Jon Endres
12-16-2009, 11:00 AM
I picked up a copy of the new American Woodworker mag off the shelf at Home Depot yesterday and noticed a brief news/ad item about the new Steel City lunchbox planer with the spiral insert cutterhead (uses HSS inserts). I have a Ridgid TP1300S planer and, except for the color, my Ridgid is a dead ringer for the SC planer. It looks identical. Does anyone think that the SC cutterhead might be adapted to the Ridgid machine? I don't really have a problem with mine, I find the blade changes easy and the blades are still on the shelf at my local HD, but the spiral head sounds interesting for the small amounts of figured wood that I do run through it. Also do my own roughsawn and some of it is dirty, the inserts might handle it better.
What I really ought to do is save up and buy a Byrd shelix head for my Powermatic 180 planer, but that's a long-term (4-5 years away) restoration project, and I use the Ridgid until then.
What I really ought to do is save up and buy a Byrd shelix head for my Powermatic 180 planer, but that's a long-term (4-5 years away) restoration project, and I use the Ridgid until then.