Helix cutter heads for thickness planers

[dennisk]

Just over from the round side forum. I have a shop with all the fixins and am in the market for a new thickness planer. Being in Canada I am looking at the Powermatic or the General. Both come with a form of a helical multi knife cutter head. The Powermatic uses the Shelix and the General uses their own brand ( I think) callled the Magnum. I realize this is an ocean away and you guys might not have experience with either of these two, but does anyone have experience with a helical head of some kind and are they worth the extra costs? Thanks Dk

 

[jasonB]

Someone on here was going to be testing one of these, can't think who but if you use the search it should throw something up.

Jason

 

[Mr Ed]

I seem to recall reading a post on Konrad Sauer's blog about the Shelix. He thought it was good. Nothing like that is widely available in the UK, so I doubt many on here will have an opinion, although from what I've read they are meant to be good.

Ed

 

[cutting solutions]

when you say "helical" do you mean one with lots of either brazed tips or disposable knives spiralling around the head over its full length?

 

[Max Power]

Seem to generally get a good write up on the American forums especially the byrd version

 

[dennisk]

The Powermatic has smaller 4 sided carbide cutters and General has larger 2 sided cutters. thanks again. DK

 

[woodsworth]

I worked in a shop that had one but don't know what brand. Since i've looked into it here in the Uk to no avail but found a Chinese company that will make them and deliver them to the uk for about $600 us dollars. It is a bit much for me right now but when i can i will definitely get it. There is less chip out and it runs quieter. If you hit something you are only replacing the little cutters and it can be done quite quickly.

Just a lot of money to pay.

 

[cutting solutions]

Not sure this is going to work.

do you mean like the (scroll down the pages) ART 104 on here:


http://www.cputensili.it/pdf/CatalogoCap3.pdf

 

[woodsworth]

The ART 100 but it only looks as though they go up to 6 inches long. I need 12 inches long for my planer.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I looked at getting one made, but decided the cost was too high. I've seen a review in Australian Woodworker, and that was glowing - the guy had put something hard and gnarly ozzy wood through it and there was no tear out. The ease of dealing with nicks is obviously an advantage, too.

I'd love one, but I don't think I could justify it.
S

 

[jasonB]

Cutting Solutions, They are not the same insert mounting as the one you linked to and they also come much longer so you change the whole cutter head on a thicknesser.

Have a look at Byrd tools

http://www.byrdtool.com/index.html

Jason

 

[ColeyS1]

Hi Dk.

We bought a new tenoner and it came as standard with the two blade cutter head. The finish with them wasn't great. After forking out for some helical cutterheads it was like having a completely different machine.

The finish was the first thing that was obviously different, but also it was much quieter and produced much smaller/finer shavings. (no more clogging up the hoses !)

Its not quite the situation you speak of, but might be of interest :wink:

Simon

 

[cutting solutions]

The statements on the Byrd site about finish are true but.....


you have to make certain the seatings are very clean when replacing the knives otherwise they may leave shadow lines on the timber which will require sanding.

Their knives seem expensive too.
They usually use 14x14x2 or 15x15x2.5 with radius ground on the edge (which helps stop the shadow line) I would be happy to quote for those if you found out what the radius was.

Woodsworth
I can get heads made longer than 230 mm. does your machine use a plain bore on the head or is the shaft integral?

 

[woodsworth]

I'm not sure what type it is. I own an older sedwick machine and when i contacted them for a drawing i got no response. The company who i was looking into it with wanted a drawing. When i had it all apart to clean and set up it looked like the head was a one piece.

 

[cutting solutions]

woodsworth.
It would need a full drawing if it has integral shaft as the bearings on the machine need to be located precisely to match the location on the head.
If the head comes off the shaft its very easy as you would need a plain bore with perhaps location points to attach to the shaft.
where are you located?

 

[woodsworth]

It does come out of the planer. So i guess that means it isn't integrated. I live in north wales... surely a long ways from anyone lol. Well Karl's been here so not to far from him

 

[Jake]

Looks like a pain in the fundament to me - imagine rotating all those to get a fresh edge (never mind changing them all over for new ones) - give me a tersa block any day.

 

[Mattty]

Looks like a pain in the fundament to me - imagine rotating all those to get a fresh edge (never mind changing them all over for new ones) - give me a tersa block any day.

Me too, I'll never go back.

 

[Jake]

Still in the wish list for me!

 

[cutting solutions]

Looks like a pain in the fundament to me - imagine rotating all those to get a fresh edge (never mind changing them all over for new ones) - give me a tersa block any day.

I dont disagree except for the price and you can remove more material with the spirals.
Tersa heads with integral shaft are somewhere close to 2k to fit to an old machine. they are fitted to knew machines at a lower price.
Give me a shout next time you want some new knives ......
you may have found an economical source :wink: