Anyone upgrade a 12" Northfield HD Jointer to a Byrd Shelix Cutterhead?

[Larry Feltner]

I posted while back about buying a direct drive 12" Northfield jointer and how people moved such a jointer into their shops. We even got into what to look for in a VFD to run the machine. The help was very much appreciated. Now I'm thinking about upgrading the cutter head to a Byrd SHELIX. They are expensive but I have never heard anyone regret the decision to change them out. I have never done this before and Byrd says they don't have instructions for this jointer because they have never had one in the shop so they could install a head and write instructions. Does anyone have experience with this? How difficult is it? I assume that my direct drive is probably more difficult than a belt drive would be. I have had some preliminary communication with Northfield and Byrd. Northfield told me to not put back the same kind of bearings that are on the machine now. They said the bearing tolerances have gotten sloppy and they have gone to a double row sealed rear bearing to tighten up the tolerances enough to keep chatter out of the cut. I generally don't mind disassembling things and putting them back together. However, in this case, if I screw it up, it's a lot of money and there is no one to help me fix it, lol. And this certainly isn't the kind of thing I do on a regular basis. Any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful.

[Andrew Hughes]

It’s not a upgrade.
Not for hand fed machine.
I suggest getting a planer with a bryd head.
Next time you talk with Jeff ask him what the hook angle of the head in your jointer is. Once you know that you can have a better idea what sharpness angle for the knives.
Good Luck

[George Makra]

I've never done it on Northfield but I have an old New Berlin 12" that I converted to a bird shella's head with the bearings.

It's actually a pretty straightforward ordeal. However the bearings are gonna cost you a pretty penny.

[Kevin Jenness]

Why do you want to change it? Unless you are running a lot of figured wood I don't see the point. You will have to document the existing cutterhead dimensions precisely or send the original off to Byrd and wait for the new one. With the direct drive are the cutterhead and motor shaft one piece? Could be a can of worms unless you really are unhappy withy the performance.

[William Hodge]

Buy a finishing planer instead.

I have a 16" jointer with a two knife clamshell head. It gets the wood flat. The milling planer gets the wood dimensioned. I take off the last 1/64" in a finishing planer that is always sharp.

[Chuck Saunders]

It wouldn't hurt to call Jeff at Northfield and ask him if there are any gotchas waiting along your journey
Chuck

[Kevin Jenness]

There's a thread at owwm.org on converting a 16" Northfield HD to a Shelix head. Link is not allowed here but you can easily find it by searching on that site. The key seems to be removing and replacing the armature properly.

[Larry Feltner]

After reading through that thread I'm less sure I want to tackle the project. I hate changing jointer blades and I think I would really like the SHELIX head, but after reading that I'm worried I will get in a pickle that I can't get out of.

There's a thread at owwm.org on converting a 16" Northfield HD to a Shelix head. Link is not allowed here but you can easily find it by searching on that site. The key seems to be removing and replacing the armature properly.

[David Kumm]

It is difficult and expensive to but a different head on a direct drive machine.. The end result will be seen as a downgrade by most of the people wanting that jointer. Changing knives is a 20-30 minute job but if you really hate it, sell the NF and look for a used Euro jointer with a Tersa head. Insert heads have their place but not on an old jointer. Low cost benefit. Dave

[Matt Day]

Planer first if at all. And as said above, you’ll definitely notice how much harder it is to feed a wide board across a helical head. Not worth it IMO.

[Bobby Robbinett]

If the main reason you want to change it to a spiral cutterhead is the knife changing difficulty then I would suggest instead of a spiral head get a set of Disposablade self set knives instead. This makes changing the straight knives a 5 minute ordeal without swapping the cutter head. This system uses a knife holder inside the pocket of your cutterhead where the knives go. The pockets never get changed and when you get ready to replace the actual knives they index on the knife holder and thus are a 5 minute task to change the knives. I have used their system on my jointer and planer both with great success. Plus the blades are double sided and can be flipped when they get dull. Their knives don’t cost that much either. I would guess the total cost for their system on your jointer to be in the $600 or so price range. But once you buy their kit you never have to replace the kit just the knives and they don’t cost much at all.

[Jared Sankovich]

Or pick up a knife grinder and grind the knives in place.
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[Bradley Gray]

There was an article in an early FWW mag by Tage Frid on how to use a router with a grindstone to sharpen jointer knives in place.

Or get a set of magnetic knife holders to speed changes.