How best to go from resaw, to finished stock

[dirk martin]

I'm resawing a lot of boards, both domestic hardwoods and exotics, with my Minimax 24" bandsaw, with a Lenox carbide blade, and a stock feeder.

My stock comes off quite smooth, but not smooth enuf for my customers. My Performax 16/32 drumsander, is too slow....I'm resawing a LOT of stock.

I was gonna get a 15 or 17" widebelt sander, but I saw a comment quite some time ago from member: Kevin Groenke. He wrote:

"With the PM 209HH (byrd spiral) we can go from the resaw to finished in a single pass. The helical head doesn't care about grain, figure or much else. We regularly plane stock to 1/4" and less. With a 1" mdf auxiliary bed we've successfully thicknessed 12" maple and similar (clear, straight grain) to 3/32"."

This sounds like a perfect solution for me. I'd like to get comments from others, regarding similar planers with helical heads.

Will they give me a finish, very close to 120 grit sanding?
Do those heads rarely give you chip out?
Is a helical head the same as a "spiral cutterhead"?
I don't need a 20" planer, therefore, do you folks think the Grizzly G0453z 15" planer would get me a great finish?
The head on that planer is "Spiral with German-Made Indexable Carbide Inserts", and runs at 5000 RPM, with 74 carbide inserts.
$1,441.00 delivered.

[Lance Norris]

I resaw and with one pass through my Grizzly 1021x, wood is clean enough for ROS with 150 grit. Yes these planers with helical style heads do that good of a job. There are 2 types of heads, the type with the small indexable carbide cutters and the type that have a straight knife in a twist(so to speak). You want to stay away from the second type as the knives are hard to sharpen and adjust.

[jim oakes]

Dirk,
How thick is your stock? What do your customers use it for? How much is a LOT of stock?

[dirk martin]

From 1/8 to 1/4 typically in thickness.
Mostly scrolling.
Hundreds and hundreds of sq.ft. worth....basically all I have time to cut.

Dirk,
How thick is your stock? What do your customers use it for? How much is a LOT of stock?

[dirk martin]

Lance, is that planer similar to the G0453Z?
I'm currently using a Dewalt 13" planer (3 knives). Are the helical heads a huge difference?

[Joe Jensen]

I'm resawing a lot of boards, both domestic hardwoods and exotics, with my Minimax 24" bandsaw, with a Lenox carbide blade, and a stock feeder.

My stock comes off quite smooth, but not smooth enuf for my customers. My Performax 16/32 drumsander, is too slow....I'm resawing a LOT of stock.

I was gonna get a 15 or 17" widebelt sander, but I saw a comment quite some time ago from member: Kevin Groenke. He wrote:

"With the PM 209HH (byrd spiral) we can go from the resaw to finished in a single pass. The helical head doesn't care about grain, figure or much else. We regularly plane stock to 1/4" and less. With a 1" mdf auxiliary bed we've successfully thicknessed 12" maple and similar (clear, straight grain) to 3/32"."

This sounds like a perfect solution for me. I'd like to get comments from others, regarding similar planers with helical heads.

Will they give me a finish, very close to 120 grit sanding?
Do those heads rarely give you chip out?
Is a helical head the same as a "spiral cutterhead"?
I don't need a 20" planer, therefore, do you folks think the Grizzly G0453z 15" planer would get me a great finish?
The head on that planer is "Spiral with German-Made Indexable Carbide Inserts", and runs at 5000 RPM, with 74 carbide inserts.
$1,441.00 delivered.

I have Byrd heads in my planer and my jointer. Neither leaves a surface ready to finish. I start with 120 orbital and work each grit up to 220 or 320. The wood has essentially zero tearout, but it is not ready to finish...joe

[dirk martin]

Really, Joe....
Darn.
Sounds like I'm back to needing a wide belt sander, then.
Do those things remove material at the speed, close to a planer?

[Joe Jensen]

Really, Joe....
Darn.
Sounds like I'm back to needing a wide belt sander, then.
Do those things remove material at the speed, close to a planer?

The Byrd head replaces the stock cutterhead. I see no differnce in feed speed on the jointer, and my planer is single speed.

I experience a lot less sanding with these heads as there is no tearout, but they are far from zero sanding...joe