The symptom pattern

Mid-way through a run of boards, or sometimes on the very first pass of a thick or wide piece, the DW733 simply stops. The green start button does nothing when you press it again — the motor is dead until something else is done first, which is what throws people, because nothing about the machine looks broken.

What’s actually happening

DeWalt builds a circuit breaker into the DW733’s On/Off switch specifically to protect the motor from overload. Draw too much current — by taking a deep cut, feeding the workpiece too fast for the cutterhead to clear, or starting the machine with the workpiece already pressed against the cutters — and the breaker cuts power to the motor before it overheats. It’s the same idea as a fuse tripping, sized to this one machine.

The switch has a separate reset button for exactly this, and DeWalt’s manual is specific about the order: switch the machine off, then press the reset button — not the other way round.

Working through it

Switch the machine off first — trying to reset while the switch is still in the “on” position doesn’t work and isn’t how DeWalt’s manual describes the sequence. Locate the reset button on the switch housing and press it; it should click home. Before you press start again, make sure the workpiece isn’t sitting against the cutterhead — DeWalt states this directly as a switch-on condition, and skipping it is the single most common way to trip the breaker a second time in a row. Restart, and let the motor spin up to full speed before feeding anything through it.

If that clears it and the next few boards run fine, that was a one-off overload and there’s nothing further to do. If the same cut trips it repeatedly, look at what the cut is asking of the motor rather than at the switch: check you’re within the machine’s stated depth-of-cut for that width of stock, slow the feed rate, and check the blades. DeWalt’s manual notes blades can be re-sharpened up to 3mm down from new before they need replacing outright — blunt blades cut less efficiently and load the motor harder for the same result, which is a common reason a previously reliable cut starts tripping the breaker again.

Verdict

Not a fault worth worrying about on its own — it’s the overload protection working as designed, and the fix costs nothing but switching off, pressing the reset button, and clearing the workpiece before restarting. Only chase further than that if it keeps recurring on cuts the machine used to handle, in which case check the blades before suspecting the switch itself.