Jointer Upgrade, Helical Head

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont]

I spent some time tonight upgrading the cutter head on my General 480 jointer.


After taking a class a year ago at Marc Adams one of the lasting impressions for me was that the jointers there all had helical heads. They cut like a dream and I went looking for the feasibility of buying one for my own jointer.

I bought a special one made just for my jointer, from Byrd, it’s what they call a Shelix head, the carbide cutters at an angle as well as being set in a helical row.

I removed the jointer fence, then the jointer from the base



Set it up on a saw horse to work, a neighbour helped me lift he beast.





I took the old cutter head out,





removed the head


Getting the bearings off the old head was a chore, a piece of wood used as a drift and a steady blow with a hammer made things go along


I replaced the bearings with new ones and pressed them on the new cutter head.


Here it is ready for final assembly


I will set it up and run it this weekend, I am looking forward to the improved performance.

Total time today was about 3 hours.

[Eddie Darby]

Thanks for the nice post Jim.

Looks like you could do some rust prevention while you have the thing apart.

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont]

Thanks for the nice post Jim.

Looks like you could do some rust prevention while you have the thing apart.

Yes Eddie,

I just opened the shop after the winter, a few tops even though protected have some rust on them

[Mike Cutler]

Yes Eddie,

I just opened the shop after the winter, a few tops even though protected have some rust on them

Nice post Jim, and I empathize completely. I always have some rust bloom starting after winter. The humidity changes and cold go right through all of the prep, and covers. Cleaning the planer is the hardest.

[Jim Becker]

That looks like a very nice upgrade to your jointer, Jim. 'Looking forward to your comments after the weekend about how you like it!

[Gary Herrmann]

Eagerly watching, since I'm going to do the same thing when my Byrd lands.

[Richard Butler]

Jim,
Why did you put the jointer on it's side? I don't get it.

[Jim Shaver, Oakville Ont]

Jim,
Why did you put the jointer on it's side? I don't get it.

I put it on its side so I could access the bolts that hold down the bearing housings, they are secured from the base.

[Mark Carlson]

Jim,

I really enjoyed those pictures. Thanks. Let us know what you think of the differences in jointing performance.

~mark

[Tom Jones III]

Thanks for the post. Did you need special tools to press in the new bearings?

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Lose that V belt and get a flat belt and you will gain almost 8% more power.

V belts chew up 10% on average. Straight gears are pretty good but the best power transmission - bar none - is a steel flat belt. They are some what scary when they aren't set up right.

[Eddie Darby]

A nice rust prevention trick for areas with high risk that have long down times, is to put T-9 from Boeshield on in a thick layer, and then just leave it there until the spring time, then you wipe it off, and you're ready to go. I also put plastic wrap over the T-9 surfaces. Small items I put in zip-lock bags with T-9.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...=1,43415,43440

[Glenn Clabo]

As always...nice. Thank you Jim.

[Greg Ladd]

Ya gotta love the green stuff!

I was hoping you would post some pictures of this upgrade when it happened.

Great to see you got it done. It looks great. I looking forward to hearing what you think of the change.

That would really be nice on the planer!

Greg