Dewalt 735 Planer

[Jerry Bittner]

Thinking about DeWalts new planer. However have looked at some of the reviews on Amazon and concerned about the reports of sprocket failure when planing board 6 plus inches wide.

What's the experience of you who know of this machine?

[Bob Marino]

Jerry,

I have heard of those issues, not sure if they got resolved by Dewalt, but I have that planer, have never had a problem and the finish is superb. There isn't a speck of dust when hooked up to the dc and seems to be built like a tank.

Bob

[Herb Blair]

I also have the 735 and would like to say that I haven't had a problem with it at all. I've run 12" wide hard maple through it (about 100 board ft), QS Whiteoak, Cherry, Mahagony, popular and pine.
I owned a 12" Delta prior to that. Loads of difference between the two. I used to hate to plane rough stock, but now it's not a dificult job. I really like the depth stop. Set it and the stock comes out exactly whatever you set. I also like the blower assisted dust collection.
I don't think that there is anything in its class that can touch it.

[Byron Trantham]

I also have the 735 and love it. Many nice features that my old Delta 12 1/2" didn't have. I think you will like it as well. I hadn't heard of sprocket problems.

[mike lucas]

I just got that planer a few weeks back, so I do not know how it will hold up long term. However, last Friday I planed 250 board feet of red oak that ranged from 8" to 11 3/4" wide. All in all I made 3 passes per side. That is 1,500 board feet of planing. So I'd have to say, this planer should hold up pretty good for most hobbyest. But it is not built for someone who will be planing thousands of board feet of hard woods per year. the lumber I planed last Friday is more then most owners of a bench top will plane in a year, and more then some will ever plane.

I do not plan on using this planer as I did on Friday last. I was just testing it out. What I did get it for was to plane a board or two here and there when I need them planed a little more. My huge 25 incher gets all the heavy work from here on out (As it has for the past 12-14 years.). I have wanted a small bench top planer for a while for those times when it wasn't worth the time to get the big one setup and ready to plane.

I would say buy it with confidents, and enjoy. However, if you do lots of planing. Say, like 1,000 BD FT at a time don't expect this or any other bench top to last very many months, let a lone years.

I bought a 12" bench top Makita many many years back, And I burned it up in one week. This one is 100 times better then the Makita was. This DeWalt is most likely better then some so called industrial planers. But that doesn't make it good for heavy everyday use.

[Jerry Bittner]

Thanks for the replies. I did contact DeWalt and they said they corrected the problem early in the year.