DW735 Planer Deep-Dive Maintenance

hi guys welcome to next level carpentry you know over the years i've come to believe that a table saw a jointer and a thickness planer are the three pillars of profit and production in a modern woodworking shop as such these three machines get heavy use in the shop because they're involved in almost every project that comes through and a certain amount of maintenance is required to keep these three pillars stable because they need to be productive and reliable to get a job done efficiently and profitably for this video i'm going to focus on the dw735 thickness planer a little more in depth i've got another video the link is here that shows how to change the knives and some routine maintenance for the planer but because of its heavy use from time to time i've got to do some deep dive maintenance on it and that's what i'm going to show you today the sheer volume of material that i run through this machine on every project means that it's constantly under load and under the strain of doing that work it's a robust machine that's well capable of doing it but unless i keep it well tuned in time the strain will start to push at the stress points of the machine and the first stress point is the thermal overload switch the machine runs long the machine runs hot it and it trips out that little circuit breaker to preserve the motor from melting down on a heavy use job on a hot day that breaker can trip just because of the planing action that it's doing but i've had some issues recently with the switch tripping out too frequently even just part way through a job and even though the knives are relatively sharp and the table is nice and waxed smooth it's still kicking out that breaker so i want to show two things one is switching out that breaker and then the other one is the deep dive part where i get into lubricating the bushings that hold the infeed and the outflow feed roller and then the drive chains because any extra load created by stickiness or friction in those parts only adds heat to the motor and can prematurely trip the thermal overload switch and i'm actually shooting this introduction section after i've gone through all the lubrication process so now i'll just jump into the video when i begin to remove the covers and different pieces to the machine and it's been a while since i opened up a dw735 thickness planer this is my second one and this is the deepest maintenance that i've done on it the first one i had to replace the drive bushings because i wasn't taking care of them and they wore out in this case i think that all i need to do is clean it up and lubricate it but because it's been so long since i've done this i figured out a few steps along the way to make it much more efficient so after you watch me stumble along a little bit in the video you'll be able to do the same maintenance a lot quicker and a lot easier and make sure you watch through the video long enough to the point where i reveal a simple solution to make this whole job a lot easier so let's jump in and get this thing torn apart the dw735 planer comes with an onboard wrench but i'll use a t30 torx driver in an impact because it's faster with the cover off the gear reduction box and drive chain are exposed i use the same torx bit to remove the height adjustment crank handle and then remove the idler chain cover once the cover's off i use compressed air to blow accumulated dust off the chain sprockets and drive belt and then rotate the machine and blow dust off the gearbox assembly too with a complete disregard to decorum i flipped the on switch to expose the powertrain in action if you can believe it once upon a time machines were made with few covers like this and that's probably the main motivator for osha being developed this is the main feed roller drive sprocket which powers the outfeed roller this idler pulley keeps light tension on this primary drive chain in operation yes if i poke my finger in the wrong place it will be the last thing i ever point at with that finger going around to the idler chain side you can see the sprocket on the opposite end of the outfeed roller here it in turn drives the in-feed roller with its corresponding drive sprocket with the machine shut off you can see the cutter head pulley and the main drive belt back here now i can use a four millimeter t-handle wrench to remove bolts and then slip the idler sprockets off their shafts at this point the in-feed roller can be turned but the outfeed roller is still connected by the drive chain on the other side of the machine so it can't be turned turning the power back on you can see the outfeed drive sprocket being turned by that chain on the opposite side of the machine on the other side the main drive sprockets are removed with these external snap ring pliers so the sprockets can be slipped off their shafts oh and keep track of this little washer shim that goes on the end of the drive shaft on the gearbox turning the machine on once again you can see the main drive sprocket at work right here and during the disassembly process i keep all these pieces parts organized by placing them in their respective covers the next step is to remove the four stubborn little cheap phillips head screws from the side blade guard plates to remove them as you can see i can't get enough up pressure on the little ratchet driver i use and predictably strip out a screw and there's no chance for a second attempt either as a hack i made a crude block of wood with a cruder notch to fit over the step in the planer base by placing this block just so and the ratchet driver even more just so i'm able to lower the cutter head just so or still to apply sufficient pressure to finally bust the little bugger loose oh yeah home free at last i'll tell you i found this little general bent handle ratcheting bit driver invaluable for awkward demanding jobs like this and you can see why with this example once freed up the screws that hold these guards in place are easily spun out and removed but these little guys are doomed to life in a dumpster after this performance with the drive chain and sprockets removed you can see how these rollers spin this is the out feed roller it seems pretty fluid but the in feed roller it turns but it's a little bit sticky so i'm hoping this deep dive maintenance is going to improve the spin of those two features which i think is what's causing my planer to overheat now that i've got the hard to remove side guards removed i have access to the hardware that holds the infeed and outfeed roller in place i'm disappointed to discover that the screws that hold the retainers for the infeed and out feed roller bushings in place are phillips also i hope i have better luck getting these screws to break loose but we'll have to resort to the same method if i don't it's difficult to get enough upward pressure on my ratcheting screwdriver but i'm able to break the first two loose without stripping them out there's springs built into this design to provide a little give on the infeed and outfeed rollers so as i'm taking these screws out the spring pressure works against the screws so i'll switch to the other side and break the screws loose there too before i finish releasing the spring pressure and drop the roller i hope the camera stays in focus as i work because it's a tricky angle to shoot and light all right i was able to put enough pressure on my little driver to prevent these kind of miserable little phillips screws from stripping out when it matters most and as i pull the last of the screws you can see the springs that i was talking about and the screws are long enough that they get started with very little pressure on those springs but when i put this back together i'll compress those springs with a block under the roller to kind of make the whole thing easier and here you can see the whole feed roller assembly this is the out feed roller the shaft is different on this end everything seems pretty good these bushings are definitely dry but there's not any uh play in them that i would consider harmful so i am going to clean up the shaft to make it look pretty and then put a little dielectric silicone grease in those bushings i'm noting that the hole is offset in the height of this block and it looks like the thin portion of this block goes up to support that spring just got to keep that in mind during reassembly there's a felt washer on either end of the outfeed roller and the felt side goes towards the roller and the hard washer type surface goes towards the roller bushing blocks to prevent wear i'll use a bit of acetone to clean up the bearing surfaces of the shaft and also the bushing blocks keep in mind that acetone is a pretty harsh solvent so if your hands are sensitive to chemicals like that make sure you use protective gloves of some sort personally i just use it quickly and take my chances if that freaks you out well do something different i switch the roller to a vertical orientation and then clamp it lightly in the vise to clean up the shaft where the acetone didn't and then i make a couple of strips of 500 grit wet and dry sandpaper and use those to clean up the exposed part of the shaft it really won't affect the performance but i'd just like to see it clean looks like that 500 grit sandpaper isn't tough enough to clean up these weird bluish marks on the shaft so i just switch to a medium sand flex block and go after it that way it's easier to deploy the sand flex block with the roller in a horizontal position so i switch it back and finish the job and you can see how quickly the medium block cleans up this shaft and while cleaning the shaft with the medium sand flex block i'm being careful not to get out onto the polished bearing surface where the roller spins probably wouldn't hurt it much but it's better to leave that like it is thinking this through a little bit i'm convinced that that bluing and weird coloration on the shaft is part of the heat treating process that they must use to harden this bearing surface that fits in those pillow blocks and you can see here how well that sand flex block works for cleaning up this tarnished bluing business on this shaft so i'll use the same process on both ends of both rollers to get everything cleaned up before i put it back together once i've removed the heaviest discoloration with the sand flex block i'll revert to that 500 grit wet and dry sandpaper give these surfaces a nice clean machined look before i put stuff back together and if i was doing a bunch of this i'd get some cloth back emery paper to do this because this paper sandpaper is a bit fragile so i keep ripping it while burnishing the surface but with a few minutes of concentrated effort i have the ends of this shaft looking all machined and ready to go back together so i'm ready to tackle the in-feed roller i use basically the same steps but i want to make it a little bit easier on myself so i cut a scrap block of wood at five and seven eighths inches long and place it underneath the in-feed roller then use the crank handle to lower the cutter head to put a little up pressure on the in-feed roller to compress the springs as i remove the screws and then i can just re-raise the cutter head pull the block out and drop the roller well i got lucky with one but not the other and i'll have to go back to my pressure block to get the phillips tip to engage the head enough to break it loose as a woodworker i'm both an optimist and a skeptic and i got this little bottle of this screw grab stuff quite some years ago let's see i got this in 2018 i got this two years ago never used it before supposed to be able to put this stuff on the tip of a screwdriver and it has enough grip to grip the screws so today right here and now i want to draw the line between optimist and skeptic if it works i'm an optimist if it doesn't work i'm a skeptic everything's the same here but this time i've got screw grab on the tip let's see what happened i can hear a little gritty noise in there and as you can see it doesn't really do anything maybe in fairness i should have used the screw grab in the first place but i didn't know i needed it so for that screw skepticism wins the day and even though the problem on the package is exactly what i have here it really didn't help i'll leave the screw grab on when i try to release the ones on the other side and maybe i'll get lucky and have only one fail out of eight screws let's see what happens starting off with screw grab on the tip the first time all right well those two screws did break loose nicely so i'll change my review of screw grab from a zero star to a two star because it does seem to help a little bit on a first attempt but i can't give it five stars in this case because it didn't help remove a screw that was already partially stripped out come on baby well screw grab is a no-go on that one well i lucked out because using the upward pressure block hack that i used on the screws for removing those guards i was able to wedge it in place and in one last hail mary attempt i was able to get this screw to break loose and run it out of the hole but because i trashed the head of this screw so badly taking it out i'm going to upgrade all eight of these in feed out feed roller bearing retainer screws to the socket head cap screws like i got for those side guards earlier but for now i'll raise the cutter head back up to release the pressure from the roller pull it out and use the same cleanup process i used on the outfeed roller earlier [Music] shazam came right apart didn't it a quick visual inspection of the end feed roller shows me that everything is actually in really good shape i don't think i'm going to get the rolling efficiency improvement i was hoping for here because there still is a little bit of film of grease on the inside of these bushings so i don't think anything here was sticking enough that would create extra work for the machine to pull stock through it but i'll clean everything up put a fresh coat of grease on and put it all back together assured that there's nothing in this assembly that's causing my thermal switch to trip out and fail again it appears that there's some discoloration here and that must be from heat treating this portion of the shaft and not that portion but just for grins i'll clean this up before i put it back together and i'm actually quite impressed by the condition of these bearings and shafts after all the thousands and thousands of feet of material i've run through this planer in oh eight years that i've had it the last thing i'll do the infeed and outfeed rollers before reinstalling them is to apply a light but thorough coat of this lucas red and tacky grease the package says it's a high quality lithium complex grease fortified with extreme pressure lubricant additives that inhibit rust and that should be a good product to withstand the pressure that these rollers undergo in use and that little bit of grease will also help keep these little bushing blocks in place when i reinstall the rollers and i'll wipe off the excess grease so it's less likely to attract dust while the planer is being used you've heard me use the saying before we get too soon old too late smart well this is one of those cases you watched me struggle to get the screws out of here and but i managed to get everything apart so they could be cleaned up well after spending about 15 minutes trying to get this put back together where i've gotta put these little retainer clips on the end of the shaft and balance the spring on top of that block and put it up underneath the planer and start the screws again that little light bulb went on and i thought why don't i make this easy on myself because nobody else is gonna i'm gonna flip that planer upside down and do it the easy way so now you're not much older but hopefully you're a little smarter at my expense and i'm going to pop off the infeed and outfeed table at the same time to make it easier still how's about them apples huh man i can't believe i didn't think of this sooner remember the narrow part of this bushing block goes towards the top of the planer which is now down i would definitely recommend upgrading the 12 phillips head metric screws that hold the two guards and the drive roller bushings in place with these five millimeter by 10 millimeter metric button socket head machine screws the positive drive feature of a hex drive fastener will allow me to tighten these down nice and snug but the chance of stripping them out like those phillips screws is virtually eliminated for future services well between upgrading to the hex drive screws and flipping the machine upside down i just save myself a boatload of time with this project and every viewer will be able to take advantage of this and do this whole process at least twice as fast as i did and it's every bit as easy to reinstall the outfeed roller as it was to reinstall the in-feed roller even though it's a little bit tricky getting those stubby screws started without cross threading them when my fingers are greasy from going through these steps and it takes a few minutes but everybody's snugged down tightened and happy and now i've got nice smooth non-sticky action when spinning these in feet and outfeed rollers since everything's all cleaned up and lubed i'm feeling really good about the condition of the two drive chains for this planer because my shop is pretty dry and not humid so there's no rust on them and they're still pretty loose but i will give them a liberal coat of my favorite chain lube which is this bow shield t9 lubricant this particular bottle is made for bicycle chains but it's the same bow shield t9 product that's distributed for protecting metal surfaces this chain is nice and clean but it does squeak a little bit so this lube will really help it out both shield made this special dispenser tip especially for chains i put a liberal coat all the way around the chain and i'll let it soak in a couple hours before i wipe it off and then reassemble the planer this gives the chain a very durable dry lube type protection that'll keep it from rusting keep it rolling smooth but yet it won't attract dust and dirt in the shop environment and the reason i know this works so well is i use it on my mountain bike and the places i take that thing are a whole lot more destructive to chains than a thickness planer in a shop i want to thank nick at beau shield who turned me on to this special dispenser bottle especially designed for chains and explained the features of the product compared to other dry lubes and definitely compared to regular motor oil or three in one oil for applications like this it's a pretty sweet product and i'll include a link to the bow shield site in the video description in case you want to check out this great product for your planer or your mountain bike once the t9 has had a chance to thoroughly penetrate into all the moving parts of these chains i kind of shake them up a bit and wipe off the excess before reassembling them with the sprockets on the planer there's already no more squeaking on that chain and when it's thoroughly dry it won't pick up any harmful dust or grit that would make it stiff in use i'll reinstall the idler chain first and it's a piece of cake with this machine upside down i make sure the tensioning spring is engaged on the idler arm and then reinstall the sprockets on the shafts with the protruding side of the sprocket going inboard on the machine with everything lined up and looking good i can reinstall the screws that hold the sprockets in place keep in mind that that cutter head is right there it'd be easy enough to have a hand slip and get sliced on that blade if the sprockets are put on backwards then the chain won't line up with the tensioning pulley or this idler arm here and it's easy to see if it's wrong because the chain will rub against this drive hub here a lot has to happen at once here but i want to engage the spring in the idler arm put the sprocket on that roller or on that shaft keep the idler arm in place while i am turning this other shaft until it lines up just like that the flat side of the sprockets faces out in this case once again and then i use the snap ring pliers external snap ring pliers to slip those two snap rings back in place so that it stays together in operation and that's what it all looks like put back together and maybe because i'm unfettered by sensibilities that other youtube hosts have and certainly unfettered by all the legal issues that anybody from dewalt would have i'm gonna actually fire this planer up while it's sitting here upside down so you can see what it looks like it's kind of fun dangerous is all good out but fun and it's always amazing to me to see a cutter head spinning like that it's just a blur of blades and i'm pretty sure next level carpentry is the only place on youtube you'll ever get a chance to see something like that and now it's time to be all responsible like and replace the two protective side guards that i took off at the beginning of this process this will be easier for two reasons a because the machine is upside down and b because i have upgraded to those hex head screws and i took a couple minutes to switch the snug fitting lock washers from the original phillips head screws onto these new hex drive button head screws just so everything stays in place with all the vibration the machine creates so i can put them in in very little time just like a boss and for a dose of reality here i have to mention that even though i've got hundreds of sockets and drivers in the shop and in my toolbox i do not have a small three millimeter hex drive tip that i can put into my little ratcheting handle so here i am using an oversized t-handle to get the job done but hey it's not what you got but how you use it right flip the planer back over and reattach it to the stand before reinstalling the drive chain covers and the thickness setting crank handle because i'm thinking for this part right side up is probably just a little bit easier after cleaning up the protective covers i jot a quick note on a piece of tape inside one of the covers as a future reminder of what maintenance was done and when i did it well that wraps up the deep dive lubrication and maintenance part of this video i'll switch here to the part where i change out the thermal protection overload switch but i'll stop for a minute to ask viewers if you like the video what you've seen so far give it a thumbs up and consider subscribing to next level carpentry with the number of comments that come into next level carpentry on a daily basis i've got to prioritize which comments i reply to which questions i answer and from this point forward i'm finding it necessary to filter out which comments i can answer in which i can't and i'm going to use the viewer status as a qualifier for questions and comments that get answered and reply to in the video manager from youtube it informs me which comments are made by subscribers and which are made by viewers i want to do you a favor and answer your comment if you'll do me a favor and subscribe to next level carpentry it's free you know and you'll be notified when videos like this get uploaded and subscribers will get a bit of priority when it comes to addressing comments so there's that in the video description you'll see links to amazon for tools and materials you see here on the channel and use in this video and i've got to do some shopping there myself to get that little three millimeter hex drive for putting those screws in but uh the other products are listed there and as an influencer amazon pays ad fees and those ad fees help justify the expenses of producing these free videos so i appreciate that anybody that uses those links for stuff you need if you can't find it locally there's a link to teespring as well for t-shirts like this one other ones that you'll see me wearing in the shop there's a link to patreon for anybody that's interested in going above and beyond for the channel and i've recently added a paypal link in the video description i'll talk about patreon later but if somebody's motivated to go above and beyond and support the channel don't want to do that through patreon there's a paypal link at next level carpentry on my website and you can use that it's kind of like a digital tip jar if you're so motivated i think that about covers the infomercial part so i'll transition in open this thing up and change out that thermal switch so stay tuned all right and now that all the cleaning and lubrication is done the machine is all back together and functioning we can get into the easy part which is replacing that thermal overload switch and you might think it'd be straightforward to do this by removing the nut here in front and maybe a couple screws to switch out the switch but you would be wrong it's still not all that difficult but there's a couple little tricks hidden in here and once you know those it is pretty simple i'll be using the t30 torx driver on my impact here instead of the factory supplied wrench i need a phillips tip number one and a three millimeter hex wrench to do this little part of the job and i guess i should show you what this little switch looks like before i tear the machine apart to get at it this is one i bought from e-replacement parts the part's about a half inch thick and an inch and a half square and the nut here holds it in place on the front plastic cover of the planer when it's installed you can see the part numbers here on the bag and it's really easy to find if you go to the ereplacementparts.com website and search parts for the dw735 thickness planer i start the swap out process by zipping off the top cover and then removing the speed control handle with a three millimeter hex wrench from the back side of the front remove the three small phillips screws that hold the front cover to the main body of the planer to keep things complicated the walls switch to a smaller three millimeter hex for the two obvious screws that hold the bottom of the front cover to the main body of the machine and once you get all those screws off you figure i'm probably home free and i should be able to slip this cover off here with no trouble right wrong the little secret nobody wants you to know is that there's a screw hidden behind the depth gauge plate that you can only access by removing the three screws that hold the veneer plate in place and hidden behind that little plate is one more fastener of yet a different type that's the final thing holding this front cover on and you can see notes i jotted down on the inside of this front cover showing the other times that i swapped out this thermal protection switch the last one was only a couple months ago which led me to do this extra measure of maintenance this is the main power switch here and this is the thermal overload switch that we'll be replacing a 14 millimeter open end wrench will loosen that up nicely so i can spin off the nut and then pull the switch out from the back now i like to hold the new switch body right next to the old one and swap the wires so that the right wire goes on the right terminal no confusion and if you're not as prone to such confusion as myself do this any way you want as i said once you know where the hidden screw is there's nothing to it and while chip reverses the disassembly process to put this back together i want to give a shout out to all the patrons on patreon they're listed over there to show our appreciation for the extra support you provide to the next level carpentry channel because all these people have gone above and beyond for the channel i try to go above and beyond for patrons by providing some patron only videos i've recently started a video series called master the joiner where i go in depth on understanding setup and use of a joiner i'm using the powermatic pj882 that i have in the shop but the lessons learned and the principles will apply to any jointer anywhere as a patron you have access to that video series along with oh maybe a dozen or so other patron only videos in a library on patreon there's a link in the video description for that there may be some that want to contribute to the channel in a special way but don't want to sign up as a patron i understand that so there's a link to paypal in the video description kind of like a tip jar if anybody is so inclined go for it and it looks like chip is all wrapped up lucky guy he gets to go for a dish of cold ice cream i can stay here out in the shop and wrap up this video but somebody's got to do it right all right thanks chip see ya while i'm at it i'm going to give the bed a fresh coat of johnson's paste wax and later i'll go to my computer go to ereplacementparts.com and order another replacement thermal switch for the planer they don't cost very much so it's an inexpensive insurance policy to maintain production in the shop and time will tell how effective the lubing of the machine was i may have just got kind of a dicey faulty thermal protection switch because it started tripping out like within two days of when i replaced it last time that's never happened before but uh fingers crossed i'm hoping that i can get through uh this planing job here i got a bunch of rough sawn oak that needs to be smoothed down and made into a tv cabinet for a good friend and a good client with that i can wrap up the video wish me luck that this thermal switch holds as i go through this project here and for viewers and subscribers everywhere as always thanks for watching caught you watching all the way to the end of the end to the end did i well all i got for your reward is a sneak peek at a cool tool i might have to shoot this twice for you to see it but this strange looking apparatus here plays a key role in the next video upload at next level carpentry and you got a sneak peek but i hope it doesn't keep you up late at night wondering what the heck i got up my sleeve see ya

Channel: Next Level Carpentry

Views: 40,245

Rating: 4.980515 out of 5

Keywords: dw735, dewalt, thickness, planer, plainer, blades, bearings, rollers, shelix, byrd, fix, repair, lube, lubricate, troubleshoot, grease, oil, bushing, ereplacementparts, shop, boeshield, t-9, t9, cutterhead, knives, table, platen, wax, polish

Id: vFxEdMJ0IGw

Length: 31min 4sec (1864 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 13 2020