Replies

1. 
   RickL | Mar 13, 2006 05:37pm | #1

   First jointer?  What size width and bed length you considering? Homeshop or pro? Curly woods?  What's your budget? If you search the archives you will find a lot of discussion and it helps to go to other sites as this subject has been discussed extensively. There's also the Tersa head and Esta knives if your concern is knife changing and hate doing it.

   There's two types of spiral head. One is straight knives staggered (Grizzly, Northtech and most manufacturers) and there is the shelical which is more a shear cut, http://www.byrdtool.com   There is also a HSS steel shear knife found on some of the newer Oliver jointers. http://www.sunhillmachinery.com/ sells various retrofit heads with some tech info on the various heads.

   I personally have no problems with knife changing and get good results with standard knives. I have used a spiral head on a Northtech planer and can still get tearout if feeding too fast. I'd be more inclined to get a spiral head planer than a jointer as many folks glue up boards then run them through the planer and are more likely to have crossgrain issues this way.

1. 
   user-114572 | Mar 14, 2006 06:06am | #3

   Rick, this is the first jointer purchase and my budget is about $3,500.00.  I would like to have a 10" or 12" cutter but I'm not sure how much I will use of that width on a regular basis.  I started looking at the Grizzly's due to the price and the good reviews it has received but I need to look at the Oliver's as well.  I will say I know little about sharpening jointer knives and the time it takes.  If the spiral cutters can save a fair amount of time with this I would choose one of them.  I'm curently setting up shop for my personal use but have interest in a full business.

   Any thoughts would be great.  Thanks!

    

1. 
   RickL | Mar 14, 2006 02:27pm | #5

   I paid $1750 for a used Oliver jointer and invested $300 to grind the tables and some motor repairs. Have you considered a combo planer/jointer for that kind of money??? Look at the http://www.invicta-usa.com as well.  Bridgewood is another one to look at. You should also look at used. Do you read Woodshop News?  You need to do a lot more research. Old Crescent jointers are excellent machines as well. Look at http://www.exfactory.com   They are brokers and don't touch the machines but it's interesting to see what's out there. There are plenty of dealers in used machines that will refurbish and guarantee the machines. I personally would not buy new as I know how to rebuild. Do that for a living. Also http://www.woodweb.com for used and dealers.

    

2. 
   forestgirl | Mar 13, 2006 07:24pm | #2

   There was a good article in the last Wood Magazine about the various spiral/helical jointers, worth reading if only to get an understanding of the types of CHs and how they work.  From what I've read on the forums, the biggest benefit to these takes effect when working highly-figured wood -- reduces tear-out.  On the ones with the square cutter inserts, the ability to turn one around when it gets nicked would certainly be a time-saver. 

   One caveat about the Wood article, they made a big deal out of surface ridges that were left by the cutterheads (we're speaking ridge as in a couple thous, not big ridge).  I instigated a thread here asking about real-life, in-the-workshop experiences, and no one seemed to think it was a big deal.  The wood has to be sanded anyway, and ordinary sanding took care of it. Here's the thread if you want to take a look:
   http://forums.taunton.com/fw-tools/messages?msg=7559.1

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

3. 
   gb93433 | Mar 14, 2006 09:09am | #4

   I think the most critical part of the cutterhead is the cutting circle diameter.

   My Oliver is direct drive at 3600 RPM and it produces a far superior cut to any other jointer I have used with a smaller cutting circle and higher RPM cutterhead.

   The Oliver has straight knives which I joint. When I joint the face of a board it is so smooth and flat that there is a suction when I try to lift the board from the outfeed table.

   Having sharp knives which are jointed is critical for smooth cuts.

4. 
   JMartinsky | Mar 19, 2006 01:50pm | #6

   I have a Powermatic 6" jointer. I liked the straight knives, in particular, I liked the whirr sound they made, I don't know why, but I just liked it. Any way, I replaced the cutterhead with the Byrd unit and was completely impressed. The machine has a bit of a whine to it now, but the cutterhead works as advertised. Good investment. I work commercially and fooling around with the machines puts no money in my pocket. The Byrd head allows me to run the jointer aggressively without having to worry about setting the knives. Additionally, Byrd's customer service is outstanding. I think that I have had this set up now for about three years and am very happy with it.

   John

1. 
   user-114572 | Mar 20, 2006 03:23am | #7

   Thanks for the info John!