Help with carbide planer head

[Scott Barrera]

I bought one of the surplus jet helical heads a few years ago that were on eBay. I installed it about a month ago and am not having a good time with it. I am breaking inserts right and left and the planer clunks when a board exits. I removed all of the inserts and torques them to 50 lb-in (it is the right torque wrench) and I never see high metal, dirt or anything that should be causing them to break when I change them.

My questions:

1 what sources are there for replacement inserts. Did anyone ever confirm that the Byrd inserts work

2 what could be causing the clunking

3 what could be causing the repeated insert breaking

[Mike Goetzke]

Are your inserts numbered 1-2-3-4?

Mike

[Ron Bontz]

I am not sure about the inserts breaking. How much are you trying to hog off at a time? The clunking sounds like your infeed and outfeed rollers need to be adjusted. One of mine on my new shop fox is clunking also. Won't get to it until tomorrow. The diameter, (overall including the cutter profiles) may be slightly less than the dia. of the cutter head (including blade profile) you just replaced. This may change the roller pressure pushing them further up to get the same depth of cut. Have you ever lubed the roller springs. My shop fox info. says I have to do this every so often. Any engineers with planer experience out there? My only other thought is "surplus?"+ "Ebay?" =? I will be watching this thread for sure.

[Scott Barrera]

Mike
The inserts are not numbered, they have an indexing dot so you can track which sides have been used.

I don't try to cut much at a time, usually 1/32" or less

[glenn bradley]

I'm going to assume we are talking about a floor model(?). Unless the inserts are faulty or improperly installed I say we start with the clunking and go from there. Swapping heads (even if they are identical) calls for a full machine setup except maybe the bed rollers (I would do everything, it just doesn't take all that long).

I'm assuming the planer was doing a decent job prior to the head change and the following is worth just what you paid for it ;-)

Do you have a Rotocator or a more sensibly priced tool to confirm your setup?

184080 .............. Good.


Have you confirmed your infeed and outfeed tables are flat (again assuming a floor model).
Have you confirmed your feed roller to cutterhead BDC height relationships as being within spec? I set my infeed pretty light and my outfeed even lighter but my machine still has a grip like an alligator.
Have you confirmed you chip breaker and pressure bar (if so equipped) positions?
Have you set the feed roller tension properly? I get no roller marks if take as little as a 32nd off.
Have you confirmed that your bed rollers are within spec? I set mine dead flat with the bed but, that's me.
At this point you should get reasonable results but could experience snipe, feed roller marks etc. but no clunk.


If your feed and cut are stable and you still break inserts, I'll have to start blaming the head/inserts. If this is so, I am hoping that someone can give you more focused assistance with that. I've been running spirals for years and never had an insert break but, I have heard about the torque or improper insert to head matching causing breakage.

There was a rash of Byrd posts awhile back so it obviously isn't just you or your particular head. I understand those issues were resolved so this is not a disparaging remark, just an observation. I will be watching closely because it could be me some day down the line.

[Myk Rian]

It is recommended to torque the cutters before use. 55 lbs/in.
When I change the cutter position, I'll mark the used edge with a magic marker. That way I know when a cutter is used up.

1. Buy cutters at www.byrdtool.com
2. You may have a loose drive belt, gear, or chain.
3. The clunking could be doing it.

[Mike Goetzke]

Mike
The inserts are not numbered, they have an indexing dot so you can track which sides have been used.

I don't try to cut much at a time, usually 1/32" or less

Reason I asked was that I had a new spiral head on my planer that I installed and it worked fine at set up. It sat for four or five months before I used it again. Have no idea why I looked at the bed before using it but there were pieces from six shattered inserts. They replaced the head and this one is fine but the inserts are marked differently than on the problem head that had 1-2-3-4 on the sides.

Mike

[Scott Barrera]

I'm going through the settings again using an indicator. I forgot to post that the planer is a one year old shop fox 1742.

[Van Huskey]

1. Buy cutters at www.byrdtool.com


Does Byrd sell straight cutters (which I assume his head requires) or do they only sell the 4" radius curved cutters like go in a Shelix head?

[Scott Barrera]

The infeed roller and the chip breaker were both about .022" low (they were at .030" below the cutter head). I was playing around with the chip breaker and I am all but certain that it has been making the noise. I'm still stumped on why the inserts are breaking. As I said I removed all of the inserts when I got the head, cleaned everything and then torqued them down.

This is a Jet head on a Shop fox planer, the inserts are the radiused ones (approx. 1/2" across) but I do not know if the Byrd brand ones will work or not.

[Brian Gumpper]

The Byrd cutters all have the 4" radius, 15mm size for a #10 screw. Not sure what the Jet uses.

[Matt Meiser]

My JJP-12 cutters appear to be identical dimension-wise to the Byrd cutters I got from Brian.