Felder AD531 with Byrd cutterhead?

[Victor Philippi]

I was visiting my local Felder showroom yesterday when a sales representative mentioned to me that they have an AD531 with a two knife cutterhead in inventory that they haven't been able to move. They offer the machine with a four knife block and almost all customers purchase the machine with that option. In short they were throwing around the idea of having a Byrd Shelix cutterhead installed on this AD531 and then offering this machine for sale.

Is this a worthwhile option to pursue? Would a machine with this cutterblock option make a Felder AD531 more attractive to customers?

Thanks for thoughts and opinions.

Victor

[Gary Blum]

I have an AD 7/51 that I have installed a Byrd cutterhead in. I replaced a head w/ 4 knives. I'm definitely glad that I did. The noise reduction alone has been tremendous, and I would do it for that reason alone. I don't think the finish quality is any better w/ the Byrd, but it sure is nice to not be running half dull knives all the time.

The downside will be when I have to replace all those kvives.


Kind Regards,
Gary Blum

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Ahhhh the cutter head argument.

On the FOG every once in a while the subject come s up about how many blades you need on a jointer or planer.
After all some of the famous industrial Parkers had only one blade. And in fact depending on feed and speed the highest blade on a 3 or 4 blade head might be doing all the work any way.

So why worry if the thing has only two?

No reason at all.
The Felder machines go plenty fast enough that you might be able to toss all three blades off that 4 blade cutter head and get along just fine.

If it's cheap and you are in the market for a top of the line machine (none better) then do it.

As an aside I think Martin is going out of business.
getting bought by a pack o' Chinee or sumpin.

[johnny means]

I have an AD 7/51 that I have installed a Byrd cutterhead in. I replaced a head w/ 4 knives. I'm definitely glad that I did. The noise reduction alone has been tremendous, and I would do it for that reason alone. I don't think the finish quality is any better w/ the Byrd, but it sure is nice to not be running half dull knives all the time.

The downside will be when I have to replace all those kvives.


Kind Regards,
Gary Blum

I was looking into the same thing for my 751 but when I called Byrd they said they didn't have a cutter head specifically for my machine. They suggested that I might be able to use one of their other Felder cutterheads, but couldn't tell me which one. Which cutter head did you use?

[Brian Gumpper]

The only 20" head I show in my master list is for the D-51 and D-751 (same head for both) so I would have to assume it's that one. Sells for $1,326 which isn't bad considering it's probably a very substantial head.

[Gary Blum]

Hi Johnny,

My AD 7-51 is about 7 yrs old. I just ordered the head from Byrd, and they had not made one for that machine yet. I think they contacted the factory in Austria to get the engineering specs and then I believe I had to sign off on a legal paper for Felder probably excusing them of any liability for when I installed the new head. I have had the Byrd head for about 2 years now. Byrd should have those engineering drawings. I believe I paid about 1300 or 1400 dollars. I still think it was worth it.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Kind Regards,
GaryBlum

[Brad Shipton]

I just finished putting on a Shellix on my A3-31, and it is totally worth it if you are machining difficult woods. Byrd had not made a cutterhead for mine before either. I went through getting the confidentiallity agreement, stock head shop drawing, Byrd drawing approval,..... If I were to do it again, I would make sure I could do without the machine for a few weeks and simply send Byrd the head. After the I approved the shop drawing, I had the head in two weeks. Mine was around $1,300 (CAN), but I probably paid an extra 10% since I bought it from a Byrd Rep.

The worst part about changing the head on mine was the dust port. All of those little segmented stock kickback teeth had to come out. What a pain. Other than that, its not really that bad.

I was totally amazed how much noise reduction there was by changing the head. The first time I turned mine on, I almost thought the machine was not plugged in

I milled 600bdft of Jatoba yesterday, and there are maybe two boards out of the bunch where there is a slight amount of tearout around a knot. When I last milled this quantity of Jatoba with the stock head I found a lot of tearout in about 15% of the boards. The time sanding to remove the tearout was ridiculous given the wood density.

The cut quality changing the two knife (AD531) machine to a shellix will improve a great deal. I believe the AD531 is a 80mm dia cutterhead like mine. The head diameter is also a very important factor. The larger the diameter, the greater the knife speed = more cuts per inch, but the larger diameter needs a bigger motor to drive.

Brad