Helical Cutterhead for DeWalt DW735/DW735X/DW735-XE Thickness Planer, 4 Rows

I put this new helical cutter in my Dewalt planner after one of the original blades came loose and did some damage. It shipped fast and installed easily following several videos. I was up and running in less than 5 days. Wow! The cutter leaves a very smooth finish, even on the slow speed. It cost less than some of the other better known brands available. Definitely worth it.

Skipping to the end result, the cutter head is quiet and does an excellent job. Though I have not used it much yet, it appears sanding may not be required for most planed items. The unit is also very quiet, a huge improvement over the original flat cutters.

The cutter head was packaged very well.

The tools provided work for the individual cutter heads. The tool that comes with the Dewalt works to remove some of the screws, but you will need Allan head (Preferable long handle) to remove some screws. You will also need inner and outer snap ring pliers. The instruction card provided with the cutter head comes with photos highlighting what screws and snap rings that need to be removed. All of this was done in great detail and a good explanation. Note that these instructions were likely written by someone in China, noting they used the word "put" when they meant "pull". No big deal, I spent a lot of time in China, and wish I could speak/write Chinese as well as they speak/write English.

However, when it came to the most critical part of the disassembly and reassembly, the cutter heads, the instructions were completely silent and included no photos.

I could see that the cutter head was fit with pressed in bearings and that I would need to remove the flat cutter head blades and retainers to have clearance to remove the cutter head. It comes out much like a cam shaft in an engine and only removeable in the direction of the larger bearing. I used a piece of wood and a ballpein hammer to remove the old cutter shaft. The same is true of the new shaft which must be installed prior to installing the carbide cutters. Care should be taken when installing the shaft ensuring that both bearings are close to hole alignment when driving the new shaft in place. The larger bearing engages first and you must drive it in a short distance prior to the smaller bearing entering its journal. I used some blocking and a soft rag between the blocking and the shaft to hold the small end in position (it wants to droop) as I drove it carefully into the hole. Once started I used the wood block and hammer to drive it completely in place. Take care in doing this to ensure the bearings allow the snap rings to be reinstalled in their grooves. Some mention of this entire process would be helpful for most users. The only other recommendation I would make is a little more detail on how much torque to apply to each of the carbide cutters. As I went back to check and tighten all cutters I managed to shatter two of them. The assembly comes with spares so no issue, and I ordered an additional 10 cutters for the future. The cutters were aligned but I believe I was simply torquing them to a higher torque than they could take. A torque spec would be nice. I have torque wrenches down to 1/4" drives and having a spec would have been helpful as a guide.

I don't mean for any of this description to sound negative, only suggestions for improving the instructions. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the end result and consider it excellent value.

Installed on my Dewalt 735. It arrived quickly and well packaged.

I took my time and watched some good videos, highly recommend “the Snekker Show, the video I wish I watched before installing a Shelix.” At the 20:00 mark he removes the gear you have to swap over to the new head before pulling the old head out of the planer. This insures you won’t damage it during the removal process. Plus his video is detailed enough you can almost follow it through the swap.

Take your time and install it right the fist time and you’ll love it.

Purchased the Helical Cutterhead for DeWalt DW735. Shipping was fast and free. Installation was relatively easy with the Youtube video on the website. Immediately planed some white oak and cherry, the boards came out much smoother than the stock blades. The 735 is a relatively noisy unit, with installing the helical head noise was reduced by about 20%. I would highly recommend this upgrade.

I was delighted when I found out about the availability of a helical cutter head option for my DeWalt planer. Everything I needed was in the box: well machined. I followed the written directions carefully and supplemented them with some helpful YouTube postings. No surprises. The result is a vastly superior machine that is smoother running and much quieter. My first test run was a piece of figured maple that I had left over. It came out smooth with no tear out.

I’ve used the new cutter hat for a month now, and it worked so much better than the original cutterhead. It makes him much smother cut without bogging down.

What a find. Cannot believe the quality of the cut. Installation fairly straightforward with good instructions provided. Worth every cent!

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