I did it . . . I switched planer heads

[Stan Mitchell]

So I did the whole switching planer head thing last week, going from the standard straight knife planer head on my Grizzly G0453 to the spiral cutter head (part #H7765). Thought I’d share some of my thoughts on the switch over.

I bought my planer a couple of years ago when Grizzly was running a lot of sales on their machines and had free shipping on some of them. The price on the G0453 was so good at the time that I talked myself into getting the standard model rather than the one with the spiral head – which is what I really wanted. The standard model has worked out really well for me, but I have several pieces of nicely figured wood that I don’t want to risk with the straight blades.

I discovered something about myself with this project. I have the required mechanical ability for a project like this – but I don’t enjoy these kind of projects much anymore – at least not like I did say 30 years ago. But if you like tearing into equipment and getting that “lovely smelling” 90 weight gear oil all over your bench and hands, this is a great project. In hind sight, I wish I would have just bought the model with the spiral head in it just for this reason alone.

I don’t want to be too negative, because overall the project went very well and the new cutter head leaves such a terrific finish – and oh so quiet! The instructions that come with the new head are very acceptable and were easy for me to follow – with one exception.

I lucked-out and was able to use the existing bearings/seals and gearbox gasket – probably because the machine is relatively new. However, I did have to have a local machine shop remove the bearings from the old head and press them onto the new head.

The instructions are completely fictional when describing how to remove the old head from the gearbox housing . It talks of “tapping” on the cutter head shaft using a hammer - as if that is going to do anything. This is the point where I just took the whole thing to the machine shop – definitely worth the $35 they charged.

Anyway, the spiral cutter head is really worth having – but my advice is just to buy it already installed.

[David Nelson1]

I've got a 1033 with a Byrd head already installed. I saw it for sale just as I was going to pull the trigger on the Byrd for old delta. Cost me less for the planer than it would have for the kit to convert. No brainer there. You have no idea how much smiling your going to be doing. Enjoy it!

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the report. I bought my jointer and planer with the spirals as I work with a lot of figured woods and had had enough of wasted stock due to tearout . . . well, not really wasted; they just had to become smaller parts of something else but, I digress. You will love the spiral heads. I am just now turning my jointer's inserts for the first time after a couple of years of enthusiastic hobbyist use. I would have sharpened my way through 4 sets of knives by now based on my previous sharpening/replacement schedule. The heads pay for themselves pretty quickly.

[William Payer]

Thanks for the report Stan. I bought a Jet planer head about a year ago when they were offered at a clearance price and have been putting off installing it. Like you, I have found I don't enjoy tearing into vehicles and other mechanical tasks anywhere as much as I used to. Question: What torque setting does Byrd suggest for its individual cutters?

[James Baker SD]

I replaced the cutter in a PM-15 generic planer with a Byrd head. Getting the bearings free from the gearbox and new bearings on the new cutter head and then seated into the gearbox was by far the hardest part of the job. The instructions greatly minimized the effort necessary, but I did manage to do it without machine shop equipment and now I am extremely pleased with how well the planer works.

James

[Stan Mitchell]

During the process I became envious of those that bought their planers with spiral cutters. Consider yourselves fortunate. ;)


Question: What torque setting does Byrd suggest for its individual cutters?

William, I got the Grizzly brand head and not the Byrd. The instructions say 48-50 inch-pounds for the Grizzly, so I suspect that the Byrd is very close to the same thing.


Getting the bearings free from the gearbox and new bearings on the new cutter head and then seated into the gearbox was by far the hardest part of the job. The instructions greatly minimized the effort necessary

Amen to that. That's the point where I decided a pro would have an easier time with the bearings and gear housing. I would have ruined the bearings and seals in the process. It's still a bit of trick to get the gear box back together though and requires a bit of finesse.

[Myk Rian]

Question: What torque setting does Byrd suggest for its individual cutters?
55 inch/pounds, give or take a few.

[Paul McGaha]

Congratulations Stan. i've got that to do on a Powermatic PJ-882 Jointer.

Hope it's not too hard.

PHM

[JohnT Fitzgerald]

Good to see your upgrade is working out for you. I replaced the head in my Dewalt 735 with a spiral and I was also amazed at the difference in sound. I would not call it quiet, but it's not the ear piercing scream that it used to be.

+1 on the comments about the bearings. This one came with the bearings installed, which was a life saver. I don't know that I'd have tried to install bearings on my own.

[Mike Cruz]

Stan, when I decided that I wanted a Byrd head on my jointer, I made sure to have my brother (a Master Mercedes technician for 30 years) do it. Not something I would want to have tackled by myself. Not saying it took someone with my brother's skill to do, rather that it really wasn't in my skill set. Congrats!

[Neil Brooks]

Dear Creekers:

In the future, please describe the conversion from blades to spiral cutter heads as "impossible," "maybe the most frustrating experience in my life," "a misery of epic proportions," or "the biggest waste of money in my woodworking life."

Thank you very much.

--Neil's wallet.

[Paul McGaha]

Dear Creekers:

In the future, please describe the conversion from blades to spiral cutter heads as "impossible," "maybe the most frustrating experience in my life," "a misery of epic proportions," or "the biggest waste of money in my woodworking life."

Thank you very much.

--Neil's wallet.

On a jointer or a planer Neil?

[Neil Brooks]

It almost doesn't matter, Paul. My jointer and planer are BOTH Ridgid models, and I'm satisfied with both.

Every now and then, though, I get the itch to upgrade both -- at a cost equal to their resale value -- to spirals.

I don't /need/ more width than either affords me, but ... it still doesn't make a ton of sense to put in as many $$ as each is worth, to upgrade ;)

And every time somebody is pleased-as-punch with the results of THEIR changeover, I really have to find the self-discipline NOT to !

[Mike Cruz]

Neil, let's hope this helps:

I LOVE the Byrd head on my jointer. BUT I would NOT reccommend it on a Ridgid. You are absolutly right that you would be throwing money away. I'm not saying that the Ridgid jointer is junk. I've never used one. But I am somewhat of a CL junky and I can tell you first hand that just about no one that is in the market for a Ridgid jointer would know or care about the spiral head. When it came time to sell my practically new Delta 6" jointer with closed stand (actually, a pretty nice jointer), I almost had a hard time selling it at $250. Most people don't know the value of these machines, let alone the upgrades that we put into them. And when it came time to sell my Ridgid band saw that I put 101 upgrades into, I lost big time. Most people don't understand the benefits of the upgrades, let alone the time it took you to install them, or the extra money it cost you. In the long run, you are throwing your money away. If you REALLY want a jointer with a spiral head, wait for a sweet deal on a machine that holds it value in the "market" better, and add your spiral head then.

Hope that help you go put your wallet down... Or at least it'll get you searching auctions, CL, and Ebay.

[Neil Brooks]

Very good advice. Thanks, Mike.

To make it worthwhile to upgrade the JP0610 and R4330, I'd have to be darned sure that I'd keep them BOTH until they died of natural causes, and ... I'm not ready to commit to that.

I have started to watch the used market, so ... thanks again !

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Thanks for this thread, Stan. I'm getting ready to do the same job on my Jet 12" combo machine. My days of swapping car trannys and replacing head gaskets are in the distant past, so I'm going to do like you and have a machine shop change out the bearings. I hope it's all worth it...