Upgrade to Segmented Cutter Head, What to do With the Original?

[Brian Tax]

I am considering upgrading to a Byrd Shelix for my Hammer A3-31, but it seems like I would be left with a pretty expensive paper weight. What can be done with the original straight knife cutter head? Is there a market for them?

[John Conklin]

I've been wondering the same thing. I replaced the head in my 6" Delta jointer. I figured that I'd hang onto it... "just in case". Doesn't seem like there'd be much market for them, perhaps better for yours.

[Frank Martin]

You might try, but it would be hard to find a buyer as all machines come with one and it is usually not a wear item. I have tersa on my Minimax combo. Before I started using it I was thinking about upgrading to a segmented head (I had one before) and after using the tersa, I decided it is not worth the upgrade as results I got were great. Not sure what kind of head you have on your Hammer so you may indeed benefit from the upgrade.

[Steve Juhasz]

With the high-end machines like what you have, it may be easy to resell a part like that since factory replacements are very pricey. With junk machinery like I have, I hang on to the grizzly factory cutterhead. When I sell my planer I will put the original back in and re-install my Byrd shelix into one of the dozens of similar better machines it fits with which I will replace it. Those shelix heads are not getting any cheaper year by year, and i can literally sell my used at a profit anytime afterwards.

[Alan Schaffter]

You need a boat to go with that anchor!

[johnny means]

I would feed it to the scrappers.

[Peter Quinn]

Mine are in the back room of my shop in the shelix boxes. I think you could probably sell the knives, the heads? Very little goes wrong there. Maybe could part out the jibs too on a more prevalent machine, not sure enough hammers are out there in abusive hands to require it. I'm thinking of selling mine by weight next time I make a scrap run.