Byrd Head worth the money?

[John Ferandin]

Will,
I would go the route you've gone if a Shelix was to run me $950. I also considered a Tersa head for the jointer but it was in the $600 range. Grizzly had the Shelix for under $300 which was hard to beat.
I changed out the head after getting tired of having the three sets of blades sharpened poorly and not holding an edge all that long (Koa, etc.). I'm in Hawaii and there are very few sharpening shops to do business with. I've ended up sending everything to California to have sharpened but that's getting old.

The planer decision is based on the above as well as never really getting a great finish. Additionally that beast is loud. One quick stop in the local Woodcraft where they demo'd the Powermatic with Shelix head and I was hooked. That baby wispered compared to a straight knife machine.
I also like the continuity of cutters between the two machines. Life will be much easier with both using the same tooling.
I did get a quote for a Tersa head for the 15" and it was in the $800 range before knives. Not a hard decision for me on that one. Neither machine is really worth that kind of retrofit.

My next planer and jointer will most likely be Western European by manufacture and will probably have a Tersa head but that is a few years down the road. (I was spoiled by a set of Martin's at the Alpine Technical Workshops in January - very nice machines)

So far I'm very happy with the Shelix cut, maintenance level, and sound reduction, and life extension of two workhorses. Well worth it for me.

John

[Will Blick]

Thanks John....

Since I always start with the side of the board which is "better" for jointing, I would guess my planer does 8x the workload vs my jointer as there is always much thicknessing going on as well.... so Shelix is very warranted for that extra hogging on the planer......

as for noise.... not an issue, as my cyclone is so loud, I use hearing protection regardless....