Any jointers with spiral cutterheads out there?

[Rick Schubert]

If so, I'm wondering how you like then. Please note I am referring to the spiral cutterheads from Sunhill Machinery, etc, not the Byrd helical cutterheads.

$229 for the 8" models sound a lot better to me than $400 plus for the helical's. Can they worth twice as much??

Thanks, Rick

[John Miliunas]

Rick, I don't have the Spiral cutterhead, such as sunhill or Grizzly offer, but I do have the Shelix. If I were to do it over again, I would go to Wilke Machinery or directly to Byrd and get the same exact one I have! :) The biggest advantage to the helical cut is that it's doing exactly that: cutting as opposed to "chopping", as it were. The spiral will have the advantage over a typical 2 or 3 knife setup in as much as those "chops" will be much smaller. BUT, the action of the knife against the wood is still at a dead 90°. The helical cut has the knives skewed, with a lead-in point and an exit point rather than entry/exit flat across the entire width of the individual cutter. The skewed cutting action of the individual cutters very, VERY dramatically reduces or completely eliminates tear-out.:) Heck, I rarely even bother checking grain direction for feeding stock through, as I note little if any difference on most species!:) You're right, $400+ is steep, but I believe the difference would be MUCH more dramatic than the $230.00+ you'd be spending to improve upon your standard knives. Just MHO but, it works for me.:D :cool:

[JayStPeter]

Rick,

Like John I have the Byrd cutterhead on my jointer and love it. I'll eventually get a planer with the same type of head.
The only reviews I've seen of the flexible knife spiral cutterheads has been for planers. The Feb '05 (I think) issue of PWW did a review of 15" planers which included the PM 15S. It uses one of these type cutterheads. You can also read the customer reviews of the same planer on Amazon.

Jay