Installing a Shelix cutterhead in a Makita 2040 planer

[Dave Erickson]

I have a job coming up which involves a lot of figured maple, so I figured (groan) I needed to upgrade my jointer and planer, both of which have served me 25 years, but which have always given me problems with burlwood, grain reversals and knots, resulting in tear-out. Byrd Shelix cutterheads were available for both tools, so that is what I ordered.


Yesterday I upgraded the jointer, which is a Delta 37-315 8" jointer. It was complicated by one problem: the cutter head was not parallel with the outfeed table. I did not know this until I installed the Byrd cutter head, because the knife adjustment for the regular cutter head corrects for such a problem.


The install is very straightforward so I won't bother with details of removing the old cutter head and installing the Byrd in its place. I had to install a .015" brass shim between the pillow block on the right side and the jointer body, to get the cutter head parallel to the outfeed table. That took some trial and error, but the end result is that both ends of the cutterhead now cut the same.


Today I upgraded the Makita 2040. I took a few photos since I could not find any information about how to remove a 2040 cutter head before I started.

First remove the belt guard and belt:
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Then remove the hand knob and upper pulley. The hand knob has left hand thread and requires a pin spanner to unscrew it from the cutter head. I used the cutter head lock, fortunately the knob was not that tight. Once the knob is off the pulley slides off.:
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Then remove the two phillips screws, that is all that holds the cutterhead in place. The two screws below were removed earlier along with the belt guard.
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Remove the feed drive cover on the other side of the machine:
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Disconnect the idler pulley spring and remove the chain, then remove the gearbox cover. The pinion at the bottom is on the end of the cutterhead, and a couple taps with a rubber hammer is all it took to get the cutterhead moving.
IMG_4616.jpg

This is the 2-knife Makita cutterhead. The bearing retainer on the right end and the pinion on the left end need to be removed and installed on the replacement cutterhead. The screw that holds the pinion on has left hand threads. Once the screw is out, the pinion is still held in place, it is a press fit into the end of the bearing.
IMG_4619 (1).jpgIMG_4621 (1).jpg

Now install the pinion on the Byrd cutterhead:
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And install the bearing carrier, pulley and hand knob on the Byrd cutterhead. Photo in next post.

[Dave Erickson]

Byrd cutterhead ready for installation:
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Installing the cutterhead was just a reversal of the previous steps.
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I also decided to replace the drive gear for the feed rollers, to slow the feed down a bit. This thread on Lumberjocks gave me the idea to buy a 12 tooth sprocket to replace the 15 tooth sprocket (a 20% reduction in feed speed): http://lumberjocks.com/topics/73545

Here is a picture of the feed drive with the new gear installed. The original gear is sitting on top of the planer. It required removal of one pair of links from the chain.
IMG_4627.jpg

[Mike Kees]

Dave how do they work now that you have them installed ? I have the same jointer as yours and am considering adding a byrd head. Where did you purchase the byrds / Thanks, Mike.

[Peter Vass]

Thanks for the tips Dave. My install went off with very few hitches. Your photos were quite helpful. Regards, Peter Vass

[Kevin Jenness]

As underpowered as is the 2040, this is a good test of the contention that Byrd heads draw more power (although the feed gear reduction should alleviate that). Are you able to run the same cut depths as before?