I am an hobbyist woodworker mainly working on small cabinets and furniture.
I have two planers, a “generic 4 post” Jet and a Dewalt 735. I also have a Moak 12” jointer circa 1950. My motivation is to avoid knife changes in the event of a nick.
Please contribute any thoughts/ opinions w/r which ONE should get the Byrd. [In my ideal world, they’d all get one, but reality intervenes.]
The Dewalt makes nice light cuts. It appears easiest to change the head. But the standard knife changes are easy.
The Jet leaves feed roller tracks on light cuts. I’ve been using this planer on rough, longer lumber. I have not changed the knives so I have no idea of the ease or difficulty relative to the other cutterheads. Installing a head appears to be more time consuming and messy as the oil-filled gearcase must be disassembled.
The jointer is an unknown: direct drive with no parts diagram. The only parts list I have found fails to show how the head joins the motor. Fortunately standard knife changes are accessible and straightforward.