Spiral head or Tersa head planer?

[Todd Burch]

I'm in the market for a new planer. My old Parks 12", while it is still "cutting" it, (pun intended), the finish it too rough, knives take too long to set, it leaks oil, the leaking oil gets on my wood, it's WAY too loud, and dust collection, while functional since I made a hood, still sucks (pun not intended).

I've used a friend's shaper that had a sprial, indexable carbide head. Very nice cut and somewhat quiet. These are the heads that come with a bunch of little square carbide cutters, arranged around the head in a spiral manner. Supposedly good for figured woods and quiet. Also, if you get a nick, you can loosen the individual cutters that are nicked, turn them 90° and tighten them back down. The cutters are eventually disposable when all 4 sides get dull, and replacements costs less than $3 each. How many cutters depends on the length of the cutterhead.

Tersa knives, I think, are drop in knives, turn the machine on, and they set themselves in place via centrifugal force. No adjustments. I think they come disposable and sharpenable - I'm not sure.

So, what planer/head configuration should I get? (This is my livelihood - I'm not looking for a portable planer. And, I don't have 3 phase - yet).

As for it's sidekick, I have an 8" (green) powermatic jointer that works fine when the knives are sharp (actually, it works excellent), although the bed is a bit cupped in the center through years of use. When I need to joint edges, I have to ride at the front or rear of the bed - not in the middle, else I get a cupped edge. I'd like 12", but wouldn't we all.... :D. For a commercial shop, what would you recommend?

Thanks for any insight. Todd.

[Geoff Siemering]

Todd,

I toyed with the spiral cutterhead idea two years ago when I bought my 12"(and you really do need a 12"). I ended up with a Robland 12" Jointer Planer. My research indicated that the spiral cutterhead was really for heavy duty production shops. I used to rent shop space from a guy who built furntiure for a living and he also decided against the spiral cutterhead. It sounds really cool and does give great results, but is costly to get the cutterhead initially and then again when the time comes to replace all those little cutterheads.

The Tersa or Esta system is something that you should definitely consider. I will be adding the Esta system to mine in the next 6 months or so. Drop in the disposable blades and be back up and running with fresh blades in 10 minutes or so.

Have fun picking out your new toy.

BTW. I went with the jointer/planer because I am in the serious hobbiest catagory and am limited on shopspace

Geoff

[Mike Mastin]

I have recently installed a true helical head in our shop planer and I will unconditionally say it is the best tool that I have ever added to our shop, period.

We purchased and installed a Byrd Tool Shelix head for our planer. The Byrd Shelix cutter heads are the only true helical heads on the market. All of the current "spiral head" cutters do have their inserts staggered along the cutting head, but they still impact the surface of the board at a parallel angle. The Byrd Tool Shelix cutter head has its inserts angled so that you get a true shear cut. The results are clear to see.

The benefits:
1) Super quiet. We can actually talk over the planer with little difficulty. No more need for earmuffs either. It is truly this quiet.
2) Tearout. I have not found any wood that this head can not plane cleanly and absolutely beautifully, including extremely intense bird's eye Maple and quilted Big Leaf Maple. The first time we tried it out after installation, I was amazed. No tearout and no noticeable ghost lines on the boards surface.
3) Cutting inserts can be rotated 4 times before they have to be replaced. I have easily ran 1000 bf through the planer since the head was installed and is showing no signs of needing to be rotated at all. I ran a couple of gorgeous bird's eye maple boards thru the planer today and absolutely no tearout and extremely smooth, glass like surfaces end to end.

Disadvantages:
1) Rotating/replacement of the small cutting inserts might be an issue. Yet to have to do this though. A full set of inserts will run us about $300.00.


The replaceable blade systems are much better easier to replace blades, but you still have the issues of high noise levels and tearout.

For me it was and is an easy choice to make after seeing and using the Byrd Tool Shelix head.

Not affiliated in any way with Byrd Tools, but I am extremely happy with the product.

[Todd Burch]

Mike, did you just get a new head for your existing planer (which planer?) or did you get a whole new planer from Byrd with the shelix head? I went to their website - and then I remembered a post of yours from not too long ago that mentioned you were pleased with it. Would you recommend putting one of these in a 1963 Parks 12", or would you swap out the planer too?

Thanks, Todd.