DeWalt 735 2 speed planer

[David Van Asperen]

Cleaning out my new wood storage and shop area. It was and is a real mess left by previous inhabitant human and otherwise. Came across a DeWalt 735 2 speed planner, all of the stuff that was left there has been in parts froze up broken and for all practical purposes junk. So I set this planner to the side to have a look at it when I had a little time, today I had a little time.
Looked at it to see if there was any obvious reason to not start it and saw nothing in the way of red flags.
Plugged it into a 25 foot extension cord turned the switch on and moved 25 feet to plug the cord in as I stood behind a door in case there was going to be flying parts and pieces. To my surprise it seemed to run fine, so I shut it down and decided I should check it out a little more since it was going to be my " grand find and treasure"
I moved the 2 speed lever from one position to the other but it would not switch back. That is when I saw the writing " change only while motor is running"
Of course it will not run since it is I between positions.
I do have a manual downloaded yet and a quick search did not yield what I was looking for.
Do you know how to get it to move to one of the speeds without me spending a bunch of money on this " find"
Thanks in advance for your time and help
Dave

 

[Mike1950]

If i remember right i did the same. Have you tried moving it while on? Or take shute off, unplug and move the knife shaft with a board or good gloves. Watch out. Even dull knifes are sharp. I would try second option first.

 

[Sprung]

Will it at least turn on/will the motor run if you turn it on? I did some searching and several people said they had done the same thing and they got it back in by turning it on and, with the machine running, switching it back into position.

Or, someone said this was the response they got from Dewalt: "You can try to turn the unit back to the original speed setting, then turn the unit on and change the speeds, in some cases this fixes it. If it does not you would need to get your unit to one of the centers below for evaluation."

I have this same planer - I haven't used it a ton yet, but I love it. I will admit that I have not done what you did, but almost did before I ever turned it on. I have, thus far, done a good job of getting my children (and wife) to not play with switches in the shop. Yet I'm still not looking forward to the day when one of the boys reaches up and flips that lever! That said, I do think the one design flaw to this planner is how easy that switch is to move and even just bumping it right with the machine off could put you into the spot where you're at right now.

 

[Sprung]

Also saw this in a post:

"Being this question has come up a couple of times and I have never seen how it was fixed by the poster I thought I would do a little experiment. With my DeWalt 735 off I switched speed. It went in the other speed. I guess everything was aligned. I started it and stopped it and tried again. This time it ended up in the middle. I cranked up the planer head up high enough to be able to reach the infeed roller. I unplugged the machine and reached in and turned the infeed roller with one hand and the other hand on the speed lever. I only had to move the infeed roller less than a 1/4 turn and speed level reengaged. I wasn't really worried if it didn't because I have made the mistake a few times and only had to start to reengage. I can't believe DeWalt can't give this simple directions to someone who has done this."

 

[Mike1950]

My 15"delta said to shift while running. Same with big griz i had am sure the PM says same. Flaw is probably misnomer. Just the way theg work.

 

[Sprung]

My 15"delta said to shift while running. Same with big griz i had am sure the PM says same. Flaw is probably misnomer. Just the way theg work.

Yeah, the shifting while running certainly isn't a flaw - but, as above, just how easy it is to bump or move the switch while the machine isn't running, that's where I see some room for improvement.

 

[El Guapo]

I've got the same planer, and for the most part it has been great. If you can get it unstuck and in good running order, I HIGHLY recommend replacing the screws that hold the blades to the cutterhead with some torx head screws. The hex head screws that come with the DW735 are junk and the hex head will strip very, very, very easily. Dewalt sells a set that accepts a T-35 bit. Worth every penny.

 

[barry richardson]

Sounds like a good find! Wish I would find something like that....

 

[Sprung]

I've got the same planer, and for the most part it has been great. If you can get it unstuck and in good running order, I HIGHLY recommend replacing the screws that hold the blades to the cutterhead with some torx head screws. The hex head screws that come with the DW735 are junk and the hex head will strip very, very, very easily. Dewalt sells a set that accepts a T-35 bit. Worth every penny.

I wonder if that's something they changed at some point. Mine, which is about 3 1/2 years old, uses Torx.

 

[El Guapo]

I wonder if that's something they changed at some point. Mine, which is about 3 1/2 years old, uses Torx.

Glad to hear it... such a simple change that will undoubtedly save people so many headaches.

 

[David Van Asperen]

@Mike1950
@Sprung @El Guapo
Thanks for the advice I intend to give it a turn tomorrow
Glad it appears to be an easy fix since I am not very mechicanicl and do not have extra & to chase down a place to get it repaired ( mostly because I now have to buy lottery tickets 1.6 B I think I will have several new planners and give this one to someone who want to have a " find" like this @barry richardson
Might someday get the change over kit if this thing actually works
@Sprung right now it does not run hope turning it over will do the trick
Dave

 

[El Guapo]

One great thing about this planer is that the blades are double-sided, so when they get dull, just flip 'em over.

One bad thing about this planer is that the blades are double-sided, so twice as easy to cut yourself! I have yet to change the blades without making a blood sacrifice to tool gods.

 

[David Van Asperen]

I hope to keep all the blood inside when I change the blades

 

[David Van Asperen]

Just went out and applied your advice @Sprung the motor now runs
Will have to send a board through it to see if the rest of the machine work as intended
Thanks again to all
You mad e the fix easy

 

[David Van Asperen]

Just a quick update. I ran a 1x4 pine through the planner to see if the cutter head was even working and it seems to be all ok
Not real sure why someone would abandon a working planner up I am just going to assume that I need it more than they did

 

[Schroedc]

Just a quick update. I ran a 1x4 pine through the planner to see if the cutter head was even working and it seems to be all ok
Not real sure why someone would abandon a working planner up I am just going to assume that I need it more than they did

Sounds like someone forgot it was even there :D