Shelix and other Shearing cutters

[Dan Racette]

Does anyone use a byrd tools Shelix cutterhead on jointers or planers that they have?

anyone have experience with any other brands of true shear cut cutterheads, such as the one offered by Oliver?

Please share your experiences and thoughts on the value of having this type of cutterhead in your tools.

d

[John Miliunas]

Dan, where/when did you sneek in?! Sheeesh...A fellow Cheesehead and only caught up to you now! Welcome aboard!

Anyhow, I think there are a few other folks here who own/use the helical cutterhead, so you may get some responses from them. If not, I've been told the one I ordered for the DJ20 jointer should hopefully, be here within the next couple of weeks. It's a Byrd unit and I'll be happy to give you a rundown of it when I get it installed.

[Dan Racette]

Greetings John, Yeah, a fellow cheesehead alright. Just moving into wood. How long have you been working and what do you usually make?

Let me know about the cutter performance.

thanks
dan

[Richard McComas]

I have a question about these Shelix and other Shearing cutters heads. Does it make sense to put one of these cutter heads on a jointer and then run your stock thru a planer with straight knives?

Seems to me you would want the same type of cutting head on both the jointer and planer. Just asking for some thought on this.

[Norman Hitt]

I have a question about these Shelix and other Shearing cutters heads. Does it make sense to put one of these cutter heads on a jointer and then run your stock thru a planer with straight knives?

Seems to me you would want the same type of cutting head on both the jointer and planer. Just asking for some thought on this.

--------------
Richard, I have never used one of these, but I could see that maybe it would possibly be beneficial if you were working a highly figured wood that was prone to tearout, and you could Joint the Face Side, instead of having to surface it on a sander, and then plane the non face side to thickness. Many times, tearout on the non face side wouldn't matter anyhow, as long as the wood was planed to even thickness. Also, any side that was planed by the planer could be sanded to match the side that had been done on the jointer, if it was going to show.

'Course if you had one of these cutterheads on a Jointer/planer combo machine, both sides would benefit from the same cutter.

Just some wild thoughts of mine.

[Alan Turner]

I have a Byrd Shelix cutterhead on my 12" jointer. My jointer was old, so it iwa s a special order. I sent them my head, and they duplicated it, in the Shelix configuration. I get no tearout, even on figured bubinga, which is about the toughest wood to surface, in my experience. It is so reliable -- the no tearout result -- that I forget to check the grain direction when jointing and it does not matter.
As to the question about not having a Shelix on my planer, I would like one, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. When I have figured wood to deal with, I ofter finish on the jointer with the final lcut on the face side. This is not a perfect procedure, but it is not bad.

[John Miliunas]

Hey Norm & Allen, you guys just confirmed *exactly* what my plan is! Instead of using the jointer to index a flat plane before planing, do the opposite. Makes sense to me. Sometime in the future, I'm still thinking of selling off the Dewalt lunchbox and picking up on probably a *real* 15" planer and adding in the Helix on it. That would come as close to perfection as I can imagine!

Dan, I've been putzin' with WW for a number of years now, though I've only gotten more serious about it in the last four or five years. I've made a variety of stuff, from small knick-knack boxes to cabinets and a few simple furniture pieces. Concentrating on building stuff for the house, at the moment. Also have done a little turning, again, from pens on up to larger bowls and platters. Both of my lathes right now are extremely PO'd at me, though, 'cuz I've not had the time to even turn them on for a good many months! When I do, they'll be sorry!!! And yeah, I plan on putting up some type of report/review on the cutterhead once I receive it and have it installed.

[nic obie]

John,

I was thinking about ordering a cutterhead just like the one you have coming.

Now I think I'll wait a bit in order to see what you have to say about it.

No need to rush into things, you know.

[John Miliunas]

John,

I was thinking about ordering a cutterhead just like the one you have coming.

Now I think I'll wait a bit in order to see what you have to say about it.

No need to rush into things, you know.

Oh sure...Let ME be the guinea pig! That's OK. From all I"ve read on it, I think I'll be happy with it. Actually, now I'm kind of glad that when I was buying a jointer, Grizzly kept pushing back their delivery time on the 8" with their version of the spiral cutterhead. It's NOT the same thing and I believe the Shelix will do a better job. I'll keep you guys posted.