Spiral Cutterhead vs Byrd Shelix

[Joe Jensen]

The biggest difference I find is not getting the ripples/valleys that you get from a straight knife planer or jointer. For me personally, I do not seem to be able to push a board through the jointer slowly enough to eliminate the ripples. With the shelix I have in my planer, it is quite smooth and requires minimal to no sanding.

Only problem is I have yet to get the thing adjusted right so boards feed through properly.

What planer do you have?

[kazek supinski]

i run the byrd heads on my 6" jointer 15" planer and love it the noise it self keeps me happy.as for the cut it is just as good or better then my knives.but it is not cheap to get setup.i would do it again if needed.

[Mike Thomas]

I will add my vote to the spiral headed planers and jointers. I run a 24" straight knife planer, and a 20" spiral head planer. The set up, noise level difference, and length of time between changes are all better with the spiral. The only down side in my opinion is the up front cost.