Bryd head on DJ-20 Jointer

[joe maday]

I had met someone that sells comercial woodworking machinery, I asked him what he thought about the BYRD cutter head on a DJ-20 Jointer. He said he does not like the sheilex haed on jointers because of problems of scalloping. Additionally a customer installed the byrd head on a 12 inch jointer and the machine kept boging down, and "poping" the circuit breaker. The head required more power to use because it is constanly cutting. The customer took the head off and returned to straight knives (tersa). This all goes against the trend that seems to be taking place with cutterheads, So my question is...... Does the DJ-20 with factory 1 1/2 HP 220V motor have the power to drive the cutterhead? Does anyone have experiance with exchanging the DJ-20 head and the results? Any power issues?
Is Scalloping a problem that someone would be dissapointed after the change over? I have just purchased a used invicta DJ-20 and I had intended to put in the BYRD Shelix head but now I'm not to sure.

[Dave Cav]

Yes, they do take a little more power. They are also very quiet, don't require frequent sharpening, and are easy to adjust if you get a nick. The plusses (for me) far outweigh the minuses. I have a Grizzly 8" jointer with a carbide head and I have never had any problems with a lack of power, but I also use common sense using the jointer. For normal edge jointing, a 1 1/2" motor should have PLENTY of power, unless you are edge jointing 16/4 stock and taking a 1/4" cut. For face jointing, take a smaller cut and go slower. As far as the scalloping issue, that has been discussed forever. Yes, you can get a little scalloping with an insert head, but you can with a straight knife head if the knives are out of adjustment, too. I find that the amount of scalloping is directly proportional to feed speed and depth of cut. I do a lot of edge gluing and if I do everything I'm supposed to do, the joints come out perfect; scalloping is not an issue.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have a Byrd head on a Grizzly G0490 jointer. I have never noticed a lack of power or any issue with scalloping. The mill markings from a Byrd head are different than straight knives.
The Byrd mill marks are stripes, running the length of the piece. I always sand everything that will have a finish applied, so that has never been a problem for me. Tersa or Teminus heads are also very good options. Both are indexed quick change heads & they minimize tearout. I have a Terminus head on my planer. Changing blades on a Tersa or Terminus head is a lot quicker than a Byrd head, but I like the quality of the cut from both types.

[Mark Carlson]

I have two jointers both converted to byrd heads and wouldn't got back to straight knives. No scalloping, and better yet no knife changing. The noise reduction is big for me because I live very close to my neighbors.

~mark

[joe maday]

Will the Delta DJ-20 with the factory 1 1/2 Hp motor be enough to face joint figured maple without stalling the machine??? The Grizzly 490 has a 3 Hp motor, so there is plenty of power to begin with.

[Lorne Horvath]

I installed a byrd cutter head on my dj-20 and would not give it up. It does take a little more power but imo not enough to be a problem.

[Randy Henry]

I've had one in my DJ-20 for over a year now, wouldn't look back. Scalloping would be caused by inproper/inconsistant feed rate. When I'm jointing a full 8" board, I slow down the feed a little bit, and never have any issues.

[Zach Callum]

Scalloping can be caused by improper setting of the cutters on a byrd/shellix head. If you don't clean the cutters, head, and screws when you are rotating the cutters you can get a lower cut quality.