Shop Fox planer

[Carl McGaug]

I saw this Shop Fox planer here for about $1300 shipped,
tool-corral.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/page25.html



But no where else. It's a 1724 with a spiral.Their 1742 with cast iron tables and no top motor (and no spiral) can be had for about $1150 shipped. Any thoughts on these? What's the advantage/disadvantage to a top motor?

[David Kumm]

The top motor moves and the table is stationary. Great if the planer sits between machines so you can use the other tables for infeed or outfeed. Easier to set up permanent tables. That is the old design but works better with spiral head since it is more difficult to get at straight knives with the motor in the way. I assume that is the grizzly spiral that seems to get pretty good reviews. Might want to check the grizzly version for price comparison. Same machine if still made. Dave

[Larry Rasmussen]

I looked at a planer just about exactly like this down at Sunhill Machinery five years or so ago before they went out of business. It is an older design. I posted a general inquiry here at Sawmill Creek about the motor top design and got no responses. I was interested because I happen to like the idea of a fixed table, moving head machine for the ease of fixed in/out table height when you are setting things up. When I looked around on the net I found a handful of companies with this type of planer- in the 15" size usually and with straight blades.

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the usual spiral cutterhead with dozens of inserts put in individually instead of the usual 2 to 4 blades. Generally the insert's all 4 sides are sharpened and if you get a nick in one you rotate that individual cutterhead. Grizzly offers a house brand and also sells the Shelix cutterhead from the Byrd company who specializes in the production of the Shelixes as they call them. I was looking at the old school spiral cutterhead at Sunhill, simply a head set up for a set of three spiral blades. I believe that is what the machine offerred in your link has. They appear pricey on the link at $100 + dollars, one thing I do remember is that Sunhill had replacement blade sets of 3 for $40 or $50 I believe, one reason I was initially tempted. The blades are apparently flexible enough so that you can make them conform to the spiral configuration on the cutterhead when you install them. Anyway the three spiral blade set up probably has some advantages over straight blades when brand new or fresh sharpened but compared to a 15" head with 72 individual 4 sided cutterheads it wouldn't come close in performance, convenience, durability. Probably the reason they are not seen much. I'd bet someone found an old stock model planer in back of the warehouse but I have no facts to confirm that guess. I have seen a few planers set up with an engine top on Craig's but nothing that interested me due to the price of the new spiral heads, a feature I will insist on for my planers after having used one of Grizzly's 15 inchers which I put a Shelix head in.
Regards,
Larry

[David Kumm]

Larry makes a good point. Run for cover if the head merely uses the bendable straight type knives rather than a true spiral. The design is the delta copy of the original rc33 upgraded to 15 inch when delta did so. Actually a pretty good design. I never found the motor to move when cutting which is what the moveable table people say the benefit of that design is. Dave

[Carl McGaug]

I bought an 8" griz jointer last year and already changed it to a spiral cutterhead. I really like it, hence my interest in this one. You're right.The replacement knives are a set of 3.If it's a good design, why run for cover? Thanks to all responders.

[Curt Harms]

............
If it's a good design, why run for cover? Thanks to all responders.

I think David was referring to a type of knife/cutterhead that used a solid knife formed into a sorta-helix shape. I don't know if Delta ever made one of those; the one I'm familiar with was from Powermatic. I would stay far away from one of those too unless I could replace the cutterhead with a Byrd. The solid knife would be difficult or impossible to get sharpened and Powermatic would be the only source so could charge accordingly if they chose to.