Sunday, January 25, 2009

Love my Dewalt planer!

Thank you, Dewalt! Right after I got my DW735 planer, I decided it'd be a good idea to plane some wood with countersunk nails in it, and managed to take a couple of chips out of the blades, which means that I now get three little raised ridges on everything I plane. So today I remembered to buy a set of replacement blades, although I was dreading the replacement process, since I'd heard it's really painful to get them aligned properly.

It turns out that replacing the blades is a delightfully easy and elegantly designed process. A single allen wrench is all that's required, and it came with the tool, in its own holder. The process of disassembly and replacement is obviously something they put a lot of thought into: everything's easy to reach and simple to remove. There was almost no dust inside the machine at all. And the allen wrench even has magnets on the handle for lifting out the blades and guards. The whole process is alignment-free; the blades have slots that fit squarely over pins on the shaft.

The best part? The blades are reversible. Whereas a lot of companies go to great lengths to make big profits on replacement parts, Dewalt essentially included a replacement set with the tool.

That rocks! That's the kind of quality that makes me willing to spend twice the price of a cheaper tool. We've spent thousands of dollars on Dewalt tools at work, and it's all been worth it. Well done.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Dewalt is one of the few companies left that actually makes decent products. I have more Dewalt tools than I can count (both cordless and corded), and they've definitely stood the test of time, as well as a helluva lot of abuse.