Price of Byrd Planer heads

[Peter Aeschliman]

Hi All,

I have a Jet 13" Planer. I have read about a few of you guys upgrading your Dewalt planers to byrd heads. That sounds fantastic to me.

Holbren seems to be the place you guys like. The price for the Dewalt 735 is $447, with the bearings installed. That seems like an incredible deal, so I got excited:

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Imagine my disappointment when I looked at my planer, which has the same length head, and found that it's $997, and that's without the bearings installed!! What that deuce is that all about?!?

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Is there a universal unit that I could get that's cheaper or something??

[Cary Falk]

WOW! Fo that much I would add $500 to it and get the Grizzly 15" G0453Z with the spiral head for $1495. Sell your planer for $500 and basically get an extra 2 inches for free. Sorry, I don't have anything else constructive to add.

[Myk Rian]

Put SMC10 in the coupon code box at Holbren for 10% off.

[Alan Schaffter]

There are at least two things that drive the difference- one is a market issue- there is likely a higher demand and more replacements sold for lunchbox planers than the more scarce Jet. Two, compare the number of rows of cutters and cutters per row- both are higher for the Jet which has a larger diameter journal.

[Tom Veatch]

...I have a Jet 13" Planer. I have read about a few of you guys upgrading your Dewalt planers to byrd heads. That sounds fantastic to me...

I have the same planer and upgraded both it and my jointer to the Shelix head from Holbren a few months ago (along with a metal detector, but that's another story and part of the justification for the upgrade. Suffice it to say that free wood turned out to be pretty expensive.). I do not regret it!

It's a royal pain tearing the beast apart and getting it back together and I'm in no hurry to ever do that again (the jointer was a piece of cake), but the results are fantastic. Two things you'll notice. Noise level and Noise level. Ok, that's only one, but the difference is so amazing it ought to be counted as two. Oh, yeah, the finish on the planed parts - outstanding!!! Wood comes out of the planer slick as a baby's bottom. Very little, if any sanding needed before going to finish.

The price difference: The head shown in your link for the DeWalt head looks like it may have only 3 rows of inserts. I'm not going out the the shop to count mine, but there's a lot more than 3. That's part of the difference in cost. Use the SMC10 code with Holbren and that'll knock almost $100 of the price.

I guarantee that you'll hate the installation and love the results. BTW, the bearings are standard sizes, are inexpensive and can possibly be obtained locally.

[Peter Aeschliman]

Thanks Tom.

At this price, it's just out of the question, even with the 10% off.

I was thinking I'd just do the planer and keep the knives on my jointer to save money. My idea was that if my jointer produces some tear out, the byrd head on the planer could clean that up.

But at this point, I'm just going to have to live with the knives. That's just way too much money. My planer is worth much much less than that head, so I'd rather do something like Cary suggests (sell my machine and buy a grizz with a spiral head already installed).

It's a cheaper way to go.

The other option is to buy a DW 735 from CL, sell my planer, and get the byrd head for the DW. That math works. I could sell my planer for more than it would cost me to buy the 735. End of the day, I'd be out of pocket about $300.

I've never used that machine but it really seems well built from my experience fiddling with it at HD. The only complaints I've read is that the knives dull quickly (not a problem if I go with the byrd head) and that lunchbox planers are much louder than the bigger units (also not a problem because I wear ear protection anyway).

sigh. I really do like my jet planer though.

[Jim Parmeter]

For what it is worth - you can get the Steel City 13" with the helical head for $600. It is relatively new and I have not used it but there have been a number of very favorable reviews.

http://www.toolking.com/steel_city_4...ical_head.aspx

[Alan Schaffter]

My planer is worth much much less than that head, so I'd rather do something like Cary suggests (sell my machine and buy a grizz with a spiral head already installed).

I am a similar situation. I had Byrd Shelix heads in my 8" jointer and 15" planer, but got a fantastic deal on an older, heavy-duty, near mint, Delta RC-51 20" planer that I couldn't turn down. It made the 15" Delta seem like a crappy toy. Unfortunately, due to its large diameter journal, a Shelix for the RC-51 would run me $2500+ -more than four times what I paid for the planer and two sets of 4 blades!! I installed the new set of blades and aligned the RC-51 very carefully following Bob Vaughn's videos. Now it cuts just about as well as my 15" with a Shelix. I'll continue this way until I come into some unexpected money and can buy a Shelix for it.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

For what it is worth - you can get the Steel City 13" with the helical head for $600. It is relatively new and I have not used it but there have been a number of very favorable reviews.

http://www.toolking.com/steel_city_4...ical_head.aspx

Be aware, the helical cutters are NOT carbide..... According to the site. I am looking to buy a planer also.

[Peter Aeschliman]

For what it is worth - you can get the Steel City 13" with the helical head for $600. It is relatively new and I have not used it but there have been a number of very favorable reviews.

http://www.toolking.com/steel_city_4...ical_head.aspx

From what I've read, that unit uses a head by a manufacturer named "accu-head". They also make heads for other machines for around $250, but of course, they don't make one for my Jet machine.

Those heads have way fewer cutters than the Byrd. Who knows though, maybe the byrd is overkill.

[Brian Gumpper]

The DeWalt head has a much smaller diameter than the Jet.

[Joe Jensen]

As another posted, the Dewalt is a very small diameter. Yours would be more like 3" or more in diameter with at least 2X the number of carbide teeth.

[Myk Rian]

Those heads have way fewer cutters than the Byrd. Who knows though, maybe the byrd is overkill.

Overkill? Nope. Not the way mine cuts. It's perfect.