Warning! The Shelix head may not be what you want on jointers.

[Ben Cadotte]

You replace just the ones you need to replace. Griz sells them in sets of 10. Not sure about other places.

[Steve knight]

There are other ways to skin that cat. I can change the knives on my Tersa cutterhead in a minute or two; much quicker than spining all the carbide cutters on a Shelix or changing and aligning knives on a normal cutterhead.

faster then changing them say 24 times? thats about how many times you would need to change them compared to how often I have to rotate cutters. how much would that cost?

[Joe Jensen]

There has been quite a bit of talk about putting a ITCH or Shelix head on a jointer. ITCH is an oliver acro meaning Independent Tooth Carbide Head. I always wonderd if it shouldnt be ICTH or Independent Carbide Tooth Head.

At any rate, many jointers have always been equipped with rebate ledgers to allow them to cut rebates or rabbits. Although many woodworkers never use this feature, its still there. A key aspect to this is to allow the edge of the knife to function as a spur nicker and cut a clean corner. The shelix type head does not have dedicted nickers on the front side of the cylinder. Therefore, it cannot cut the clean, sharpe edge you all wish to see in the rebate or rabbit application. If you dont use this feature, no problem. Go out and install a shelix in your machine.

The shelix is also good at cutting down some of the noise. O.K. Fine. Not enough of an issue for me to go out and buy one. It also does an excellent job on pagen grain hardwoods. Now you have my attention!!!!! Burl and Curl. If this is your thing, this feature may be a good idea as well.

Many folks often wonder why we need jointers that have 12 inch to 30 inch widths. Well, these are surfaceing machines or surfacers in addition to being jointers. But there is also one more aspect. By running a board at an angle, also known as shear cutting, I can improve the quaiity of the cut and reduce or eliminate blow out. By keeping the wood moist and running it through at a shear angle, I can get excellent cuts on pagen grain.

So instead of running an 8 inch jointer with a shelix, I have found I can get better performance out of running a 20 inch jointer with straight steel knives. By the time I buy a good 8 inch jointer and the shelix heads and the inserts and the torque wrench, I could have bought a 1950s or 1960s oliver or porter or newman in 12 inch, 16 inch or 20 inch widths for the same money or less and be getting the same performance ore more.

Just food for thought as there are always 9 ways to skin the kittie.

Great plan if you have gobs of space, and you live in a part of the country where 20" jointers exist. Sadly here in Phoenix I've never seen more than a 12" on Craig's list. I've used jointers for 30 years and I've only used the rabbiting ledge a few times. The times I did, I ended up with terrible tearout on the bottom of the board. I'd much rather use the TS or a router. With the Byrd head I'll never again align knives, and I get ZERO tearout with the figured woods I like to use

[Dave MacArthur]

(cough) 3 year old thread...

[Per Swenson]

Yup,

But whatever happened to Dev?

Dev?.......... Dev?........Bueller?

Per

[George Summers]

Many folks often wonder why we need jointers that have 12 inch to 30 inch widths. Well, these are surfaceing machines or surfacers in addition to being jointers. But there is also one more aspect. By running a board at an angle, also known as shear cutting, I can improve the quaiity of the cut and reduce or eliminate blow out. By keeping the wood moist and running it through at a shear angle, I can get excellent cuts on pagen grain.

Interesting comment. Some years ago there was a thread on one of the forums about the Harbor Freight jointer (I'm not going to get into the fit/finish or engineering debate) and one poster said that the fence was no good because it anchored at the front and the back end would deflect. I said then, that this might be a good thing. As the back deflected, it let the workpiece go past the knives at an angle which gave a shear cut. I was roundly boo'ed and told that I knew not of what I was speaking and a jointer fence had, must, could not be otherwise, to be square to the knives.

George

[Jeff Duncan]

Hmmm, interesting post, the only thing I'd add is I believe the Oliver ITCH head is different than what most of us know as insert cutterheads. It's my understanding that the original Oliver design had separate short knives staggered around the cutterhead, and that once you got all the knives set you then ground them all one at a time on the cutterhead. They are supposed to be pretty impressive machines, but sharpening the knives would be quite a time consuming process I think. Also I believe they were mostly for planers, I don't believe I've ever heard of one being used on a jointer?
Also if you can find a decent Oliver or Porter 16 - 20" Jointer for less than $3k you've done very well. The last 16" Oly I went to look at was going for $4500 and it sold within a day. Not to mention you'll need a very large shop as the tables are over 9' in length on some of them, and the direct drives are close to 4' in depth. Then there's the issue of 3 phase power, yup not really an option for many of the guys reading these posts I would guess. I really wanted on myself, but couldn't really fit it in my shop, and I have about 2k sq. ft..
Just another way of looking at it.
JeffD

[Frank Drew]

I was roundly boo'ed and told that I knew not of what I was speaking and a jointer fence had, must, could not be otherwise, to be square to the knives.

George

As you knew, and I guess the others didn't, the fence can be square to the beds and knives and still be angled in relation to the length of the cutterhead.

[Greg Cole]

Yup,

But whatever happened to Dev?

Dev?.......... Dev?........Bueller?

Per

Per
He's off looking for one of the remaining long lost Gameboys. Rumor has it one was spotted and he's been looking for it for a few years....

Greg

[Bruce Page]

Yup,

But whatever happened to Dev?

Dev?.......... Dev?........Bueller?

Per

I saw the post and hoped Dev had returned.
Too bad, the guy had a wealth of knowledge.

[Chris Padilla]

His location says, "Anywhere it snows..." so he could be, uh, pretty much anywhere!