New Planer or New Cutterhead?

[Blake E Matthews]

I was hoping that I could get some help with my planer. My wife and I run a small home business where we work with a lot of figured woods like Birdseye and curly maple and flame birch. We have a Dewalt DW734 planer that works well on regular woods but really tears up the figured stuff. I have tried wetting the wood surface and have gotten mixed results at best.

My my question is, would it be better to upgrade to a heavier duty planer with a spiral cutterhead or buy a Byrd Shelix cutter head for the planer I currently have? Right now this is my most critical piece of equipment so if I have to spend the money, I will. For background, I have been looking at some of the 15" stationary planers with the spiral cutterhead made by Grizzly.

Thanks for for your help,
Blake

[Jesse Busenitz]

I'd say go for the grizzly... I have a grizzly 20" spiral head and love it, as it does great on figured wood.

[Kent A Bathurst]

WIth straight blades on figured material - blade sharpness makes a big difference. Thinnest possible cut - just enough to clean up the drive roller marks. Angle the board through the planer [not a lot of wiggle room for longer pieces on a 12", though].

Then, I make final pass[es] with large scraper plane and/or card scrapers.

Been generally successful with highly figured QSWO and curly maple. Done a smidgen of curly cherry also.

[Calvin Williams]

I was in your shoes just a couple years ago except I had a Ridgid planer. I finally decided if I was going to run a business it was time to upgrade to something with a spiral head. Like Jesse, I too bought a 20" Grizzly planer w/ a spiralhead and it was worth every dime. Imo, don't waste your money outfitting that planer with a Byrd cutterhead unless you just don't have the money to buy a new planer. But, if you are running a business I don't see how you can't afford too. It has cut my planing time in half.

[Loren Woirhaye]

This principle only applies to planers with standard planer knives: the knives can be "back beveled" to produce a scraping cut, similar to a hand plane with an iron bedded at 50 degrees or higher. Higher angle planes were developed in the 19th century to work the figured exotic woods European cabinetmakers suddenly had access to.

You might consider acquiring a second planer (a used Belsaw perhaps) and a Makita wet grinder. Then you'll be able to have a second planer set up with back-beveled knives for the tricky woods at a modest cost.

[John Conklin]

I faced the same thing recently, although I'm just a hobbyist, not facing it from the business point of view. I had a Dewalt DW733 and just couldn't see putting that kind of money in a lunch box planer with universal motor. I bought a used 15" Powermatic and will add a Byrd shelix head with the money is available. Ends up being about half the price of a new one with a segmented head.

[Peter Quinn]

Id go for the floor model with spiral and dump the portable.

[Paul McGaha]

Id go for the floor model with spiral and dump the portable.

Agreed, I would too.

PHM

[Ken Platt]

Like John, I upgraded from the DW 733 to the griz 15 inch with their spiral head, and it was a great move. Aside from no longer having a problem with figured wood, I no longer have to pay attention to which way the board feeds into the planer, and my planing time has been cut to a fourth, or even less, of what it used to be. I used to have to take innumerable light cuts with the 733, now I can often get where I need with just one pass. I would think that since you are doing this for a business, the time saved would equal more dollars in your pocket.

Although I'm agreeing with everybody on the thread, I would also mention that before I upgraded my planer, the way I got around the difficulty of planing figured wood was to get a small belt sander (Jet 10-20). If you only work with small pieces, that might be a better solution than the big planer.

Ken

[Matt Day]

New planer for sure

[Scott Rychnovsky]

Would a large belt sander be a viable option? I saw this on a local craigslist, but it is too much machine for my uses:

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/sys/4448038003.html

Scott

[Rick Alexander]

I don't know what area you live in but saw this in our local Atlanta Craig's list this morning. Wow - looks like a great deal. Powermatic 15 inch with a shelix installed already and looks to be in near new condition.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/tls/4475448856.html