Big thanks to this gang www.patreon.com/wordsnwood I've wanted to do this for years, but the price was prohibitive and the task was daunting. Turns out, it's not that hard to do, and the price on this one is a lot less than competitors!
11:00 A general rule, which applies here, is to never transmit any more than hand applied force through the ball race of your bearing. Here you are pounding on the shaft, which is pushing on the bearing balls to overcome the resistance of the fit in the housing. You need a way to push, squeeze or tap on the outer race alone. Sometimes a large socket wrench will do, otherwise you must get creative or rent a purpose made set of cups.
Well done. I installed.a byrd shelix a few years ago. These cutterheads really shine when dealing with difficult grain and having the ability to rotate a cutterhead instead of having to replace a nicked blade. 2-3 sets of blades and this cutterhead nearly pays for itself.
@@Wordsnwood No, the motor will draw what it needs and no more, but the readings are indicating it exceeds the maximum wattage from a normal 15 amp circuit. A 20 amp line would help prevent overheating from too much draw (tripping a breaker) and let it run adequately/safer.
Always watch out if using an extension cord. Small gauge cords or cords which are too long can lead to a voltage drop, which inversely increases the amperage being drawn by the motor and can lead to tripping the on-board CB. When I run mine on a dedicated circuit, it never trips but on the regular garage circuit it can.
The snap ring pliers are internal and external. The thing that you call blades is also called carbide bites . But you did a very good instructional video
I'm not sure this is a realistic review. We didn't see a snap ring slip off and spring into some inaccessible corner of the shop during the upgrade even once!
Great presentation. I just got this planer last week and have been looking into these helical cutter heads. This is the best installation demo I have seen so far.
I was just shopping around for options on my 735. You can get other heads for around the same cost but the number of cutters is much less than what is on this head. Thanks for the link Art
The pricing is great on the head, and it looks as genue Bird Tool head. However, pls be aware Helical head pushes DW735 to its limits. The machine lacks the Horse Power to fully utilize the head. I upgraded mine six month ago, and was only able to plane 12" white oak boards as 1/32" single pass. Attempting 1/16" single pass consistently triggered the termal protection safety in the DW735. With straight knives I was planning similar 12" white oak as 1/16" single pass. I sold my DW735 with Shelix head, and bought Grizzly 15" planner with 3HP and Shelix head. The new planner able to run 1/8" for these boards as single pass.
This is a very interesting bit of pragmatic reporting. My understanding of the cutting action of helical heads is that by reducing the amount of knife in contact with the stock at any given moment, the power requirement should be reduced! This is supported by the reduced decibel sound energy output, I believe. I do know that inserts attack the wood at a steeper angle, and it is a conventional observation that steel knives can be made sharper than is possible with carbide (not that factory supplied knives necessarily ARE sharpened that finely), but the shearing cut must mitigate some of that situation. You seem to have only HALF the capacity of straight knives! Very perplexing!
@@leestebbins5051 Alas, it wouldn’t hold water if I did. From the many comments I have gone on to read, my understanding seems not grounded in real results.
thank you for the video. I use the planer all the time and always wanted to try a different style of blades but I agree there were just too expensive. will give it a try . regards.
Good for you! i installed my Shellix helical head two years ago, has saved me so much time and trouble. I've run literally hundreds of BF on my first set of cutters. More another day perhaps.
Thanks for the heads up on the process for changing the blades…I just bought my 735 in December of 2023…At my age,,,77 yrs. old,,,if my 735 lasts half as long as yours,,,I’ll feel pretty darn lucky…As for changing the blades,,,I’ll stick to the old style…I do like the fine smooth surface I get and of course I wear ear muffs to cut down on the noise…If I could substantiate the cost,,,maybe…Again thanks for the great video…
An informative video on an important upgrade. I've considered doing this but would probably upgrade my jointer first since I use it more. I think the real advantage of helical cutters is planing figured wood to eliminate tear out.
My personal opinion, I think you did a very good job explaining process installing the cutterhead. I own one in my own shop and will replace the cutterhead as soon as I have used up the blades that I have,. About one of these planers for the college I work at, I have taught woodworking for the last 25 years. We use this planter for small pieces of wood and use the big 20 inch Powermatic Large pieces or a lot of it to be planned. After one semester, I converted the DeWalt to a Shelix I’m not the knives yet after 2 1/2 semesters. I know the 20 inch Powermatic really think the knives as needed in the last lasted for seven years and we run a lot of wood. Can go wrong with a segmented head. Our 8” joiner has won our 16 inch joiner has one. We run no straight knives or anything anymore and the cost savings has been into the thousands of dollars.
I did that exact upgrade like 2 weeks ago. I have burned up the motor and I was half way there so... yeah. Anyway. Smooth as butter and fantastic finish. I was really pleased with how well it runs. No regrets and far less expensive than a Shelix.
I can't see how you think the inserts need more power when they are all (a complete row) not '' in the cut" at any given time, unlike trad. straight blades... Also, some wood species, like teak for instance, have silica in their makeup and are therefore super-abrasive on HSS knives... DAMHIKT 🙄 I'm running the Triton planer with HSS and looking to change over to carbide..I haven't found a company supplying a helical head yet tho... BTW, as a (now retired) machinist, I appreciate the VAST cutting performance improvement in carbide vs. HSS when cutting steel... carbides weak point is its brittleness, it can chip easily... but that shouldn't be much of an issue machining wood... 😎👍☘🍻
I guess we'll see! Unfortunately I only have the one planer, so I can't really run side-by-side comparisons now that i've made the change. Thanks for dropping by!
helical heads are always cutting, as there is always a blade in the wood. In contrast, 3-blade heads get these tiny "rests" whenever a blade is not cutting. That is why helical actually put more of a load on the motor, as measured by the kill-a-watt meter.
@@Wordsnwood You wrong. Inserts cut with a 30 face bevel and high rake angle. The 30 bevel acts like a chip breaker but it more a scraping cut . Knives scoop out wood as they cut. Back in the 60 we used to grind a face bevels on knives to change the effective cutting angle. But there a price.
I put a helix head in a new Mikita bread box planer A couple of years ago. My old DeWalt planer was pretty much worn out. I guarantee you that if you put some shellac on both sides of one of those boards, you will see much more scalloping with the old conventional head. The amount of sanding I have to do is greatly reduced. But where I saw the best difference was when I replaced my jointer cutterhead. Much less noise and the cutterhead fights much less than the old conventional head When you pass across it. So the user friendliness is much improved with the helical head
Interesting in light of the contribution by @student 1 day ago, He observes a greatly increased power requirement after installing a helical head on his DeWalt planer, and you report the opposite; much less resistance when hand feeding on your helical jointer head. I hope someone knowledgable can explain this!
I just bought the Shelix (Byrd tool) unit for $500 (oem) vs the smaller one for $450. So it seems to be about $100 more. It has 40 cutters instead of 56... not sure if that will make a difference. From what I read from many with the Shelix, it is about 15 or so dB quieter, and the finish is like a 220 grit sand paper vs about 120 or so for the original blades. I wont know until I do the same tests myself in a week or so when my blade shows up. Hoping for the cost and installation it has a smoother finish. But the main thing is the much longer life of the individual blades and 4 rotations before needing to replace them.
Thank you for this excellent video. I’ve been wondering about how hard it is to switch to a helical cutter. You did a great job filming and explaining the process, which is not as daunting as I thought.
I put in a luxcut3 head with 40 cutters. It was close to the same price. Edit- I took off that shaft lock because the new head doesn’t use it. It stayed in the box with the old head. Also, for anyone that has to take this outside to use, Vevor makes a motorcycle/ATV scissor lift dolly for fairly cheap. You can roll it outside and pump up the jack to raise it to infeed and outfeed support Fantastic video. Biggest problem I had was that damn belt
The belt was a pain. installing 56 screws was also a pain. I've got a Lux-Cut on my jointer and agree that they are also great quality! I was iffy on the shaft-lock but decided to re-install. It's an easy removal if I end up deciding that it's not useful here!
@@Wordsnwood I didn’t want to risk it jiggling loose eventually and interfering during operation. Highly unlikely, but 🤷♂️. You can also measure your carbide inserts and get them from other manufacturers. I bought a slab flattening/ spoil board router bit that takes carbide cutters as well. I found that they are manufactured with different angles on the cutters. Some manufacturers are closer to 35 degrees while others are much lower. I suspect people that have issues are running low angle cutters on something entirely too hard.
This was a very interesting video, i don't have a planer nor do much woodworking. I watched it primarily because of how well you presented/edited the information. Well done!
Thanks for posting! I’ve got this very helical head in the shopping cart. I’ll likely wait until my blades get dull before actually ordering. I’d be curious for you to post reviews as you get enough mileage on it. Cheers!
The Watt meter reading with the helical cutter is interesting. For your own purpose, put the Kill A Watt meter on amps and monitor the amps as you are planing. Another UA-camr upgraded to a Shelix helical cutter and his amps were over 15amp, so higher than the breaker for the circuit. His circuit did not trip, but different breakers have different amount of time with over amperage before they trip. Thanks for the video. Very interesting and useful. Dave.
I have had my Dewalt 735 for over 20 years. I've run thousands of feet of both hardwood and softwood lumber through it. I have ever seen the need for any blades other than the 3 standard stock blades for this machine. In fact, with care, I have rotated and changed the blades only twice. No need for all this extra expense.
I'd be worried about tripping a breaker, with that power draw. Maximum for a 15A circuit is 1800W, and you're generally recommended to stay under 1500W. And even if you ran it on a 20A circuit, the planer's internal wiring and such is probably (??) only spec'd for a max 15A/1800W draw.
Helical heads are the only way to go for planers, jointers and even some router bits. Carbide stays sharp so much longer due to its extreme hardness. Carbine is only behind diamond for hardness, depending on which variety with tungsten carbide being the hardest. Hitting a nail might chip a cutter but no big deal to just rotate it to another blade side.
@@Wordsnwood Thanks! I was looking more for current draw since that trip the breaker. This is a very very helpful video and it seems to be on sale right now.
Great video, thanks! I have a Dewalt 735 with a Byrd brand helical head. I installed the upgrade as soon as I got the planer and was very happy from the start. However, the extra power draw turns out to be a problem when doing substantial amounts of work. Either the breaker on the machine trips when the machine heats up after a series of cuts while the one in the breaker box trips when doing wide pieces, particularly on harder species. I have also had problems when turning or replacing cutters. One must be very careful to clean both the head and the cutter as well as position the cutters correctly before tightening them into place. Even so, avoiding lines along the length of the piece from misaligned blades can be difficult and resolving them can be VERY frustrating. I wish Byrd had done a better job of designing the seat for the blades in the head. I am interested to know your experience with this brand.
Again, I plan to release an update video in the future! I do know that you need to really clean the head when you remove/replace carbide cutters. And I will keep an eye out on the breakers
@@virtualfather Oh that sucks. I think I paid just under $400 for mine... although, the one you got looks like it was way more cutters. I think the Shertek is 48? Cant remember off the top of my head... that reminds me... it might be time to clean or turn my cutters. Im gonna work very hard to forget that.
I think it's a no brainer on jointers because of the pain of setting the knives on them. A little more questionable on these little planers because of just how easy it is to change the knives.
An that's why I did the jointer first... and yet the planer is closer to a finished surface, so you'd think we want that one to have the nicer blades! But it is definitely a price premium.
ALSO: the age of my planer was one of the reasons I was delaying, but given how easy this one went, I've decided that if the planer ever dies I think I'll just un-install this and take it to the next planer.
Great job, grease would not really make insertion of the cutter easier... however, if you had placed the whole assembly into the freezer the night before you probably could have pushed it in with your hand!
If you do that, then moisture will condense on everything immediately after you take it out of the freezer. For those living outside of Arizona, it could be an annoyance. I do observe that at least the ball bearings are sealed.
Just a quick thought...I wonder if installing this cutter head voids the Dewalt warranty on the planer? I'V had mine for about a year now and would hate to loose the remaining warranty. I could see them doing that because of the extra workload this head creates. Anyway great video Art!
Do you mean the shaft where it goes through the bearings, or like the whole thing with cutters installed? I mean, I did neither, but I'm also not sure how I could since the original is kind of a triangle
@@Wordsnwood it was a shelical cutter there is one that is thinner in width not length of shaft. with, i think the same number of cutters but i do believe it give different results.
It's the way to go if you plane a lot of lumber, but those carbide bits will chip of you hit a hard knot or a staple etc. You never get a glass smooth finish.
@liquidrockaquatics3900 dry kilned cypress and pine. But the streaks in the wood are very subtle and barely noticeable. No big deal as I run it though my drum sander with 180 grit for a nice finish. I build outdoor furniture such as porch swings and rocking chairs where a glass smooth fine finish isn't needed. Sun and rain tend to rough up the finish over time.
Actually a decent video but people please buy a little grease before doing this. Using dirty grease in precision areas is setting yourself up for failure. I mean really you're spending a few hundred dollars and you're going to skip out on $3 buying some new grease? I cringed every time he did that. It may never cause a problem but using fresh grease definitely won't. I don't know if he got the planer for free like the cutting head but either way buy some F'ing grease.
Snipe with this planer still sucks! No matter the "Fix" and still have snipe. I'll save up for a Real Planer with Hex cutter. Grizzley may be a winner here. $2K?? find one used and save a buck.
That's not going to fix the problem take smaller cuts the closer you get to the dimension your looking for the less the rollers drop off on the back less problems you'll have
Big thanks to this gang www.patreon.com/wordsnwood
I've wanted to do this for years, but the price was prohibitive and the task was daunting.
Turns out, it's not that hard to do, and the price on this one is a lot less than competitors!
11:00 A general rule, which applies here, is to never transmit any more than hand applied force through the ball race of your bearing. Here you are pounding on the shaft, which is pushing on the bearing balls to overcome the resistance of the fit in the housing. You need a way to push, squeeze or tap on the outer race alone. Sometimes a large socket wrench will do, otherwise you must get creative or rent a purpose made set of cups.
Well done. I installed.a byrd shelix a few years ago. These cutterheads really shine when dealing with difficult grain and having the ability to rotate a cutterhead instead of having to replace a nicked blade. 2-3 sets of blades and this cutterhead nearly pays for itself.
I have that planer as well; it really could use a 20-amp circuit.
But would the motor handle 20 amps or would that just burn out the motor quicker? I don't know enough Electrical Engineering to say.
@@Wordsnwood No, the motor will draw what it needs and no more, but the readings are indicating it exceeds the maximum wattage from a normal 15 amp circuit. A 20 amp line would help prevent overheating from too much draw (tripping a breaker) and let it run adequately/safer.
Always watch out if using an extension cord. Small gauge cords or cords which are too long can lead to a voltage drop, which inversely increases the amperage being drawn by the motor and can lead to tripping the on-board CB. When I run mine on a dedicated circuit, it never trips but on the regular garage circuit it can.
The snap ring pliers are internal and external. The thing that you call blades is also called carbide bites . But you did a very good instructional video
THIS is how a video should be done! Excellent job and very informative! Thank you
I'm not sure this is a realistic review. We didn't see a snap ring slip off and spring into some inaccessible corner of the shop during the upgrade even once!
Well I did find the one that bounced away... I think I was lucky. In all seriousness, you do need to be methodical and deliberate with the steps.
Great presentation. I just got this planer last week and have been looking into these helical cutter heads. This is the best installation demo I have seen so far.
I was just shopping around for options on my 735. You can get other heads for around the same cost but the number of cutters is much less than what is on this head. Thanks for the link Art
I did find one other company priced similarly, but when I looked at the website it looked like the exact same cutter. Hope it works out for you!
The pricing is great on the head, and it looks as genue Bird Tool head. However, pls be aware Helical head pushes DW735 to its limits. The machine lacks the Horse Power to fully utilize the head. I upgraded mine six month ago, and was only able to plane 12" white oak boards as 1/32" single pass. Attempting 1/16" single pass consistently triggered the termal protection safety in the DW735. With straight knives I was planning similar 12" white oak as 1/16" single pass.
I sold my DW735 with Shelix head, and bought Grizzly 15" planner with 3HP and Shelix head. The new planner able to run 1/8" for these boards as single pass.
thanks, will keep an eye on it.
This is a very interesting bit of pragmatic reporting. My understanding of the cutting action of helical heads is that by reducing the amount of knife in contact with the stock at any given moment, the power requirement should be reduced! This is supported by the reduced decibel sound energy output, I believe. I do know that inserts attack the wood at a steeper angle, and it is a conventional observation that steel knives can be made sharper than is possible with carbide (not that factory supplied knives necessarily ARE sharpened that finely), but the shearing cut must mitigate some of that situation. You seem to have only HALF the capacity of straight knives! Very perplexing!
Is that what you told your wife when you had to explain the upgrade?
@@leestebbins5051 Alas, it wouldn’t hold water if I did. From the many comments I have gone on to read, my understanding seems not grounded in real results.
thank you for the video. I use the planer all the time and always wanted to try a different style of blades but I agree there were just too expensive. will give it a try . regards.
Glad it was helpful!
Good for you! i installed my Shellix helical head two years ago, has saved me so much time and trouble. I've run literally hundreds of BF on my first set of cutters. More another day perhaps.
Thanks for the heads up on the process for changing the blades…I just bought my 735 in December of 2023…At my age,,,77 yrs. old,,,if my 735 lasts half as long as yours,,,I’ll feel pretty darn lucky…As for changing the blades,,,I’ll stick to the old style…I do like the fine smooth surface I get and of course I wear ear muffs to cut down on the noise…If I could substantiate the cost,,,maybe…Again thanks for the great video…
An informative video on an important upgrade. I've considered doing this but would probably upgrade my jointer first since I use it more. I think the real advantage of helical cutters is planing figured wood to eliminate tear out.
I did my jointer about a year prior and love it there.
My personal opinion, I think you did a very good job explaining process installing the cutterhead. I own one in my own shop and will replace the cutterhead as soon as I have used up the blades that I have,.
About one of these planers for the college I work at, I have taught woodworking for the last 25 years. We use this planter for small pieces of wood and use the big 20 inch Powermatic Large pieces or a lot of it to be planned.
After one semester, I converted the DeWalt to a Shelix I’m not the knives yet after 2 1/2 semesters. I know the 20 inch Powermatic really think the knives as needed in the last lasted for seven years and we run a lot of wood. Can go wrong with a segmented head. Our 8” joiner has won our 16 inch joiner has one. We run no straight knives or anything anymore and the cost savings has been into the thousands of dollars.
interesting stats!
Great video, very informative. You could use your video as a step by step instructional video.
thanks, that was my goal, so glad to hear it.
I did that exact upgrade like 2 weeks ago. I have burned up the motor and I was half way there so... yeah. Anyway. Smooth as butter and fantastic finish. I was really pleased with how well it runs. No regrets and far less expensive than a Shelix.
I'm trying to understand how "no regrets" and "I have burned up the motor" belong in the same comment.... 🤨
I found straight knives cut just fine. I get a surface the needs less work then an insert head.
Insert heads take more power and have shallow cut.
I can't see how you think the inserts need more power when they are all (a complete row) not '' in the cut" at any given time, unlike trad. straight blades...
Also, some wood species, like teak for instance, have silica in their makeup and are therefore super-abrasive on HSS knives... DAMHIKT 🙄
I'm running the Triton planer with HSS and looking to change over to carbide..I haven't found a company supplying a helical head yet tho...
BTW, as a (now retired) machinist, I appreciate the VAST cutting performance improvement in carbide vs. HSS when cutting steel... carbides weak point is its brittleness, it can chip easily... but that shouldn't be much of an issue machining wood...
😎👍☘🍻
I guess we'll see! Unfortunately I only have the one planer, so I can't really run side-by-side comparisons now that i've made the change. Thanks for dropping by!
helical heads are always cutting, as there is always a blade in the wood. In contrast, 3-blade heads get these tiny "rests" whenever a blade is not cutting. That is why helical actually put more of a load on the motor, as measured by the kill-a-watt meter.
@@Wordsnwood You wrong. Inserts cut with a 30 face bevel and high rake angle. The 30 bevel acts like a chip breaker but it more a scraping cut .
Knives scoop out wood as they cut.
Back in the 60 we used to grind a face bevels on knives to change the effective cutting angle. But there a price.
I apologize for the bad spelling.😕
Excellent step by step. I need to do this for my planer. Will save your video for reference. Thank you.
Excellent,well done video. Very clear and easy to understand.
I put a helix head in a new Mikita bread box planer A couple of years ago. My old DeWalt planer was pretty much worn out. I guarantee you that if you put some shellac on both sides of one of those boards, you will see much more scalloping with the old conventional head. The amount of sanding I have to do is greatly reduced.
But where I saw the best difference was when I replaced my jointer cutterhead. Much less noise and the cutterhead fights much less than the old conventional head When you pass across it. So the user friendliness is much improved with the helical head
thanks for the pointers!
Interesting in light of the contribution by @student 1 day ago, He observes a greatly increased power requirement after installing a helical head on his DeWalt planer, and you report the opposite; much less resistance when hand feeding on your helical jointer head. I hope someone knowledgable can explain this!
This is a good video. Thanks for making it.
I just bought the Shelix (Byrd tool) unit for $500 (oem) vs the smaller one for $450. So it seems to be about $100 more. It has 40 cutters instead of 56... not sure if that will make a difference. From what I read from many with the Shelix, it is about 15 or so dB quieter, and the finish is like a 220 grit sand paper vs about 120 or so for the original blades. I wont know until I do the same tests myself in a week or so when my blade shows up. Hoping for the cost and installation it has a smoother finish. But the main thing is the much longer life of the individual blades and 4 rotations before needing to replace them.
Exactly! Long life on the blades, and quieter operation is a bonus.
I have shelex and can't keep blades set so get ridges and grooves
@@jimbauer6822 Sounds like something is off in your setup. First time I've heard anyone say that. Seems everyone has amazing results from it.
Great for dealing with localized nicks!
@@b3owu1f, I will add such an observation from my buddy, after he spun inserts on his own commercial or industrial quality machine. Ridges in the cut!
Thank you for this excellent video. I’ve been wondering about how hard it is to switch to a helical cutter. You did a great job filming and explaining the process, which is not as daunting as I thought.
Glad to have been of benefit! Thanks
The snap rings are referred to as internal and external snap rings. the internal squeeze together and the external spreads when removed/installed
Thank you so much, Art! Excellent video, very informative and instructional!👍
I put in a luxcut3 head with 40 cutters. It was close to the same price. Edit- I took off that shaft lock because the new head doesn’t use it. It stayed in the box with the old head. Also, for anyone that has to take this outside to use, Vevor makes a motorcycle/ATV scissor lift dolly for fairly cheap. You can roll it outside and pump up the jack to raise it to infeed and outfeed support
Fantastic video. Biggest problem I had was that damn belt
The belt was a pain. installing 56 screws was also a pain. I've got a Lux-Cut on my jointer and agree that they are also great quality! I was iffy on the shaft-lock but decided to re-install. It's an easy removal if I end up deciding that it's not useful here!
@@Wordsnwood I didn’t want to risk it jiggling loose eventually and interfering during operation. Highly unlikely, but 🤷♂️. You can also measure your carbide inserts and get them from other manufacturers. I bought a slab flattening/ spoil board router bit that takes carbide cutters as well. I found that they are manufactured with different angles on the cutters. Some manufacturers are closer to 35 degrees while others are much lower. I suspect people that have issues are running low angle cutters on something entirely too hard.
This was a very interesting video, i don't have a planer nor do much woodworking. I watched it primarily because of how well you presented/edited the information. Well done!
At least it was entertaining! 😁
Great video
Thanks for posting! I’ve got this very helical head in the shopping cart. I’ll likely wait until my blades get dull before actually ordering. I’d be curious for you to post reviews as you get enough mileage on it. Cheers!
The Recognizer on your cabinet got you an instant subscribe! Great video, been considering a helical upgrade for years…
Warning: I am a nerd. 🤓
The Watt meter reading with the helical cutter is interesting. For your own purpose, put the Kill A Watt meter on amps and monitor the amps as you are planing. Another UA-camr upgraded to a Shelix helical cutter and his amps were over 15amp, so higher than the breaker for the circuit. His circuit did not trip, but different breakers have different amount of time with over amperage before they trip.
Thanks for the video. Very interesting and useful.
Dave.
Good Idea. I shall have to give that look.
Excellent video. Best I have seen. Thanks
Loved the video…thinking of following your path. SUBSCRIBED.
I have had my Dewalt 735 for over 20 years. I've run thousands of feet of both hardwood and softwood lumber through it.
I have ever seen the need for any blades other than the 3 standard stock blades for this machine.
In fact, with care, I have rotated and changed the blades only twice.
No need for all this extra expense.
That's amazing. But it was not my experience.
Great video, thanks! Blessings!!!
Thank you! You too!
Just an FYI from a retired mechanical engineer: a spiral is a 2d shape. The 3d equivalent is a helix.
I'd be worried about tripping a breaker, with that power draw. Maximum for a 15A circuit is 1800W, and you're generally recommended to stay under 1500W. And even if you ran it on a 20A circuit, the planer's internal wiring and such is probably (??) only spec'd for a max 15A/1800W draw.
I have a Find Buy Tool helical head on my jointer. The name gave me pause, but it's an outstanding cutter.
Agreed about the name! glad to hear that you are happy with it!
Helical heads are the only way to go for planers, jointers and even some router bits. Carbide stays sharp so much longer due to its extreme hardness. Carbine is only behind diamond for hardness, depending on which variety with tungsten carbide being the hardest. Hitting a nail might chip a cutter but no big deal to just rotate it to another blade side.
Yup, thanks for stopping by!
What an amazing blade! It really speeds up work!
installation was surprisingly easy, no fuss, no adjustments
Nice, now I know that I won’t do this. I am too infrequent a woodworker for it to make sense for me, thx.
Any difference you might have seen with current draw? Did it trip your circuit breaker more than when you had knives?
Has not tripped any breakers. I did show in the video how it uses more wattage.
@@Wordsnwood Thanks! I was looking more for current draw since that trip the breaker. This is a very very helpful video and it seems to be on sale right now.
Great video, thanks!
I have a Dewalt 735 with a Byrd brand helical head. I installed the upgrade as soon as I got the planer and was very happy from the start. However, the extra power draw turns out to be a problem when doing substantial amounts of work. Either the breaker on the machine trips when the machine heats up after a series of cuts while the one in the breaker box trips when doing wide pieces, particularly on harder species. I have also had problems when turning or replacing cutters. One must be very careful to clean both the head and the cutter as well as position the cutters correctly before tightening them into place. Even so, avoiding lines along the length of the piece from misaligned blades can be difficult and resolving them can be VERY frustrating. I wish Byrd had done a better job of designing the seat for the blades in the head.
I am interested to know your experience with this brand.
Again, I plan to release an update video in the future! I do know that you need to really clean the head when you remove/replace carbide cutters. And I will keep an eye out on the breakers
Shertek in Canada is cheaper. Mine works great!
When i checked there was nothing under $500 c
@@virtualfather Oh that sucks. I think I paid just under $400 for mine... although, the one you got looks like it was way more cutters. I think the Shertek is 48? Cant remember off the top of my head... that reminds me... it might be time to clean or turn my cutters. Im gonna work very hard to forget that.
Isn't inflation fun!?
Watching from Vancouver Island 🏝️👍
🫡
I think it's a no brainer on jointers because of the pain of setting the knives on them. A little more questionable on these little planers because of just how easy it is to change the knives.
An that's why I did the jointer first... and yet the planer is closer to a finished surface, so you'd think we want that one to have the nicer blades!
But it is definitely a price premium.
ALSO: the age of my planer was one of the reasons I was delaying, but given how easy this one went, I've decided that if the planer ever dies I think I'll just un-install this and take it to the next planer.
That’s a pretty reasonable price for a helical head. Quite a bit less than I paid 😬
Yeah, fingers crossed that it will be good quality in the long term!
incredible
Great job, grease would not really make insertion of the cutter easier... however, if you had placed the whole assembly into the freezer the night before you probably could have pushed it in with your hand!
Now that is a good idea. Maybe next time!
If you do that, then moisture will condense on everything immediately after you take it out of the freezer. For those living outside of Arizona, it could be an annoyance. I do observe that at least the ball bearings are sealed.
Ohhhkaaay.....guess I'll never be doing THAT upgrade!
Happy to have helped you with that decision.
Just a quick thought...I wonder if installing this cutter head voids the Dewalt warranty on the planer? I'V had mine for about a year now and would hate to loose the remaining warranty. I could see them doing that because of the extra workload this head creates. Anyway great video Art!
I would be stunned if it did NOT void the warranty.
is the shaft the same size or is it more narrow. I have seen one guy changes his twice and the two shafts were different diameters.
Do you mean the shaft where it goes through the bearings, or like the whole thing with cutters installed? I mean, I did neither, but I'm also not sure how I could since the original is kind of a triangle
@@Wordsnwood it was a shelical cutter there is one that is thinner in width not length of shaft. with, i think the same number of cutters but i do believe it give different results.
If you're still available, I would be interested in the straight blades you now have to sell.
will be keeping them and the old head for at least a few months shakedown.
Nice, think I will get one. What noise app were you using?
It is an Android App: Sound Meter HQ Pro
It's the way to go if you plane a lot of lumber, but those carbide bits will chip of you hit a hard knot or a staple etc. You never get a glass smooth finish.
I run Osage orange through mine without any problems. What knots are you hitting?
that's why I'm committing to do a follow-up in a couple years as I freely admit this is an install + first-impressions only.
I actually have some Osage on the shelf, which I use for an accent wood in cutting boards. We'll see how it cuts!
@@Wordsnwood I ran a slab of Osage through mine. I recommend no more than a quarter turn on a 8” piece
@liquidrockaquatics3900 dry kilned cypress and pine. But the streaks in the wood are very subtle and barely noticeable. No big deal as I run it though my drum sander with 180 grit for a nice finish. I build outdoor furniture such as porch swings and rocking chairs where a glass smooth fine finish isn't needed. Sun and rain tend to rough up the finish over time.
When comes to a damaged blades. Is it easy to find the one thats bad if you can't visabley see it?
I believe that you will see a line in the wood
Highlight the whisker in the wood with a magic marker, and prop it over the cutterhead to direct you to the area.
It's more expensive on Amazon in Canada.
Im amazed you dont get scallops.
Is this replacement made in China?
most are.
those snap rings are called jesus clips. i will let you figure out why
Actually a decent video but people please buy a little grease before doing this. Using dirty grease in precision areas is setting yourself up for failure. I mean really you're spending a few hundred dollars and you're going to skip out on $3 buying some new grease? I cringed every time he did that. It may never cause a problem but using fresh grease definitely won't. I don't know if he got the planer for free like the cutting head but either way buy some F'ing grease.
Chinese?
Aren't they all?
My man called $300 for planer blades affordable. The entire planer is sold for like $500.
For helical yes $300 is affordable. It is relative
Currently $600 at Home Depot, without the feed table attachments or stand.
@@eyeofamonnot with a helical head.
@liquidrockaquatics3900 Yes, exactly. DeWalt doesn't offer a planer with a helical. The Byrd Shelix cutterhead kit is currently $555.
@@eyeofamon that’s why I bought a luxcut3
Snipe with this planer still sucks! No matter the "Fix" and still have snipe. I'll save up for a Real Planer with Hex cutter. Grizzley may be a winner here. $2K?? find one used and save a buck.
No room for a 15-20inch cast iron monster in my shop. I'd go that route if I had a bigger place.
That's not going to fix the problem take smaller cuts the closer you get to the dimension your looking for the less the rollers drop off on the back less problems you'll have
Great video. Please oh please take off the rings!