Wixey Digital Planer Gauge

I'm a bit of a gadget/mod nut, so I was attracted to the idea of a DRO on my new DW735 planer. Also, like many I know, I don't use the planer every day, so I have it on the bottom of a rolling cart with another tool on top (in general, I see a lot of people with this planer set up considerably below eye level).With the planer low to the ground, it is sometimes difficult to get the first setup correct as the built in depth gauge isn't very accurate and is difficult to read unless you view it head-on.This changes everything. The display faces up and I can very easily get a very accurate setup without having to crouch way down to the ground. Frankly, I'd be happy if this got me in the ballpark but the thing seems really pretty accurate. Checking against a caliper I'm within .005" (usually even better) to the DRO reading on typical thickness boards (i.e. 3/4", 1", etc). I haven't planed any super thick stock but see no reason why this wouldn't be accurate across the entire range of the planer.Only a couple of downsides. The manual sucks. Keep it handy for reference, but when you are ready to install, search YouTube for this DRO and watch a couple of the several videos there on setup. None are great cinema, but there is some really useful info there. Once you see it, it all makes sense.The only other criticism I'd have is the way the controls work. Honestly, once you set it up you really don't have to touch anything unless you want to change units but a couple of times I've hit the wrong button as they aren't clearly marked as to whether the text refers to the button above or below the text at first glance (I just realized looking at the picture on the Amazon listing that my text is printed differently than in the picture - mine has the text below the button, no "hold to cal" lettering and no "brackets" indicating which button the text belongs to). A couple of times I've held the On/Off button to turn it off (just muscle memory from other devices) and it goes into calibrate mode (I'm glad they seem to have added "hold to cal").Regardless the DRO works great and is a great timesaver and just makes it easier to get the result you are after. If they have updated the display buttons like in the listing picture since I bought mine (December, 2021) even better.

I love it! This is far more useful and easier to zero out than I expected. I thought it just told me the height setting absolute or with incremental changes. Little did I know that I could also take a piece of wood freshly planed, lift up the gauge and get an absolute measurement of the board's thickness too. Which then answered my question about how to zero it out. Just hit the button with that board in place and it is zeroed.The instructions are horrible and there's different pieces in there to accommodate different types of planers. I was a bit anxious at first, but In the end it was easy and I only had to drill 2 small holes, and reused 2 which were already there.Here is what worked for me.Secure the Main Back Bracket over the old ruler:1. I took the spring off the gauge, pulled the ruler and the gauge off the back mounting plate. It makes it easier to install since you can clearly see the holes and stuff.2. Take the red thickness gauge marker off the DW735 and keep the 2 screws.3. I clamped a straight edge across the infeed table. This lets you have hands free for the next 2 steps!4. I took the mounting bracket/back plate, held it up over the old ruler on the right and lifted it till the foot was touching the bottom of my straight edge. This was you know the bottom of the Wixey will register with the surface of your infeed table.5. After you are comfortable, take the backing off the 2 adhesives, reline it up with the gauge and centered on the old ruler and press it in place.6. Since the adhesive won't hold forever, secure it using 2 screws. The bracket has screw holes in it so you just need to drill through the metal the Dewalt ruler is on. They include the drill bit for you, but I found it easier to first punch through with a smaller bit of my own, and then use theirs to finish the hole. Then, find 2 of the 4mm screws with the hex head and screw them in to hold the bracket in place.Hard part is done...Now, Mount the lifting bracket and the Wixey gauge in the old screw holes:7. Figure out the bracket you need... This would be easier with a picture, but look at their drawing of the DW735. It's a L shaped bracket of sorts which can fit over the screw holes the original red height marker was in. There are two included, but the smaller one is a custome one for Delta. This initially confused me since I didn't realize there were excess pieces in the bags...8. Lightly screw it in. You will want to use the double washer to span the thing and use the original 2 screws. The metal part that sticks out will be to the left (away from the gauge).9. Attached the long thin bracket piece to the left side of the actual gauge with the single screw. Hold it up to where it will go and you will see which side the tab has to go on...10. Put the gauge and the ruler part which were disassembled in step 1 back on, but leave the spring off. I found it makes adjusting easier.11. Now use a nut and bolt to secure the L bracket in step 8 to the thin mounting bracket in step 9.Check fit, tighten and add spring back in:12. Set the planer to the 1/8 tickness, slide the gauge to be in line with 1/8 on the ruler (ignore the digital display for now, that gets taken care of later).13. Make sure everything slides easily. I had to adjust the L bracket in step 8 in a little, bend another over a little, etc. Again, I found this easier to do without the spring in the mechanism at first since I could lift the gauge and it would stay out of my way, but that was just me.14. Reattach the spring from step one (pull the ruler piece out, put the spring on the back bracket, slide the rule thing back in and through the gauge till it contacts the foot, then attached the spring at the top).15. Make sure you can pull the ruler piece up, let go and it snaps back down without binding. If it does, loosen and play with alignment of the brackets. Easier to do than describe really, you'll see!Finally, calibrate the digital part for the first time (this is what I did not understand at first):16. Plane a piece of wood till it cuts the full width.... then don't change the height17. Lift the Wixey gauge up (the rule part), put the wood on the foot, drop the ruler. Now, it is measuring the thickness of the freshly planed wood.18. Hold the calibrate button for 3 seconds and it zeros out.19. Pull the wood out, the ruler drops and now it reads the actual height the planer is running at20. You're done!Once I did it, this last part about calibrating off a fresh cut piece of wood made total sense! During installation I thought I'd have to somehow calibrate to the actual height and then never touch it, but truth is, calibration is super easy in case I ever accidentally reset it.... now it is neat to understand I can walk up to the planer and use it to measure a piece of wood too, so I don't need a separate gauge laying around! I didn't realize it did this when I bought it, but it makes sense how it is needed to then calibrate so easily.Ok, long winded and it would be so much easier to show via video. I wish I had done one. I am typing this from memory. I just did it an hour ago. Took me less than 30 minutes.Hopefully these notes help someone since Wixey's docs are so horrible!

Instructions I must offer for installing on my Dewalt DW734 were not very good. They could improve the pictures and descriptions. After the first few steps I really just looked at the unit and the hardware and pieced it together on my own. I do like the unit. I have tested it with a few pieces of Rock Maple and African Sapele. It seems to me accurate down to around to 1/100th of an inch or just under. I might be able to calibrate it a little more to get it even close to dead on. I cross referenced the thickness's with a pair of digital calibers. I was taking about a 1/100th off at a time and it was pretty damn close. I do kind of wish it was designed so it could be secured with a screw some where on the unit. I am not a huge fan of double sided tape. I dont care how strong the tape is with changing temperatures and humidity levels the tape will eventually fail. Including maybe a bracket that is specific to each brand or model of planer could help solve this issue. The manual says you can drive some self threading screws into the case of your planer but my planer is brand new and I dont want that to void my warranty. I think I will find this to be very useful and much easier to read then the readout that the planer came with. I think it will be amazing for when I am going to make end grain butcher block counters because I will have to glue up the counters in sections with not having a planer that can handle over 20 inches. If i can get this down to each section being within a 1/100th of an inch of each other that would be amazing. The sanding of the final glue joint will be very quick and easy to level it out. Pretty excited to play around with it.

I would have rated this product 5 stars except for the problems I had during installation. First of all, the use of metric nuts and screws makes this project tougher than it needs to be. I have some metric sockets but not a 7mm. I had to wrap paper around the nut so it would fit with a 9mm socket I had. I ultimately had to use vise grips to ensure the screws were firmly in place. Next the drill bit is metric, broke drilling the first hole! It seemed close to a 1/8" size so I used that. If it was provided in English units instead of metric, the job would have been done faster. Despite these problems, the unit is excellent and provides very accurate measurements. I am not sure why this is not an option when buying the planer! After spending all the money on the planer, this is a no brainer! The existing red indicator for thickness is useless. I would highly recommend purchasing this. Also, check out You Tube videos for a simplified explanation and sequence to install, recommend Dirt Farmer Jay - best one out there. Enjoy!

Works awesome and is a total game changer for measuring my planer height. No more guesswork or using a caliper.

SuperMax 19-38 Installation. This is for the 2015 version .. with the professionally designed dust-hood logo. Previous revisions of this sander may be identical. I installed remote Wixey on my 15"x8" Grizzley planer, and the 19-38 is much simpler, and affords an appropriate operator viewing angle, as does the planer readout. You will use just ONE part from the Wixey installation package .. that little bit that looks like the female member of a master link.Remove the factory installed height scale .. save the two screws. Modify the above mentioned "link" by removing the just One End, leaving a fork. File or grind the inside of the fork end to fit snugly onto the machine's height pointer .. about 5mm/0.197". The link should now slide in and out over the pointer with no binding .. just snug. The readout has 4 pieces .. the base, readout, scale, and spring.Preparing for disassembly. Take about 3" of double sided tape and cut to the width of the scale. Move the readout to the bottom of the scale. Remove all but about 1/2" of the "sticky" from the tape, and place "sticky" end Down on the scale, above the readout. Move the readout up to be centered over the tape "paper", and secure Both ends of the "paper" to the readout with masking or painters tape. you may now dissasemble the readout by removing the spring, and pulling up/out the scale.Layout a centerline line on the inside of the base. On that centerline you will drill Two 1/8" holes, the top one about 1/2" below the spring cutout, and the lower one was about 5 1/16" below the top hole as I recall. For sure it's best to measure Your machine's existing scale mounting holes, so that your two 1/8" holes will accommodate the machines two supplied 3mm screws. Take half of the lower foam and put it where the lower hole is to be drilled. You may now mount the readout base to the machine, with the spring hanging down into it's cutout.Reassembly. Slide the scale down into the base, and through the readout, and into the lower base slot. Re-attach the bottom of the spring .. I used a piece of tie-wire with a 3/32" "hook" on the end from the right side, and a small screwdriver from the left side. You may now remove the paper from between the readout and the scale .. untape and pull down. Remove the Screw and washer from the left hand side of the readout and re-install loosely with the modified Link from the Wixey install kit. Set your sander at Zero, and engage the Link into the pointer, and then snug down the screw into the readout. You should more than ample range to accommodate different grits and belt age/wear if you need to, and the readout does have an Incremental setting in any event. Install two AAA batteries, and enjoy the WR510's perfect viewing angle on this machine.I know this was lengthy, but I hope it was helpful. This install was simply elegant using the existing scale mounting holes, and I'm sure these WR510's will find homes on many other machines. SuperMax does offer an optional readout for 4 times the money, but my primary motivation was to get a user-friendly viewing angle. 5 Stars.

TL-DR: Buy it, BUT, do yourself a favor, and order this with the Katya Ironworks DRO Mount upgrade to get full benefits. They really go well together.Professional woodworker, I make custom music studio desks. I use a lot of expensive hardwoods and I need a fit/finish that must be perfect. Initially I was frustrated with this DRO because its mounts are so thin. Ugh! A DRO is only as precise as the rigidity of their mount. WR510 comes with thin sheet metal brackets. If you are planning hardwoords it will bend from the body and you will not get the ultimate precision. And waste money. Then I found this little gadget from Katya Ironworks DRO Mount - and wow!!! EPIC results! It is a machined mount and it is very thick, over 6 mm of solud metal. It holds like a tank. (Look for it on katyaironworks.com, or on eBay). Make sure you get the one for Dewalt DW735 (they make it for other machines too, so make sure to order the correct one) The Katya Ironworks CNC machined billet aluminum mount securely holds onto the machine casting with M5 steel socket bolts. It creates a perfectly true face-milled surface for you to mount the DRO. It is very well machined and feels granite solid. I am able to plane chasing thousandths! Unbelieveable levels of precision for wood.Long story short: Dewalt DW735 + Wixey WR510 + katyaironworks.com DRO Mount = brilliant. Results that compete with a 500 lb 240 volt woodshop floor planer.

I have the Dewalt 735 and the Wixey Digital Planer Guage really made a huge improvement on matching board thickness. Easy to install. I highly recommend!

取付にはタッピングなどの技術が必要ですが、自分でつけれる人にはオプションパーツとして手頃な価格で入手できることは嬉しく思う。

Installation and setup was easy and only took about 20 minutes. The display is easy to read and works flawlessly. I have this installed on my DW735 planner and it has made it so much more easy to use. I can measure the thickness of a board,, set the height and start planing. It is very accurate once it is calibrated. It is great being able to plane a board within a few thousandths of an inch.This is one upgrade I wish I had done sooner.

Brilliant 👏Easy to install - love it !

Excellent device, easy to fit and calibrate, the many youtube videos help but the written instructions are adequate. It certainly beats a tape measure for measuring board thickness.

Love this little unit so far. I've installed it on a DeWalt DW735 planer and it has performed flawlessly since I installed it. I love the ability to know how much further I have to go until I reach my desired thickness as well as knowing how much I am taking off per pass and exactly how thick the board is when done. I've been procrastinating on buying this for a while but if I knew then what I know now, I would have purchased it ages ago. One thing to note is that the thickness scale on my DW735 had an offset to it which made the supplied hardware unusable for mounting the new scale to the planer. (it was too short) Nothing to worry about because a 1/2"X#8 self tapping screw corrected that problem quickly. Love this little product.