Shelix cutterheads

[Dave Quignon]

Hi, Has anyone out there actually switched a Powermatic 8" Jointer 60B to a Shelix head? If you have was there any issues I should know about if I was to do this and where did you get yours from.

Also Has anyone switched a Delta 37-207 to a Shelix head and the same questions.

I have both these machines and they are work horses, straight and true and I would rather upgrade than change. Thanks for your help!

[Erik Loza]

No firsthand experience with either of your two machines but I do know that Bryd has quite the repository of direct-fit cutterheads, bearings, etc. Have you tried calling them and seeing what their thoughts are?

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Charles Coolidge]

I have swapped a Byrd Shelix cutter into an 8" Grizzly G0490 parallelogram jointer, with the right tools it was easy. Retract the tables, remove 4 bolts. With a pulley/bearing puller and hydraulic press the whole job was maybe 20 minutes. Do you really need a hydraulic press? Many will say no, pointing to swaps they have performed where they were able to just tap the bearings off. A few like me will tell you some of these bearings are so tight no amount of beating on the things will remove them and a hydraulic press was required.

281860

281861

[Chuck Saunders]

Yep, it was a painless swap on the Powermatic

[James Baker SD]

I swapped out a PM-60 of some type. Do not know if it was a 60B or not. I bought the Byrd from a company no longer in business, but they told me over the phone that Powermatic had changed the cutter head bearing diameter during the life of the 60 and they had me measure exactly what I had as there were different Byrd heads for different versions of the PM-60. So I guess main thing is to make sure you get the correct head for your unit.

While opening up space to work by lowering the tables, one of the tables came completely off and fell to the floor. Fortunately I had anticipated Mr. Murphy showing up to help me and had placed old cardboard boxes under each table. I only crushed the boxes rather than my foot and the table was undamaged, but something to be aware of.

Overall though it went fairly smoothly and I was pleased with the results.

[Andrew Gold]

How pleased overall have those of you who've made the upgrade been? I'm in the market for a new jointer, and am wondering how important the segmented heads really are...

I've read some of the threads out there on the subject, but would love to hear more.

[Brad Adams]

I installed a Grizzly segmented head on my six in jointer a couple months ago. It works so good I've used it more the last month, than the last ten years I owned it. You won't be sorry for installing one. Anyone who thinks knives are better, have probably never used a segmented head.

[Charles Coolidge]

Byrd Shelix heads are the bomb, I have one on both my Powermatic 15HH planer and Grizzly G0490 8" jointer. I just machined some Sapele from near rough sawn wood with great results. Love how quiet they are compared to straight blades.

http://www.coolidgeamps.com/pics/r1.jpg

http://www.coolidgeamps.com/pics/r2.jpg

http://www.coolidgeamps.com/pics/r3.jpg

[Mark Carlson]

I put a byrd head on my powermatic 54a. It was very easy. I bought the head from sunhill because it came with the bearings pre-installed. Took about an hour to swap the heads. That was years ago and I havnt even rotated the inserts yet. No knife changing is worth it by itself, let alone the quiet cutting and great finish. Later I bought a 12in Hammer planer/joiner as soon as they had ones available with a byrd head. Kept the powermatic and use it for smaller jobs or when I'm in planer mode on the combo.

~mark

[Jim Andrew]

If you are concerned about the cost, Grizzly resells shelix cutterheads at a lower price than you can call Byrd and buy it yourself direct. I checked price before I changed my GO609 jointer.

[Erik Loza]

If you are concerned about the cost, Grizzly resells shelix cutterheads at a lower price than you can call Byrd and buy it yourself direct. I checked price before I changed my GO609 jointer.

Actual Byrd heads or Chinese ones? Just curious.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Charles Coolidge]

Actual Byrd heads or Chinese ones? Just curious.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

Yes actual Byrd Shelix heads they are a reseller, I purchased both of mine from Grizzly. They also sell their own "spiral" cutter heads which are not a helical sheering cut like the Byrds. Several reports that both perform well, maybe that's true on straight grain but I have use Byrd Shelix heads on narly insane figured maple and know what it can/can't do so I stuck with what I know. Plus I didn't want to have two different types of inserts Byrd on the planer and Grizzly on the jointer so I ponied up the extra $30 or so for the Byrd for my jointer.

[Erik Loza]

Wow, never would have guessed. Thanks for the tip.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Rich Riddle]

You will love the Byrd Shelix. Leave the straight blade model installed until the Byrd arrives. There can be quite the lead time for them to arrive.

[William Addison]

You might consider buying a bearing separator and using a gear puller if you don't have a press. They're cheap from HF.

[John Schweikert]

I just finished installing a Byrd head on a 6" Jet. It went smoothly. I have one of the HF 20 ton shop presses I bought on sale. Makes the press off and press on of the bearings very easy and uneventful. The key for the pulley was the only thing that made extra work. I had to file down the pulley key to fit in the slot on the Byrd head. The induction motor is louder than the sound from the head which is very quiet. Some tests on white oak tells me the Byrd head was a perfect choice. It cost me $315 for the Byrd head and I bought the jointer for $300 (year old) since the pervious owner messed up the original knives and head. Not a bad price for the whole setup. Maybe in the future I'll get a Byrd for a planer.

[Dave Quignon]

Did you get yours with the bearings?

[John Schweikert]

No, mine did not come with bearings. I bought a new set of bearings locally today for $13. That way I could keep the old head intact as a backup.

It took about 5 weeks to get the Byrd head from backorder.

[Mike Bensema]

Do not buy the Byrd cutterhead from Grizzly for the 60B, it is the wrong size even though it says (or did when I bought mine) for that jointer. I bought new bearings for the cutterhead since if you pull on the outer race to remove the bearings, you can damage them and I wanted sealed bearings instead of shielded to give a bit more protection from the dust. I used a socket the same size as the inner ring and tapped on with a hammer, if you need a press on a bearing that size, you are either putting it on cocked, or the shaft is out of tolerance. I switched my 15" Grizzly jointer as well and will never go back to straight blades, the improvement in noise reduction and cutting is impressive.

[Charles Coolidge]

From one of the Byrd Shelix reseller web sites, "Most bearings are press fitted onto the shaft and they are sometimes really hard to remove."

[Chris Parks]

They might be hard to remove without an offset vise and a big hammer. I wouldn't bother though as it is not worth the effort to swap them over and I think back pratise as well. Seriously though, the investment in the head is many times what the bearings are worth so why short change the job. I bought my shellix head from Holbren and at times thought it had been forgotten about and then surprise! it turned up. Living on the other side of the world you just put up with these sorts of things.

[Charles Coolidge]

Chris just an fyi one of the bearings on the Grizzly G0490 must be removed from the old cutter head, its secured in the cast iron bearing block with a snap ring that is inaccessible. It took a press to remove that one and when it let loose it went BANG!. A gear puller probably would have also worked but there's a risk of breaking that bearing block you can't hardly get under the backside of that bearing. The other bearing tapped right off with a small plastic dead blow hammer with no effort, go figure.

[Mike Bensema]

Using a press to install the bearings makes it easier and is the common way to do it in a manufacturing facility, but it should not be required for such a small bearing.