Thread: REVIEW - Dewalt DW735 13" Thicknesser

Review – Dewalt DW735 13” Thicknesser<O</O
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Hi all.<O</O
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After much debate, deliberation and research, I finally bit the bullet and purchased the Dewalt Thicknesser. I bought it yesterday and spent today running board after board through it so here’s a brief review for those who are similarly interested.<O</O
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Product: Dewalt DW 735 13” Thicknesser<O</O
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Weight: 42kgs<O</O
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Standard Assecories: variable size dust extractor for 100mm hoses and 50mm hoses, spare set of blades (3)<O</O
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Manual – Good. The manual goes through the necessary information ie height adjustment, depth stop setting, blade changing etc in a fairly comprehensive way with good pictorial aids. <O</O
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Warranty/service – Dewalt offer a 12 month warranty with free servicing during this period. They also offer a 30 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee if you want to return the product.<O</O
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The first thing that strikes you straight out of the box is the bright yellow on this machine. It’s big, nut neat and compact. The fit and finish is brilliant, there are no flimsy bits which shake and rattle. Event the top cover which only covers the motor and the blades is a fairly solid plastic that has some heft to it.<O</O
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I like to have everything in my workshop as mobile as possible so immediately placed the Dewalt on a mobile drawer stand and it feels right at home there.

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Turning the machine on, it is LOUD. Almost feels like a jet engine screaming in your face. When I connected the dust chute to my dust extractor, the noise subdued considerably. It is not really necessary to connect to a dust extractor as the machine has an “assisted chip removal” mechanism. It blows the chips out itself. I would recommend attaching a bag to the dust chute as it wont take long to cover your workshop with chips. This function also leaves the thicknesser remarkably dust/chip free.

Now to the practical side of it. The 735 is a little different from other machines in that it doesn’t have extended infeed and outfeed tables. The bed length in total is 50cm which is the depth of the machine plus about 5cm protrusion on either end. At first I was a little concerned about this but the tech guy at Dewalt who I had been liaising with managed to put my concerns at ease and from using it today on timber upto 1m in length, I haven’t noticed any problems or issues.<O></O>
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The machine rides on 4 columns that are chain driven through a winding knob mounted on the wide of the machine. This is connected to the height gauge which is already accurately set. The minimum height on this is 5mm and max is 153mm. The winding motion itself is very smooth and takes very little effort in either direction. Again, there is no excess play or movement, a very very solid feel. The Dewalt also comes with Preset depths which are for some of the more popular sizes. Being American, the sizes are in inches, but they are handy nonetheless.

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On the front of the machine there is a depth gauge indicating the depth of cut. This automatically moves depending on how tight you have wound the head onto the timber you have inserted for planing. Next to this gauge is a switch to change feed speeds. Yes the machine has variable speed. 1 is for 170+ cuts per inch and 2 for 90+ cuts per inch. Dewalt recommends 2 for normal use 1 for finishing, however when preparing hardwoods, they recommend 1 to reduce wear on the blades. Changes to speed are made while the machine is on.

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<O</OThe blades themselves are carbide tipped blades. My understanding is that they are NOT resharpenable, but they are reversible and a second set is supplied with the machine<O</O
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All up I put through about 40ft of Jarrah today (I replaced 2 garden gates a few weeks ago and had been saving the old gates for when I got the thicknesser) and about 20ft of pine (scraps lying around)<O</O
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The Jarrah on the gates was 16mm which I reduced to 12 mm and the pine were random sizes which I tried reducing by between 6 – 8mm (in multiple passes offcourse<O</O
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Now I must admit that I’ve never ever used a thicknesser before so things like snipe are not something I’m familiar with. However, having browsed through these forums, I am aware of what to look for and feel for and as far as I can tell there was no snipe what so ever.

The finish on the timber was very good, almost glass like. In my opinion, there would be a need for only minimal sanding to bring this to a complete finish.
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The infeed side of the machine has iron “teeth” above the bed which grab the timber once you insert it a certain distance. Once they grab, it’s quite hard to pull the timber back out. Keep pushing it in another 10mm or so and the auto feed takes over and you simply take over at the other end.<O</O
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There is no manual carriage lock, this being an automatic function. The timber goes in straight and comes back in the same position at the other end. Only once did any of the timber I fed in wander around under the cutter and that was because the side lying on the bed itself was quite uneven. In this event, the timber came out diagnol to how I had inserted it in, I inserted the timber from the left of the machine as I looked at it and it came out from the right of the machine in the rear. This was also the only timber that had snipe in it, both at the start of the cut and at the end of the cut..<O</O
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All in all, I’m very pleased with the Dewalt. While I have no previous experience with a thicknesser, I feel the Dewalt is certainly capable of taking on more than anything I can throw at it. <O</O
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Finally, while I have no association with Dewalt, one of the reasons I purchased this over other brands was because during my liaisons with Dewalt themselves (www.dewalt.com.au) they never once bagged another brand. This is a personal pet hate of mine and whenever I do experience that, I will stay away from either that shop or the brand. I made several inquiries about other brands like Makita, and other thicknesser on their own stands (JET, Carbatec, Timbecon) but almost always, when I broached the question of comparing one to the other, not only would the sales staff/advisors speak highly of their own product, but very negatively of the other product. In that respect, I was very satisfied with my dealing with Dewalt as they answered all my questions without managing to disrespect any other brand.<O</O
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Accessories available: Optional infeed and outfeed supports (I have ordered these), Mobile Stand, <O</O
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Finally, my thanks to all those who contributed to my questions about thicknessers and the advise I received from this forum. It’s been a great help.<O</O
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Cheers<O</O
Jeelan<O</O