Helical Cutterhead for DeWalt DW734/DW733 12-1/2 Inch Wood Thickness Planer

So turns out that DW 733 and 733-QS are not the same, good news is that if you have QS then replacing the cutterhead is much easier and doesn't require you to remove the drive chains and gears that power the rollers because they are located on the other side. The video you find on findbuytool was enough to guide me through the process and i figured out the rest on my own.

The tear out is mostly gone, amazing results with no visible knife marks. If you see any lines then one of the carbide inserts isn't seated correctly, be very careful when installing them and do it slowly even though there is like 56 of them. When you are done installing the cutter and all inserts - leave the machine open (CAREFUL!), put a scrap board along the whole width and check for marks.
Dust extraction is much better and doesn't clog because the shavings are smaller.

Important: This machine originally only has 2 knives and i installed a helical head with 4 rows. I can hear a significant increase in load on the motor (during deeper cuts or when using wide boards) and i know that i can only take shallow cuts, use table saw or band saw if you need to remove a lot of material. I considered removing 2 rows of inserts to lessen the load but as long as i don't overdo it i don't have issues. I take the shallowest of cuts when using the whole width of the planer with wide boards.

Not having to level the knives is a dream, i absolutely hated doing it in any machine but this machine especially. You cant see anything in there and the metal gadget they give you can easily damage knives leaving you with lines on your boards. No such worries with this head, I had it for around 2 months now, felt solid and well made. Planed maybe 200 boards with it, like i said - tear out is almost gone except in most trickiest of grain patterns and even then its much smaller. Previously i was dancing with the board and flipping it around trying to reduce it, now i don't care.
All in all - fantastic upgrade, highly recommend. Had some issues with Polish customs and findbuytools support was very responsive and helpful even at odd hours of the day/night.

I upgraded my Jointer to a carbide helical cutter head several years ago, and it is one of the best things I have ever done. I have wanted to do the same to my planer, but I wasn’t sure it was worth the expense and trouble. Then I came across some You Tube videos about this cutter head from FindBuyTool. It had some great reviews, and the price was in my budget so I gave it a try.

This head has 56, 4 sided, carbide inserts on a true helical 12 1/2 inch head. They even included 4 extra inserts, as well as two Allen head drivers for installing the inserts. Everything was packed very well, and arrived within one week of my order being placed. I have not used it on a project yet, but my initial testing looks very good. I had to do some adjustment of my tables to reduce some leading edge snipe, but the quality of the cut is very good. It is noticeably quieter, and the dust collection has improved tremendously due to the smaller chip size.

The most difficult part of the installation is seating the bearings of the new cutter head into the planer. Unfortunately there are no installation instructions that come with it, so I had to rely on the internet and You Tube. The tools included a deep socket that I can only assume was meant to help with this installation, but I was not sure how. I don’t have much experience with installing bearings, so I was afraid to bang on the bearings too hard. I ended up finding a large washer that was about the same diameter as the bearing and banging on it with a smaller PVC pipe to get it seated. Including good instructions would go a long way to making this a better product!

Got this for my DeWalt DW 734. I made over 20 hard wood cutting boards so far and little snipe and silky smooth finish right from the planner. Best finish ever. Seven days from the time I ordered the cutter head it arrived at my shop. Very easy to install after watching YouTube video. I could not be any happier, for the price and quality of the product. I highly recommend this wonderful cutter head.

Very pleased with the product. Very smooth finish on the wood. Not particularly difficult to self install.

Helical Cutterhead for DeWalt DW734/DW733 12-1/2 Inch Wood Thickness Planer

I purchased the helical cutterhead as an upgrade to my relatively new DW733 thicknesser.
The install went relatively smoothly but some up to date instructions would have been useful mainly as an aid to the sequence of the steps required to carry out the swap.
I have since machined several widths and types of wood material and found the surface finish to be very similar to that when using new standard straight blades. As my machine was almost new I cannot say how the results would compare with more worn standard blades, but I am expecting that the helical blades will maintain a good finish for much longer than the straight ones.
Another obvious advantage is the ability to rotate the individual cutters when they become worn or chipped.
Overall I think a really good investment.
Having made this upgrade I'm now looking for a suitable retrofit soft start for the brushed motor. It starts up with a real bang! Any assistance would be gratefully received

I impressed, it is as advertised. I'm ready for some "smooth
Work. Thumbs UP.

When I plane hard and soft wood it is as though I sanded it with 220 grit. No bogging down the motor. Well worth the money.