Official Luthiers Forum!

I just switched out the 3 knife cutter in my 8" Jet jointer for a shelix and I am not happy. It's so nice that I'm not going to be satisfied until I can put one in my planer too (a much bigger job).

The change over is easy (but you do need a gear puller).

The cutter is much quieter than conventional knives. Cuts spruce and khaya with no fuzz. The pic is of some flamed maple and if you look close, above and to the left of the dime is the only tear out on a 32" board while cutting at normal speed.

I don't look forward to rotating the blades but I'm hoping that will be awile. I believe it was Bob Garrish who said he has been using his for years and has not turned them yet.

Anyone want to buy a 15" Jet planer?

_________________
http://www.chassonguitars.com

Kent, I am interested in shelix. I have a Jet 6" jointer. What did the conversion cost you?

These cutters really look nice to me!

I heard that one advantage is that individual cutters can be rotated if you see a problem.

Mike

Way to go, Kent. We recently put one in a 12" Powermatic jointer at the school; It rocks. And it's amazingly quiet!

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

I have a 6" Jet as well. I've not looked too hard, but I'd like to find one too.

They are on sale now at Grizzly. The 6" for Jet is $265. http://www.grizzly.com/products/searchr ... x?q=shelix

The only other cost for me was $30 for a gear puller. The bearing blocks came off no problem but the bearings were on pretty tight. I had to grind the end of the puller so it would fit under the rim of the bearings. I was leary about putting that much force on the outer flange but the bearings came off and spin fine so I re-used them. If your jointer has seen a ton of use, this a good time to replace bearings.

I used my drill press to press the bearings on the new shaft. A spark plug socket was the right size to fit over the shaft and make good contact with the inner flange of the bearing.

Total time was only a few hours. The only small issue with the new cutter was the key way for the pully was a bit too small for the key. Took an extra 5 minutes to grind the key down.

And yes, if you get a nick before the cutters are dull, you can just rotate the effected ones.

edit: Mike, yes I was thinking how nice these would be in schools because of the low noise. We had a 24" planer at the high school I went to that had split blades to reduce noise. I think there were 36 short blades total! But there was a grinder mounted to it so you could sharpen the blades right on the machine. Someday though, they were going to have to replace and set 36 little blades!

_________________
http://www.chassonguitars.com

Mine is the spiral head that came with my General jointer, but I have only rotated to knives once so far (someone...who wasn't me...was kind enough to run something with a nail in it over my jointer...the knives did not like this)

Anyhow, it's a lot of inserts when I switch 'em but that's one rotation in two years (ie: 1/4 of the available edges)

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I gotta think that this kind of head would be excellent for jointing backs and tops, especially for figured wood.

But, I have spent so much on tools lately, I dare not bring this one up to my wife!

Mike

I have been curious how the Grizzly spiral head compares with the Byrd. So a question to both of you: Do you get the small ridges that are sometimes mentioned in connection with these heads?

Bob, would expect similar results to planing curly maple as Kent shows in his photo?

Has anyone worked with both types of heads?

Thanks, Brook

The shelix cutters are slightly curved to match the helical line. I get no ridges. The Grizzly ones look straight and look like they are oriented parallel to the rotation. If so, you would not get the benefit of the shear cut. I'd be curious too if anyone has any direct experience. Right now, it looks like it may be a better deal to sell my planer and buy a new Grizzly rather than go to the work of installing a shelix on it.

_________________
http://www.chassonguitars.com

I've always gotten good results except when one of the inserts is chipped. I very rarely get stuff chipping, but some pieces of wood are going to do it no matter what you do when you're cutting with something the size of a jointer head. If the knives aren't carefully set you can get lines, as well. The knives in the General are straight, so it's possible that the Shelix is a better design by what Kent's saying.

I have a General, not a Grizzly, so my review sort of says nothing of the Grizzly product unless there's some cross-labeling between the two companies...

_________________
Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Wow! That would have been a lot of work! Handy to have a grinder right there though.

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Like I mentioned, we have the byrd head on the Powermatic at the school. We also have Grizzly jointers and a planer, all with spiral heads. I have never seen any ridges on any of them, unless there's a nick, like Bob mentioned. The Grizzlies are great machines, except that the fences on the jointers leave a little to be desired. Very smooth cuts though, and also very quiet, though not as quiet as the shelix!

_________________
Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

I am also interested in these heads. i spoke to "the byrd man" & he said they were just starting to try them in the bench top planers. The man at general however said they were finding they had to use bigger motors on the bigger planers because the nature of the design is such that it is a continuous draw on the motor as opposed to those nano seconds od no draw between the knives on a conventinal cutter.
McNerney

_________________
Mike McNerney