After a lot of wringing my hands over the decision to spend this much cash on a planer cutter head, I finally decided last week to go with the Byrd tool shelix cutterhead. I received it today and installed it and all I can say is WOW. This thing really lives up to their claims. Absolutely no tearout on birdseye maple regardless of feed direction.
Installation was straightforward (I am a professional mechanic) and anyone with some mechanical ability shouldn’t have much trouble. The instructions are very thorough.
The thing that really surprised me was the difference in noise. I actually had to look to see if the cutterhead was turning when I turned it on. This machine was unbearably loud before and it is no louder that a tablesaw now. There are slight ridges left by the cutters but these are removed in no time with 180 grit paper.
I am completely impressed with Byrd tool. Customer service was excellent, it arrived faster that I expected and included tools for changing the cutters as well as 10 spare inserts, none of which I expected to get at purchase time. $800.00 is a lot of money to spend on a cutterhead but I have absolutely no regrets and am considering having one made for my 12″ jointer when I have some money to spend on tooling.
Tom
Douglasville, GA
Replies
Yeah, I've been lusting after one of these for my 8"er, but that price is a big show stopper.
Hope I have the same good results as you! I just received a new Shilex for my Model 15 Powermatic planer. I'm waiting for new bearings I ordered to complete installation. I have a question you may be able to answer. When I pulled the gear box, the set of gears did not stay intact. Is there only one way (order) to reinstall them?? The exploded view is not totally clear in this regard. I did notice how the gears appear to be stacked in the small photo in the installation instructions. Is this correct? Just trying to anticipate any potential problem when I reassemble. Thanks,
Dale
They are pretty much only going to go in one way. To me it was fairly obvious how they meshed together but mine came apart rather easily and everything stayed pretty much intact. Just ran a bunch of veeerryy curly cherry through with absolutely no tearout. I'm very happy with this setup.
Tom
Douglasville, GA
Edited 3/26/2004 9:05 pm ET by Tom
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