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Tony Falotico

Tony Falotico

Member
Messages
519
Location
Lake City, Florida
I used to be an active member, in late 2012 my wife and I were dealt a deadly hand that plummeted us into a five year horror story. After many twists and turns we finally recovered, adopted our three young grand daughters, retired and resumed a somewhat normal life.
I recently got my shop cleaned out and am getting it up and running and hope to resume the hobby I always enjoyed. OK, enough of the sympathy story...
I'm going to order a Shelix cutter head for my DeWalt 735. Should I get the original size or reduced sized. I'm leaning towards the original but would appreciate any advice. Mainly I'm asking is the original that much of an installation hassle to warrant the smaller one?
 
I don't know anything about the cutter head.

Welcome back. I know the family horror stories all too well. Wish I didn't know about that stuff. Glad to hear you are on the other end. Enjoy life, as much as is possible. Welcome to the other side.
 
Hi Tony - great to have you back, so sorry for the problems you've been through.

I did the swap on my 735 last year and am as happy as I could be. Go with the full sized head. The installation is a bit longer but no more difficult. It requires removing all (IIRC) the cutters first and then reinstalling them once the head is in place. Like I said, longer, not more difficult. One tip - check and then double check each cutter as you snug it down for alignment. You will also need an inch-pound torque wrench. I got one at Harbor Freight for just a few bucks that worked fine.

Once installed find or glue up a test board as wide as the planer will allow - about 13 1/2" and about 2 feet long. You will likely have a few cutters that will be ever so slightly out of alignment and they will leave a slight ridge or line on the board when you run it through. I ran the board through, marked the lines with a pencil and then, with the machine unplugged and the head slightly raised, fed the board halfway through. With the top of the machine removed you can sight down across the cutter head to see which cutters align with the ridges. loosen and se-snug the cutter making sure it is properly seated. Lightly sand the ridges and pencil lines from the board and repeat until you have minimized the ridges. You won't get them all but you should be able to minimize them into insignificance.

Good luck!
 
No advice to offer on the planer head, but I just wanted to welcome you back. Looking forward to seeing you here again. :thumb:
 
Welcome back Tony. I've joined since you left, but already feel like you are an old friend.

I have a 735 and have been considering and researching going with a Shelix head upgrade, but I haven't gone for it yet. Those that I know who have gone to Shelix are telling me to go with the full size the same way that Rennie did, so when it happens I'm convinced that I'll follow that route. I'm not that heavy of a planer user, but a couple of times a year I have had a history of using the 735 for half day planning projects when something needs to be built from rough sawn or "too thick" materials.

Charley
 
There's some anecdotal evidence that the Shelix heads put more of a load on the 735 motor than it was designed for, causing it's internal breaker to time out if you try and hog off material on wide boards. Forces shallower cuts. There's a thread over on SMC talking about the trouble. I also read about the affect of the increased load when I was thinking of upgrading to Shelix on my Hammer A3-31. It just makes you take finer cuts than what you might do with straight blades. The theory is that with Shelix there is always a cutter in the wood, as opposed to straight blades that have intermittent contact.
 
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