Steel City went under?!
No idea whether this one's any good...
https://www.kmstools.com/general-international-13-helical-head-planer-11287

These reviewers gave Steel City #1 and #2 spots...
Benchtop Planers | Best Ratings and Reviews 2014

Bad news then.

 

Steel City went under?!

Afraid so, closed their doors on March 31
No idea whether this one's any good...
https://www.kmstools.com/general-international-13-helical-head-planer-11287

Hmmm! Anyone with any personal experience with this planer?

powermatic...

Just a tad more then the $1000 price range. If I was doing commercial work then I would seriously consider these, but I'm a small hobby shop

You can get a helical head for the 735. Griz has a decent price on a byrd shelix. All in, it will pretty closely hit your $1K price. Griz has the best prices because, according to byrd, grizzly buys them by the palette load.

This is a possibility. What I don't understand is why DeWalt doesn't offer this planer with a helical as an option. Could be that they are too greedy making money off of their one-time knives.

Or you could go the route I did - buy a used 15" and add a helical. My costs are about $1K also. Used Griz 1021 + byrd shelix.

I would love to find a used grizzly, but can you say, "needle in a haystack"? I never see these types of equipment listed in any of the local 'for sale' sites. Used is no problem...if it is mechanical I can repair or rebuild it.


Try Woodcraft.

They show a Rikon and a Wood River that may work for you.

Good source and I have looked at these I just don't see too much in the way of independent positive reviews. the 13" Ricon looks like the Steel City...Hmmm, it's possible that it may be a SC in Ricon clothing! Anyone know for sure?

 

powermatic...

 

You can get a helical head for the 735. Griz has a decent price on a byrd shelix. All in, it will pretty closely hit your $1K price. Griz has the best prices because, according to byrd, grizzly buys them by the palette load.

Or you could go the route I did - buy a used 15" and add a helical. My costs are about $1K also. Used Griz 1021 + byrd shelix.

 

Hi Bill

Try Woodcraft.

They show a Rikon and a Wood River that may work for you.

 

as I understand it there are two levels of Byrd Helical cutters...
there are premium stand alone retrofit and a lesser model that goes into OEM machines....

if you buy a planer w/ a Byrd head in it you'll be getting the economy version...

 

Interesting, Stick! I had not heard this before. I wonder what the tangible differences are between the two. You would think that someone with Byrd's reputation would be consistent with their products. I guess if this is the case, then, you would have to be careful buying a head aftermarket. You would have to know which one(s) are the better quality.

 

I bought my G1021 at an auction, with buyers premium it was about 350. Byrd shelix for that (from Griz) was 600. I got a decent price but not a total fluke. I've seen them in the 400-600 range on CL.

I too am surprised that dewalt doesn't offer a helical version of the 735. A sub $1K helical would be a hot item. I suspect it's just not close enough to their core business to warrant the effort.

By the way, that rikon 13" planer doesn't have carbide cutters - HSS.

 

"I too am surprised that dewalt doesn't offer a helical version of the 735. A sub $1K helical would be a hot item. I suspect it's just not close enough to their core business to warrant the effort."

As popular as the 735 is I would think that it would be a good marketing strategy to offer a helix as an option. Now that Steel City is gone it would be a good seller, with no competition in this class. Most of the helix-es would be the larger and more expensive units.

I really do like the 735 but the non-carbide, pin indexed blades turn me off. More than one source have commented on the problem and although they love the machine would not consider it again because of the knives. If Dewalt offered it with a helix option I would probably buy one.

 

My gosh Bill, and other members, you can buy a lot replacement knives for what it cost to
upgrade the 735 to helican heads

I get a "lot" of life out of a set of knives on my 735 and the finish that I get with the knives
is as good as is the finish that come off of my jointer that has helican cutters.

I went through the decision about up graded to the helican heads, but after comparing the
cuts made by the planer with knives and the finish made by the jointer, I decided to just
keep my money. This may not be applicable to a commercial shop where the planer is
running constantly and be used a lot, but I suspect that the 735 was not made for that
application anyway.

Just my two bits worth Bill, I'll be watching to see what you finally do, have a great day.


Jerry

 

Jerry,

I totally agree with you. You can buy a lot of blades for the cost of the upgrade to the 735. I just wish that DeWalt would offer it with helical head off the shelf. That way it would be much cheaper then eventually upgrading, if that decision was made.

How often are you going through a set of blades? More then likely, if push comes to shove I'll just get a 735. That is, unless there are no comparable planers with helical heads available.

 

I have helix cutters on my jointer and blades on my 735. I 100% agree with Jerry's comment.

 

By the way, somebody might ask why I bought the helican cutters for the jointer
when I made my point about not needing them for the planer.

The reason is that I had read about what is it takes to install a new set of knives
on a jointer and that intiminated me due my vision problem so I just stepped up
to the them.

Now that we are on the subject, what is the real advantage of helican cutter other
than longevity? I personally don't see any difference in the way they cut, but
remember I can't see, but my finger tips are pretty sensitive. I'd like to hear what
the people that are in the know have to say about the subject. I'm sure not an
expert obviously.

 

If you check eBay they have several Powermatic Model 100's for sale in that price range. It's pretty much the cadillac of small (12") planers. It's not really that much heavier than a lunch box planer on a good stand.

 

I have to join the blade crowd. I'm on the first side of the second set of blades on my 735. I've had it for at least 6 years it is showing no signs of wear. I usually don't keep a tool that long so that says something about the 735. I replaced my first set after about a year and as I think back on it probably didn't need to. The important thing is to keep the rollers clean and the table waxed. If you don't the machine will mimic dull blades. By that I mean it will not feed the wood through without great effort. The blades are simple to replace with no special jig or measurement needed. Simply take the top off remove the blades and drop the new ones in.

 

Jerry, the claims about helical cutters: they are much quieter and make a smoother cut with less tear out.

 

I had a 735 and used it to plane a lot of rough sawn Maple for several years. I went thru several blades and went thu the same dilemma as Bill , but came to the conclusion that at $40 a set of 3 double sided blades was only $20 a set of cutters and you divide that into $200 and that is 10 times cheaper than the Carbide set that Infinity sells.
I sold the 735 because of the noise level. After awhile it drove me up the wall. I replaced it with the Delta 15" planer and was quite happy with that. It had a larger solid steel cutter head instead of the 3 sided lightweight cutter head of the 735. I think that the 735 with that paddle shaped cutter head and exhaust fan combined with the dust collector causes a siren effect when it is running.

Just my dusty opinion.
Herb

 

Herb,
Woulld it be fare to say that had it not been for the noise, the results that you got with the 735 was satisfactory?

Jerry

 

Thanks for the discussion. I've been using a Makita 13 inch planer, but really don't love it, so thinking about the DeWalt. I'm a hobbiest, so it makes the most sense to me with the straight blades.

 

Great discussion guys...I just picked up a NIB 735 for 275 bucks (yeah, its a BIG gloat) its been sitting in the basement for over a week now, still in the box...

I seem to recall having read that there are two versions of the 735 factory heads and you need to make sure which you have before you upgrade. Its kinda funny

I have a older Craftsman 12 1/2" planer...and I'd put the finish it gives up against any lunch box planer out there, Lord only knows WHY it does such a nice job, but it

does, no kidding. I've had the thing apart fixing it so many times that something somewhere just fell in place somewhere down the line of repairs. It certainly didn't

perform as well out of the box new *L*...I"m looking forward to pulling the 735 out of the box and running a few board feet thru it just to see how she performs..

 

Sounds to me like you may have just committed "Grand Larceny" Bill.
Good for you, and yes, this has been an interesting thread.

I for one, will be waiting to hear what you say about the finish that the new planer cuts comparared to that old well tuned up Craftsman.

Jerry

 

Thanks Jerry...finally pulled the trigger on it...could not pass this up. As for the old craftsman being tuned up..*LOL*..honestly,,it has to be more luck than anything else. All the stars aligned on it. If you would see it down in the shop right now, you would question if it even works. No case covers, packed with sawdust, grease all around the drive sprockets and chains...*L*.. its a real piece of work to look at, but she cuts beautifully....I just know when she goes, she's gonna go all the way...

 

iThink they call it "Well Broken In".

Now the question, the big question, how are you going to treat the new 735????? If it helps and really makes it cut really good, maybe you need approach Dewalt about what you are doing. JOKE

Jerry

 

Just a final note on helix type cutters versus a blade. I recently rotated my cutters on my jointer. It is a long tedious process. More to the point, if you do not carefully clean each cutter head the embedded sawdust will not allow it to re-seat precisely with its neighbour. So you get lines on the board due to the uneven cutter heads. They are very slight and could be sanded out but if it were my planer I would find it annoying. As it is I go from jointer to planer so the blades take care of it.

 

Dennis,
I only have had to rotate one cutter on my jointer so far, but I sure did find that the screw that held it is place took a lot of effort to loosen so I can just imagine the effort and time that it would take to do all of them. I guess that the good part is that one does not have to do the job very often.

Did you find that thet it took a lot of effort to break the screws loose on the cutters too?

Jerry

 

Try "searchtempest.com" I use it all the time, it searches as much of craigslist as you want it to. If I'm looking for something and willing to travel, or pay shipping, it's searchtempest for me. And remember to try different spellings, if someone spells what you're looking for wrong, you may never see it.

 

I havn't had a chance to read it yet, but Fine Woodworking has an article about helical heads, I believe they feature the 735 in the article..

 

Bill here is some information that I found that may help you decide what you want to do.


These are fairly recent articles/posts:

Spiral Cutterhead Review: Worth the Price?

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/tools/introduction-helical-cutter-heads

Thickness planer question... helical vs. knives?

You can see the triangular cutter head for the DW735 clearly at minute 10:05

Herb

 

Bill here is some information that I found that may help you decide what you want to do.


These are fairly recent articles/posts:

Spiral Cutterhead Review: Worth the Price?

https://www.canadianwoodworking.com/tools/introduction-helical-cutter-heads

Thickness planer question... helical vs. knives?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osYRsjN-Nu0
You can see the triangular cutter head for the DW735 clearly at minute 10:05

Herb

Herb,

Thanks for the links. It is essentially, "clear as mud". Not in a bad way, though! With all of the great input from everyone, it appears that the 735 is the way to go...best bang for the buck for a hobby woodworker. I won't be running thousand of board feet and abusing the knives. So, if I can find a decent price on a 735 I think that I will likely jump.

As for the helicals...that can always be down the road when the money, need and time dictates.

I want to thank everyone for the input. It has been a good and hopefully enlightening discussion for some of the others in the wings. I know it has been for me.

Bill

 

Bill, I think you made the right decision. Once you get the planer and start using it I predict you will like it as it is and use the money for upgrading to buy a jet drum sander.
Herb

 

What I saw was a dude that's going to have his hair ripped out of his scalp if he doesn't start wearing it in a ponytail...or better yet get a serious haircut. Loose clothing and/or long hair are an accident waiting to happen around machinery. If he's been doing this for awhile somebody has already warned him; he just chooses to be different...

 

Dan,

I'm sure that he knows...with no moving equipment he was OK. However, with that being said, it is a real detriment and danger around moving equipment.

I used to have a photo of a machinist, who was working at the Michoud (New Orleans NASA plant) facility in the 60's, He was on the Saturn booster build (Apollo program). His long hair (and literally his scalp) ended up wrapped around a lathe chuck. NOT a pretty picture.

I would have to occasionally pull it out to make a point to an employee. It always had the desired affect! Thankfully, hair styles change and most of the machinists had short hair, even the females wore a short style.

The person in the video appears to be Native American and from his accent, Canadian. So, that hair is probably culturally driven. I'm sure that he takes some precautions, since he appears to be an experienced woodworker (for his age) and he still has his scalp.

Bill

 

Jerry to answer your question, yes some were very difficult to remove. I went through a couple of driver heads that day.

 

Did you just ruin the drivers without hurting the screw. That is my fear that I might strip out the screw and that would really be a disaster.

Jerry

 

Article in Fine Woodworking on cost comparison between straight blade and helical cutter replacement/sharpening cost.

Bottom Line on Segmented Cutterhead Cost - Fine Woodworking Article

The initial cost is a barrier for me. I'm a light, hobby user, so the 735 would do for me to replace my not so wonderful Makita.. When I hit over $1,000, I have to think the purchase over very carefully. Next on my list is a Laguna fourteen 12 band saw with their resaw blade. Then I'd like to get the DW. First I have to step away from my business so I have some time for more serious woodworking.

Regarding the video, if it is that much trouble getting into the machine to have access to the replacement parts or to rotate the cutter segments, that is far too much trouble to go to compared to just dropping in a straight blade. The long hair reminds me of when I worked on a small daily paper which was printed on an old 1920s Goss rotary press that used cast lead plates and had zero safety devices. A long haired printers apprentice got his scalp ripped off one morning and nearly bled to death. Noticed everyone wore caps and hair nets after that.

This is one of those issues about which we all have our own situations and views. Some guys like fiddling with their gear, but I really don't. Just my thoughts about my situation.