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 height 17. 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 at 20. 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!

I added an melamine table that spans the length of the machine and extends a couple of feet to either side almost as soon as I setup my planer. The slick table makes for a great surface to plane one, but adding 3/4" of thickness made the built-in scale worthless. I added the Wixey so that I could once again dial in a specific thickness. Installation: The Wixey gauge looked easy to mount in the pictures, impossible in the included directions, and came together alright once I laid everything out and walked through it step-by-step at the machine. It took about 20 minutes. I did have to drill two holes in my existing gauge to mount the Wixey, so it's not entirely reversible. The instructions aren't the worse I've ever used(good English at least), but they could definitely use a re-write. They mention a few different machines, and hop back and forth, so it's not always clear which step is applicable. Calibration/Accuracy: Calibration was the easiest part of the setup. The method doesn't entirely make sense until it's done, but then it's chrystal clear and easy to repeat if needed. In a few hours of use, the measurements were consistently accurate and repeatable. Pros: Accurate, easy to read, works well with my DW735 Cons: Instructions aren't clear, and I'm concerned that half-dozen or so machine screws in the setup might wiggle loose over time and cause inaccuracies, but have no way to know if they will or not. I'd definitely buy this again, but do wish that Dewalt manufactured something like this, that was a more integral part of the machine.

I am very pleased with the gauge. I installed it onto a DeWalt DW735X. Installation was fairly straight forward, with only a couple of slight issues that, admittedly, were more a result of user error than anything. When installing the screws that hold the scale onto the planer, just be careful - I wound up drilling slightly into the steel column that the planer travels up and down on. Thankfully, where the drill bit hit is a spot that the planer will never go down to. Again, purely my mistake and not a problem with the instructions or even the gauge. I simply wasn't thinking it through. Just follow the instructions closely, and you should do just fine. Regarding set up and calibration, well...I'm not the type of woodworker that needs everything to be cut with complete precision (you know, tolerances of a thousandths of an inch). That being said, I was able to get my readout to within five-thousandths of an inch when compared to my calipers - more than close enough for me. But, while I may not care too much about having an individual board be within a thou an inch on its own, being able to get the same thickness across multiple boards, and more to have that thickness be repeatable, is HUGE. Imagine making a mistake and needing to surface a new board. Getting it to match exactly to any previous boards is a real pleasure. Granted, you could do that with a set of calibers and patience, but still... All in all, I am very happy with my purchase. In fact, I would dare say that this simple purchase has revolutionized what I can do in my shop now, and for that I would say that it definitely deserves five stars. If you are on the fence about getting this, stop thinking and just do it.

If you follow the instructions, then it is highly likely that this measuring device will be unreliable at being inacurate. If you fiddle with it properly before making a reading, it is highly possible that the new readout will provide the correct answer. This unit gets FIVE STARS because I decided to throw the instructions away! This is a very simple device. I have no complete idea of how it works, but it contains no gears and accepts quick as well as slow input. It remembers it's current state and seems to recognizes physical change which happens during power off. The accuracy if installed properly, seems phenominal. And this came to me at a cost multiples lower than any other digital length measureing device I have found which can replace it. Step 1: Thow away all but two pieces. Keep the cheap plastic box containing the electroncs and the straight stick that goes through it. Dispose of everything else. Forget the spring. Loose the bent bar. Add the nuts and the bolts and the other stuff to your supply of what-nots. These are all unnecessary locations for play which create measurement error. These are also places for sawdust to get stuck which creates friction which results in more error. Take this complex contraption that a bunch of suits multiplied and reduce it to its two simple components. This is a stick and a box. The stick goes through the track in the box and that's how it works. Play with it. Get to know it. Learn how to use it before you attach it to anything. Realize that a negative number is just as useful as a positive number. Step 2: Decide where the piecs are to be firmly attached. One of the pieces is to be attached to the stationary part of the planer. The other piece is to be attached to the mobile part of the planer. It doesn't matter which is which. The device will operate either way. Step 3: Drill top (or bottom) of stick as needed to firmly attach. Do not attach both sides of the stick as this could create unnecessary binding. Try to put the stick in a place where it won't get hit with large pieces of wood The plastic box should be ready to be attached before stick attachment. Also, the attached end of the stick and the box shold be as close together as possible before stick attachment. This should keep misalignment to a minimum. Step 4: Open the back of plastic box using a small phillips screwdriver. Peer inside and note where screws can be placed through box and maximal length of screw. The back of the box is the only side which is flat. No other side of the box will attach to anything without play which creates meassurement error. There is space for wood screws to be put straight thorugh the back of box. Use a big L bracket. Directly attach it. Whatever. You are a craftsman after all. Dont install the box up side down. It's completely unnessary. Step 5: Enjoy. Encloed is a picture of what you don't want and a picture of what you do want. The simpleton is the clear winner.

So far so good. Haven't really put it through the paces but what bit I have used the gauge it has been dead on. Makes sizing boards a breeze. Install was very easy on my DeWalt 734. A couple things to watch out for during install. I aligned the edge of the gauge with the edge of the yellow plastic shroud around the planer. I also used the screws along with the sticky pads to attach the gauge. Aligning with the edge caused a couple issues. First the top screw that holds the should on interferes with lifting the gauge bar to calibrate a board. Second the infeed table when folded up just barely rubs on the bracket screw of the gauge. Had I moved the gauge over just 1/8 inch both of these issues would be eliminated. I drilled a new hole for the shroud screw moving it over about an inch. The screw rubbing on the infeed table should not cause a problem. I do fold up my tables quite often as my planer and miter saw are on a flip table.

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.

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.

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。

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.

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.

It was very easy to install and calibrate. The instructions are easy to follow. After use it shows to be very accurate when comparing to the results using a calliper. Would recommend.