changing jointer blade cutter to helix c
rocky
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
Does anyone have experience with changing a jointer from a bladed cutter to a helix spiral cutter and is it a difficult proceure?
Replies
Rocky,
Sunhill Machinery has a great and unique pricing for the Byrd Helical cutterhead. This company sells the cutterhead with the bearings already pressed on. So, all you have to do is remove your jointer's belt pulley and the two bolts that hold the jointer head. The bearings should slip out of the cast iron bearing housings that the two bolts hold on.
Slipping the new cutter head with new bearings back into the jointer, tightening the one bolt on each cast iron bearing housing, and replace and align the cutter head pulley. Your done.
Sunhill also sells the 20" planer Byrd head with option of having the gearbox already attached, as well as having new bearings pressed on for about $100 extra. Sure makes life easier, plus it gives you an extra gearbox to fall back on should you ever need parts.
Bill
Dear Rocky,
I swapped out my 6" PM (54A) original head for the Bryd. It is not all that difficult, the only thing that you need to get right is the pressing on of the bearings. If you are off, by even a little, it's a bear. I like the suggestion of buying the head with the bearings already pressed on, assuming that they are in the right place, it would simplify the job.
The cutterhead itself is one of the few items that I have bought that exceed the advertising and my own expectations. Byrd is also a very nice company to deal with.
Best,
John
In my recent Grizzyl catalog, I noticed that they are selling the byrd head now. Interesting.
Rocky,
What brand, size jointer do you have? What are you hoping to accomplish by this change?
Rich
Anything mechanical is a struggle for me -- with that in mind, I found it easy to replace the stock head on a Grizzly jointer with the Byrd head. The Byrd I used did have the bearings installed. It would be a different job if you have to install the bearings yourself. However, the rest is straight forward. The cut is fine. I was hoping for some reduced noise, but on my machine it is as noisey as the stock cutter.
Thanks to all for your replies. In response to the questions: I am considering purchasing a 12" jointer, not sure which brand at the moment, but probably a Grizzly, and because of the large cost differential would rather not buy the helix cutterhead to start with. If its possible to change to that from the blades later, I would go with the blades at first, and watch the cash flow.
Not mentioned by anyone, so far, is that once the new head is installed it will probably need to be shimmed to get it exactly parallel with the out feed table. With conventional jointer knives the head doesn't need to be parallel since the knives themselves are brought into parallel when they are installed.
Depending on the design of the bearing mounts on your machine, the shimming process can be difficult if the bearings aren't designed for shimming, and most of them aren't. The installation instructions that come with the new heads either don't mention, or gloss over the process because it is impractical.
After having done a couple of replacement head installations on 6 inch jointers with the typical round bearing housings, I don't think the end result is worth the trouble.
John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
John White . Was just wondering ,Do you feel the helical head is worth the cost ? Another thing, what size screws hold the inserts in?Would'nt want to break one off.
Chris Miller
Dear Chris,
You aren't associated with any marina's are you?Best,JohnPS You won't be breaking off the Bryd screws.
John " No not relatred to any marina.
The reason i asked about the screws is that i contacted a place a couple yrs ago and they told me that they were using 6-32 screws and had just changed to 8-32. That is a big difference.! With the cost involved in one of these helical heads i would be using brand new and brand name allen wrenches. Chris
Dear Chris,
I ordered my cutter from Byrd and they sent me 10 extra inserts plus the "torx" head that turns the screws. I never thought to check what the thread count was, but I can tell you that they are HARD, and very high quality. No troubles here.Best,John
Has anyone ever put the helix head in a Delta DJ20? I consider myself reasonably mechanically inclined, but changing jointer blades wears me out! I'd gladly spend the bucks to eliminate blade change hassles, but I wonder about the out of parrallel condition that John describes. I don't need to change one problem for another.
The DJ20 is easily adjustable so all four corners of each table can be tweaked to line up perfectly with the head. A dovetailed jointer would be what John was referring to. This is not an issue at all with a parallelogram jointer.
It's really pretty easy to change the head but I've been working on these things for many years in industrial situations.
You could also look at the Esta Knife sytstem. It's a quick change disposable knife system that uses your stock head so you are half way there. The helical knife is better with highly figured abrasive wood otherwise good sharp straight knives will be fine for most folks. Grizzly sells the Esta or http://www.estausa.com
The Esta sytem has been around for years in the pro shops as have the insert knife systems. http://www.sunhill.com sells the helical pretty much all set to go complete with bearings so it's a bit easier.
Edited 12/15/2006 12:12 pm ET by RickL
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