Time to change edges on my spiral cutter head??

[Joe Cowan]

I have a grizzley 15 planer and a 8" jointer, both with the spiral cutterhead. I am planning on rotating the square cutters to expose an fresh cutting edge. My owners manual does not mention the spiral cutterhead, only the std knives. I heard once a torque wrench was needed. Any experience out there to help me with this? Do I need to put lock tight on the threads to make sure they do not vibrate out?

[joe milana]

Joe, I talked to byrd tool about mine & they referred me to harbor freight for an adequate, but low cost alternative to their torque wrench. I believe you could tighten the screws adequately with the supplied torx driver, but the torque wrench is much easier on the hands & wrists. No locktite needed, but making sure the seats & carbide inserts are clean to avoid breakage.

[Richard Coers]

Cleanliness seems to be as important as screw torque. Any size particle under the carbide will cause it to crack.

[keith micinski]

I just changed the teeth on my grizzly planer the other day for the first time. I didn't use a torque wrench. Even from the factory they weren't all the same torque. I blew every holder out with air and cleaned all of the backs of the teeth off. You are actually supposed to use a drop of oil on every screw definitely don't use loctite. Also it took my at least 2 hours. There are a lot more teeth there them you think. Every time I rotated it I kept thinking surely there can't be more to change. There was.

[John Lanciani]

I use this torque wrench for my Byrd head; http://www.amazon.com/Park-Tool-TW-1-Torque-Wrench/dp/B000NVCI1U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351097779&sr=8-1&keywords=parks+torque+wrench

Inexpensive, accurate, and easy to use. (US made, too.)

[glenn bradley]

I read enough horror stories to not try to do this half-way when it was finally time for me to rotate. Thanks to all of you who tried it quick and sloppy and for posting the pain you went through to get it right.

- torque wrench
- compressed air
- light machine oil
- paper towels

A quick jerk when loosening seemed to work best. A slow pressure waiting for the screw to break free worked worst. Do them one at a time. Clean, clean, clean. Torque carefully and move on. I don't know how many lineal feet I jointed before I saw the signs of needing to rotate but, with my enthusiastic hobby use it was about 18 months. As I said, the trials of others who weren't diligent about the procedure and the possibility of having to do it all again plus replace broken inserts kept me slow and steady. 40 inserts took me a couple hours including coffee breaks and stretching my shoulder ;-) Came out perfect the very first time.

[Rick Fisher]

Buy a black felt pen and mark the used edge .. A year from now, it will help to know which edge to is fresh and which is dull..

[Joe Cowan]

Buy a black felt pen and mark the used edge .. A year from now, it will help to know which edge to is fresh and which is dull..


I had thought about that, but wondered if the chips spinning around during use would wear the ink off. I will certainly do this.

[Rick Fisher]

Hmm.. That might happen .. I never thought of that .. lol

Sigh..

[glenn bradley]

My inserts are etched with a mark in one corner.

[keith micinski]

The grizzly ones come with a mark in the corner. Mine had an Lh for some reason. You rotate all of them the same direction.

[Myk Rian]

55 lbs/in is the torque you want.

[Joe Cowan]

I have just started the process and have a couple of screws that will not budge. I have stopped on those and wet with WD-40. If they strip out, how do I remove them. I am not much of a mechanic.

[glenn bradley]

I have just started the process and have a couple of screws that will not budge. I have stopped on those and wet with WD-40. If they strip out, how do I remove them. I am not much of a mechanic.

This is where my comment "A quick jerk when loosening seemed to work best. A slow pressure waiting for the screw to break free worked worst." comes in. Use a quality bit and a fixed handle; I used a 10" handle. Made sure the receiving socket on the screw was clean so I got a good seat and popped the handle with the heel of my hand. The screws popped loose every time.

[Joe Cowan]

This is where my comment "A quick jerk when loosening seemed to work best. A slow pressure waiting for the screw to break free worked worst." comes in. Use a quality bit and a fixed handle; I used a 10" handle. Made sure the receiving socket on the screw was clean so I got a good seat and popped the handle with the heel of my hand. The screws popped loose every time.

I remembered that, and it is working on all but a few. I wonder if I end up with just a couple that will not budge or strip out, if just breaking the carbide insert and using a vise grip to get out the screw, then using a new insert, would be the best way to handle this.

[Gary Herrmann]

Buy a torque wrench. Clean each blade and socket, mark the used edge with a sharpie, rotate and re-insert.

I eliminated the very shallow scallops from my jointer when I started using a torque wrench.

Started the sharpie thing on turning tools and it makes sense in this application too.

Are you noticing a degradation in cut quality? If not, don't change them just because you think you need to.

[glenn bradley]

I remembered that, and it is working on all but a few. I wonder if I end up with just a couple that will not budge or strip out, if just breaking the carbide insert and using a vise grip to get out the screw, then using a new insert, would be the best way to handle this.

Really stubborn, eh? I actually broke two torx bits on one of mine. I went to the local hardware store and bought a better quality bit. IIRC it was a Milwaukee "Shockwave" bit made for their impact drivers. I figured it was do or die. So, I gave it a good punch with the heel of my hand as before BUT, with the wild abandon of one who felt that he would assuredly be drilling out a broken screw later today; it popped loose and was reusable. Hope yours will do the same.

[Myk Rian]

I had thought about that, but wondered if the chips spinning around during use would wear the ink off. I will certainly do this.
No. I've still got original cutters with felt tip marks, and they're 3 years old.

[Jeff Heil]

Reading about this process with interest as my next major tool purchase will likely be a stationary 15" Grizzly planer with the spiral cutter head and 74 cutters. Seems like I need to budget for a torque wrench as well. I am making the assumption the cut quality and the duration the cutters last make the spiral head preferred over the straight knives? My question is, if you had to do it over again, would you do the spiral head, even with the sporadic, but more tedious cutter changes?

[glenn bradley]

Reading about this process with interest as my next major tool purchase will likely be a stationary 15" Grizzly planer with the spiral cutter head and 74 cutters. Seems like I need to budget for a torque wrench as well. I am making the assumption the cut quality and the duration the cutters last make the spiral head preferred over the straight knives? My question is, if you had to do it over again, would you do the spiral head, even with the sporadic, but more tedious cutter changes?

There have been articles showing the cost saving for inserts over time. I'm proof; I turned the inserts on my jointer just recently. Using past experience with my knife'd machine as a basis, I would have nearly paid the cost difference of the spiral head by now in sharpenings and replacement knives and I'm only on edge 2 of 4. Do it again? I did when I bought my upgraded planer. I have no desire to go back. The savings in the highly figured material I used to lose due to tearout can be added in there too. JMHO.

[Rob Holcomb]

The pain in the you know where to sharpen knives fairly often and then getting them perfect on the planer again vs. the spiral head and turning the cutters once in a year or two depending on use is well worth every last penny I spent on mine.

[Mel Fulks]

Glad the spirals are working out well for you. I have to say I think changing the steel knives is not difficult. I like using the magnetic planer pal but some heads are too small to have room for them. Where that is not a factor I find they work well IF you take the gib out,clean it and the head well, then spray oil on gib, knife, and head then adjust a couple of the gib screws to where you can "float" the knife before tightening. I have been using the oil for years and believe it is safe, when changing them no trace of oil from the last change can be found.