Byrd Wood Sample really as nice as what I should expect with my planer?

[Nick Sorenson]

I just ordered a wood sample from Byrd company that was cut on their planer cutter head. It looks great. 2 swipes with a card scraper and it's smooth enough to finish (glass smooth). But is this what I should be able to expect in real life or is it just a best case scenario that gets sent out to get people to buy? I don't know what I mean by best case scenario but you know, brand new cutters, perfectly adjusted, nice perfect workpiece no knots etc etc. light cuts, could go on. But you get the picture. I literally took two passes with the card scraper and it was done. Curious if I can really expect this in situation.

[Chris Tsutsui]

I was at AWFS in vegas and visited the Byrd booth where they had a powermatic 15S (I think that's the model) with the Byrd head installed.

Right off the bat I noticed how much quieter the cut was compared to the straight knife models i've used.

Then the finished product was very impressive and looked just like the sample you probably received, so I believe that you can achieve that type of quality with the Byrd head.

They had this piece of highly figured curly maple that was going back and forth between the powermatic booth and the Byrd booth for they do light passes and demonstraight how it doesn't cause tearout.

Ever since then I became a believer in the helical type heads and will want one on my next jointer/planer. The problem for me is I have a combo machine and it costs about $1,000 for the head and it's tough to install...

[glenn bradley]

Any machining marks on your material that don't vanish in a couple of strokes of a scraper I would consider an issue and try to resolve. More often than not the issue is with the planer's feed rollers, not the head. That is; you will see marks from the serrated metal rollers if you do not adjust your planer for smoother material. From the factory my 15" left marks that were considered normal for rough lumber milling. I adjusted the roller height and pressure per the manual and all is well. There are sometimes visible "lines" from the spiral head but these often go away on their own or (if I am in a hurry) with a couple light swipes from a scraper. I notice they also disappear if I am testing dyes; I assume the moisture does that maybe(?). The degree of visibility definitely varies with the wood type/hardness. Mahogany seems most effected but, it is also relatively soft and removal is quite easy.

[Myk Rian]

But is this what I should be able to expect in real life or is it just a best case scenario that gets sent out to get people to buy?
Some LIGHT scallops are normal. Scraper or sanding takes it out.

[Jim Andrew]

They don't have to lie to sell cutterheads. Check with Grizzly if you have a Griz machine, sometimes they have sales on Byrd cutterheads. For knots where you have a gap on one side, or cracks, helps to put some thick superglue in the gap, so the knot survives your planing. Sucks when you have your board down almost to thickness and the knot falls out while going through the planer.

[Peter Quinn]

I just ordered a wood sample from Byrd company that was cut on their planer cutter head. It looks great. 2 swipes with a card scraper and it's smooth enough to finish (glass smooth). But is this what I should be able to expect in real life or is it just a best case scenario that gets sent out to get people to buy?

I have Byrd heads on both jointer and planer at this point, and what you describe is pretty much just what my machines make with the spiral heads installed. Its not just hype. I think most people that have had issues with a Byrd head have rotated cutters but failed to properly clean the seats when doing so or not used the proper torque screw driver to tighten things down. Both of these things can lead to more pronounced scallops in the surface of planned boards. It is one nice cutter head.

[lawrence dosson]

i changed my planer to a byrd head noise factor alone was worth it and did the guy tell you the carbide cutters will cut a looooooog time before you have to turn them im going on two years and 3-4 thousand b feet and still they seem to cut perfectly a brand new straigh knife may give a better finnish for a cupple boards but from there on them healical heads win hands down at least IMO

[Rick Fisher]

I agree with Lawrence. Straight knives which are brand knew, on normal wood will give a nicer cut for about 1/2 an hour.. After that, the Helical heads win for quality of cut.

[Bob Feeser]

I am really asking this as a question. I see that the spiral planers are definitely advantageous but still have a few things about them that can be touchy. So I was wondering if a straight blade planer for example the 20" Shop Fox for $1853 (the 15" model has the best Amazon reviews out of them all, and the single review on the 20" is 5 Stars also) and combining that with a dual drum Shop Fox sander wouldn't be a better combination than just the planer with the spiral head alone???
The dual drum sander from Shop Fox enables you to place two different grits of sandpaper on the drums and do it in a single pass.
In the review from Amaazon on the drum sander he said that with the drum, or belt sander you still need to go over them with a random orbit sander.
So my question is do I save the money and buy the straight blade planer, and then spend the extra $1000 for the spiral head and use that towards the $2000 dual drum sander? Or just get the spiral head because it is so much better???
Of course having both, and even better yet, a spiral planer and a belt sander both. But down here where the air is not rare how about the straight cut planer, and the dual drum sander combo? Any advantages, disadvantages? One thing is that the drum sander gets zero tearout on highly figured pieces. So is this the winning combination, or does the spiral head provide an even smoother result than the drum sander?
Let me know.

[Daniel Berlin]

I am really asking this as a question. I see that the spiral planers are definitely advantageous but still have a few things about them that can be touchy. So I was wondering if a straight blade planer for example the 20" Shop Fox for $1853 (the 15" model has the best Amazon reviews out of them all, and the single review on the 20" is 5 Stars also) and combining that with a dual drum Shop Fox sander wouldn't be a better combination than just the planer with the spiral head alone???
The dual drum sander from Shop Fox enables you to place two different grits of sandpaper on the drums and do it in a single pass.
In the review from Amaazon on the drum sander he said that with the drum, or belt sander you still need to go over them with a random orbit sander.
So my question is do I save the money and buy the straight blade planer, and then spend the extra $1000 for the spiral head and use that towards the $2000 dual drum sander? Or just get the spiral head because it is so much better???
Of course having both, and even better yet, a spiral planer and a belt sander both. But down here where the air is not rare how about the straight cut planer, and the dual drum sander combo? Any advantages, disadvantages? One thing is that the drum sander gets zero tearout on highly figured pieces. So is this the winning combination, or does the spiral head provide an even smoother result than the drum sander?
Let me know.

Thicknessing on a drum sander would take forever (they recommend 1/64th per pass). You would have to thickness on the planer, accept some tearout, and then when you decided to move to final thicknessing on the drum sander, hope the tearout was shallow enough that it cleaned up before you hit your final thickness.

This seems like a losing proposition to me.
Of course, a dual drum sander is incredibly useful for other reasons, but i wouldn't get it for your listed goal.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a Hammer A3 jointer/planer with the quick change type of knife, and it cuts far better than the old straight knife cutterhead on the General it replaced.

Like all things, such as helical carbide heads, they aren't all equalvalent.

My jointer/planer produces surface finish that only needs a couple of strokes with a card scraper to remove.

A good HSS knife produces a superior surface finish to carbide tooling, as long as the knife is sharp. The issue is, how long does the knife stay sharp?

That's a function of the knife material, the material being processed and the presence of foreign objects.

For me, my J/P has a good cutterhead design that yields good results in tough grain situations. I would never recover the $1000 it would take to convert to a carbide helical head, which is probably why I've never heard from an A3 owner who converted their machine to helical carbide.

Regards, Rod.