Many manufacturers offer the choice of adding spiral cutterheads as an option to their planers andjointers, if you don’t want to use the three-knife.
cutterhead and pull a few extra dollars out of your wallet should we
be persuaded to do make the switch? I bought most of my woodworking
machines back before any spiral cutterheads were available and I seldom
had the opportunity to use machines that were spiral-cutterhead
equipped. It wasnt until I began using the Magazine
Jointer that I felt the difference. I was amazed by how much
quieter the spiral head turned out to be. Also, the idea of rotating a
Instead of pulling, use a carbide knife (one among many found on each cutterhead).
Three knives, from the standard set. Sharpen the group.
re-installing them into the machine while using dial indicator to get
the exact setting sounded interesting. But are spiral cutterheads worth
the extra investment?
You can search the World Wide Web for
information on spiral cutterheads, youll find limited resources that
Each piece of information contains bits and pieces; some are valuable, some are not.
How do you make a decision? Did you know that there are spirals?
Cutterheads are cut using a shearing action, while others could be used as
Twins designed for shearing have insert knives that can meet the wood at the end of the twins.
90 degrees just as a three-knife cutterhead does? These designs are they?
that much better than the standard three-knife designs? Faced with these
I had questions and wanted to see the same websites, so I decided to dig deeper. It’s
To get
The straight poop. I didn’t need to go up the mountain. I had a short
drive South to Leitchfield, Kentucky. Thats the home of Byrd Tooling
Shelix cutterheads were created. (Shelix takes its
first three letters from the word shear and the last three letters from
Helix knives are designed in a helical arrangement and are set to
Produce a shear cut. Company owner Thomas Byrd gave me a tour of the
I was greeted with kindness and helped me to understand my questions. Nothing was off limits. I got a
Take a look at the tools and methods used by the company, some of which may be
It is proprietary and cannot shared. I left with a greater understanding.
knowledge of spiral cutterheads.
For example, when looking at
Are German-made knives better than other types of cutters?
Byrd tells me that whether the knives are German-made, produced in the
There is no difference between the United States and those created over oceans. (Its
How they are sharpened can affect the cut. Insert knives are
produced from sub micro-grained carbide and hold an edge thats
comparable to high speed steel (HSS) knives. The HSS is a high-speed steel (HSS) knife.
knives start sharper, after a few cuts they are on par with the carbide
Carbide cutters and its the carbide cutters which maintain a higher level
Sharpness lasts longer
Heres on additional interesting fact. At Byrd
Tooling every insert knife is installed by hand. The 51 cm planer
There are 140 knives in this photo, including a 20 cm jointer journal.
five rows of 20 knives on the planer head and five rows of eight knives
on the jointer head. Each knife is installed in the head using a
Drill-drivers (There is a special process to follow) then they go through
each knife a second time setting the perfect torque. (The wrench used is
(Photo at the right-hand corner.
The down side
And I hate to burst your bubble, but no cutterhead will produce a
smooth surface that doesnt require sanding or further finishing work
Straight from your machine Every cutterhead leaves small grooves
Three-knife designs keep the scallops intact, while the
Spiral cutterheads create grooves that run the length of your board.
There are also no aluminum cutterheads for planers or jointer.
Any you see would be for shapers.
Heres more information and questions:
- The space between the spiral cutterheads acts as a gullet on a table saw blade or handsaw blade.
- One of the real differences in cutterheads is the number of knives per inch of cut.
- Does a radius cutting edge produce a better cut than knives with rounded corners?
- What are single-effect spiral cutterheads?
Answers
These questions would make for a great article in a magazine, right? We think
so. The article is in the February 2011 issue.
Woodworking Magazine – Subscribe now to ensure you don’t miss out
Click here to see a video about making tapered legs with a jointer.
For a book by John Kelsey Jointer: The Tool Information You Need at Your Fingertips, click here.
Click here for a quick article about how to straighten a crookedboard.
Product Recommendations
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