DW735 - feed roller drive gear broken

[Bob D.]

Well I've heard of this happening to others, now I have experienced it first hand.

I was planing some 1/2 walnut this morning and one of the roller drive gears broke. :(

Went online to ServiceNet and ordered a new one (also got a spare). They should arrive in a couple days. ServiceNet is easy and fast, with exploded parts diagrams that are hyperlinked to the BOM. Just locate your item in the diagram and click on it and it takes you to the item on the BOM. Enter the required quantity you need and then jump back to the exploded drawing.

I've had my DW735 for about 2-1/2 years now. It's a simple task to replace the gear but this should not happen. :mad:

Figures, I'm working on making some small boxes for a couple Christmas gifts I recently picked up for my two daughters. Unfortunately I did not get all the walnut planed to the required thickness before the gear broke, so looks like a weeks delay on this project.

[BadgerDave]

Sorry to hear about you troubles Bob. IIRC it was about the time you bought your 735 that DeWalt was having a lot of trouble with that problem. Did you call DeWalt Customer Service about this? I seem to recall that they openly acknowledged this problem and made good on the cost of repair.

[Bob D.]

Hi Dave,

No I didn't call. I remember that it was a recognized problem but didn't know DeWalt was doing anything about it. I am way past warranty but I'll see what they say. the gear is cheap enough ($2.90 each). Kinda makes you wish they put a little more into it and its longevity was better.

Except for a problem with the material used to make the gears I can't see what could be the problem. The two gears and the tensioner all appear to be inline. Neither of the gears show any wear on the sides of the teeth which if present to me would indicate alignment issues. The chain tensioner does not exert excessive force and everything was lubricated. I wonder if there is a problem with the spacing of the gear teeth vice the chain. The chain does run in a pretty tight radius on these roughly 1.5" dia. gears.

[Bob D.]

Well, DeWalt had the new gears to me in only a couple days, they arrived this past Thursday (Nov. 10) and I got around to installing them yesterday. I ordered two gears and changed them both out since they were not expensive and I thought that if the one failed due to some issue with the material or fabrication process then the second original gear could break also.

My planer is back in business now but I have not run any wood through it as yet. I've got plenty of oak and walnut that needs planing though.

[BadgerDave]

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[Bob D.]

Gee Dave I did not expect you to get so excited over the status of my tool :-)

[BadgerDave]

Bob, I assure you that there is no level of excitement here when it comes to the status of your tool but I am happy that you have your planer up and running again.