks Rob. I hope it all turns out great for you.
 

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