Byrd Cutterhead

[Rob Will]

Anyone ever hear of an insert coming loose from a Byrd cutterhead?
What would happen to a planer if it did?

[Jay T. Marlin]

Never heard of anything like that happening.

Have you ever broken a 1/4" shank router bit while in use? I'm sure it would be something similar to that.

Why do you ask?

[JayStPeter]

I've had inserts in my jointer shatter. Once I dropped a piece of wood on top of the guard which caused the guard to impact the jointer head. The other time I was trying to joint a small piece and it rotated into the cutterhead and kicked back out. A piece of an insert embedded itself into the end of the piece. In both cases, it was far less of a problem than it sounds. I have now used 4 of my 10 spare cutters though .

You can overtighten the inserts and crack them also (which I've also done). The insert cuttherheads are clearly more fragile than knives. But, I still like it better myself.

Jay