Dewalt 735 Thicknesser - blade solution?

[Carpenter]

Anyone who owns one of these machines may have encountered a problem with blade life. The Dewalt replacement blade packaging states " High quality M2 laminate HSS blades", this can be decoded simply as "crap". Dewalt will not state the metal composition of the blades, sighting "intellectual property" as the reason. In practical use they don't last long, & given that there is no means for blade adjustment & re-sharpening, they are a throw away item. At $120 a pop to replace its downright painfull! There are no other types of blades available to the consumer, & given the otherwise excellent design & manufacter of what is essentially a portable machine, its baffling to me that something as essential as the cutting edge has been botched. I've been forced to investigate the possibility of having blades manufactured from HSS 18 (18% Tungsten). They need to be ground down from the standard 25mm size to Dewalts 22mm size, then sent away to have holes lazer cut at the screw retaining points & also the critical indexing slot. The new blades will also be 3mm thick instead of dewalts 1.5mm, the only big what if at this stage is if the extra blade thickness will be a problem. Standard blades are about $120, the ones I'm hoping to have made will be more than that, but will certainly last at least twice as long as OEM ones. If this experiment works, they may become available for retail. Cross you're fingers & lets hope it works! I'll let the forum know if its a success.

[craigb]

Interesting.

I have the DeWalt 733, the previous model and its blades can be sharpened.
They also have a pretty fair life between sharpenings.

And a set (it's only two blades on the 733) cost about $80.

[underused]

I was very close to buying the dewalt, but the blade issue put me off the purchase. Most portables these days suffer from the same problems. IMO the delta is the better machine of the two, if you have a DC unit.
As I said, I was so close to buying the dewalt last year. I buy alot of my router bits from Infinity tools in the usa. They also make blades for the dewalt. They are the same thickness, but made from a much better "German tool steel", and can be "resharpened with a diamond hone"
I actually bought a set, but never the machine to go with it:confused:
The blades cost $60US. might be worth a look.
Link:
http://infinitytools.com/products.asp?dept=1111

Heres a pic of mine:

[underused]

Interesting.

I have the DeWalt 733, the previous model and its blades can be sharpened.
They also have a pretty fair life between sharpenings.

And a set (it's only two blades on the 733) cost about $80.

The 733 is the better buy for that reason alone I reckon.
Cheers. Gary.

[TTIT]

Thanks for the heads up guy's. I was thinking about buying a Dewalt simply for the quality and didn't think to ask about blade cost/differences. Timely warning.:)

[mandofran]

I have just today collected the 735 as an upgrade for the dw734 which I had only bought a week ago as a rebuild from Dewalt service centre in Mooroolbark Vic., the 734 was not assembled properly and would not allow me to feed the timber for thicknessing, also the infeed roller had gouges and slices in it, when I returned it I was told I could not have my money back under the 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee as it was a rebuild, they omitted to inform me of this at the time of purchase and as I pointed out it was not printed anywhere, I also purchased a rebuild Router which was minus a collet and dust extraction part in the box so I had to wait a week before I could use it, the staff were incredibly rude and dishonest and told me I was incredibly unlucky to have got the only tools in the service centre that were not 100% (although another guy walked in with a unsatisfactory purchase while I was standing there) The upshot was they had me by the n*ts if I didn't want to wait for my 734 to be repaired by the same repair people who had rebuilt it I would have to pay $120 to upgrade. with my lesson learned I shall never deal with Dewalt service centres again, and I depressed to read in this post that the blades are so poor and expensive. I am sorry about the rant, but I would like to hear how your replacement blades work out