I have a nice old RC-33 that I picked up on CL nearly a year ago. It’s been fantastic and it cut fine when I brought it home but the blades are finally tired. I got a new set of good blades but I simply cannot get the old blades out. The bolts on the blade holders in the cutter head are stuck, perhaps just too rusted in there. I tried some penetrating oil and got two bolts on one blade holder to turn and one bolt on another. The rest are pretty stubborn. I have a thin set of wrenches but just cannot get enough purchase on the bolts to really go at them.

Is it worth the cash to do a Byrd head? If I can’t get these bolts out, this is probably the best time to do this upgrade. Worth it at $800 or put that toward a new machine with a helical head already? I picked up a DJ-20 at the same time as this planer and had no trouble changing knives on that and it cuts beautifully so I’m not turning my nose up at straight knives, just at my patience limit for these bolts on the planer....

Upgrade time? Or are there more tricks to get these stubborn bolts?