What Byrd should be in my hand?

[Ruperto Mendiones]

I am an hobbyist woodworker mainly working on small cabinets and furniture.


I have two planers, a “generic 4 post” Jet and a Dewalt 735. I also have a Moak 12” jointer circa 1950. My motivation is to avoid knife changes in the event of a nick.


Please contribute any thoughts/ opinions w/r which ONE should get the Byrd. [In my ideal world, they’d all get one, but reality intervenes.]


The Dewalt makes nice light cuts. It appears easiest to change the head. But the standard knife changes are easy.


The Jet leaves feed roller tracks on light cuts. I’ve been using this planer on rough, longer lumber. I have not changed the knives so I have no idea of the ease or difficulty relative to the other cutterheads. Installing a head appears to be more time consuming and messy as the oil-filled gearcase must be disassembled.


The jointer is an unknown: direct drive with no parts diagram. The only parts list I have found fails to show how the head joins the motor. Fortunately standard knife changes are accessible and straightforward.

[Earl McLain]

I'd vote for putting the Byrd on the 735. If you keep the Jet and use it for the rough stuff, then finish on the 735 with a Byrd--it's possible you might not need to buy replacement carbides for the rest of your life.
earl

[Cary Falk]

The Moak will be too expensive if you can even get one to fit.

The Dewalt knife changes are easy.

The generic 4 post should get it. You can adjust out the feed roller marks.

[Matt Day]

I'd put it in the Jet and properly adjust the rollers. It shouldn't leave marks - mine only does occasionally on very very light cuts (like 1/16 turn of the wheel). There are rubber rollers also available that came on Delta machines.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Hands down, the Jet four poster. This design has been around for a long time, and for good reason. It's one tough planer. The 735 will long be in the trash bin before the Jet bites the dust. To really decide, try hogging off 1/8" of red oak in each machine. Winner gets the Byrd

[john Intosa]

I currently have a Dewalt 735 with Byrd head. I previously had a Grizzly 4 post spiral head. I started with a Dewalt 733 with straight knife.
After converting a Powermatic 8 inch jointer to a Byrd head, I was sold on the Byrd. I wanted to upgrade from the Dewalt 733, so chose the Grizzly 15 inch planer with their spiral head. The Grizzly does take off twice as much per pass as the Dewalts, but found for a hobbyist like me that wasn't very important. I had real problems with the Grizzly and chips embedding into the planed surface. Chips pick up was poor despite a 5 inch hose and a 1.5 hp cyclone close to the planer, and adjusting the chip breaker. Further more, the serrated outfeed roller left marks in the wood. The Dewalts have rubber infeed and outfeed rollers that won't damage the planed surface and efficiently assists chip extraction. Even without dust collection, the Dewalt design doesn't seem to recycle the chips into the planed surface.

[Brian Kincaid]

I had real problems with the Grizzly and chips embedding into the planed surface. Chips pick up was poor despite a 5 inch hose and a 1.5 hp cyclone close to the planer, and adjusting the chip breaker. Further more, the serrated outfeed roller left marks in the wood.
John, I had this problem too until I removed the foam from the dust hood in the planer. I read that they had added the foam to 'help' if you didn't have enough dust collection to keep up. Now it is the cleanest tool in the shop. I vote the upgrade the 4 post. I have very light outfeed marks from the roller. It is a gentle pass with the ROS or 2 swipes with a #4.

-Brian

[David Kumm]

Don't touch the Moak. Chips from a Byrd head are much easier for a dust collector to transport than those from a straight knife so if you are undersized in the DC area, that is a consideration. A cyclone has too much pressure drop for any impeller sized at less than 2 hp to handle and that may be marginal. Dave

[Ruperto Mendiones]

Thank you all for your most helpful input. That's what I love about the Creek.

The Jet gets the Byrd.

[Jim Andrew]

Ruperto, you might check out the Grizzly Christmas catalog, as they have the 15" Byrd head on sale. It is less expensive to buy Byrd heads from Grizzly than directly from Byrd.

[Earl McLain]

Ruperto, you might check out the Grizzly Christmas catalog, as they have the 15" Byrd head on sale. It is less expensive to buy Byrd heads from Grizzly than directly from Byrd.

That was my experience as well--with a 10% off coupon it was even better.