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Woodmaster spiral head

Started by rs1626, April 01, 2014, 09:17:25 AM

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rs1626

Has anybody bought the spiral head for there 18" woodmaster?  thinking about ordering one thought I would get the good or bad about them here

Bill Gaiche

I have one (Byrd) on my Grizzly 20" planer and just love it. Yours is probably different though. I just got a grizzly sales mag. today and they had the Byrd heads on sale.bg

MikeON

I have the Woodmaster one on the Woodmaster 18" and it's great.  With the steel knives on the standard cutterhead, it didn't seem to take long, even with boards that seemed clean, before I was getting lengthwise ridges in the boards where the knives had tiny nicks in them.  I'm still on the first set of inserts with the spiral head and went a few years of occasional use before indexing the inserts.
Woodmizer LT40HD Super.  WM Single Blade Edger,  John Deere 4310 tractor, M35A2C Deuce and a Half truck

sawwood

I also have the Woodmaster 18 and have the spiral head cutter. First thing i noticed how quiet it was. I have planed
a lot of rough lumber and still haven't changes the knives. If i was going to buy one more i would git the spiral
head with it.

Sawwood
Norwood M4 manual mill, Solar Kiln, Woodmaster
18" planer/molder

Sawdust Lover

I have 2 spiral cutterheads on both my 718's. One of them plains over 2000 feet per month. Only way to go!

xlogger

Bill I looked at the 20" grizzle with the spiral head on Amazon, good price but reviews are bad. The China motors don't seem to be holding up well. How has your planer held up? Ricky
Timberking 2000, Turbo slabber Mill, 584 Case, Bobcat 773, solar kiln, Nyle L-53 DH kiln

Bill Gaiche

 xlogger, I have had this planer for a couple of months, so I really can't say. It was a used planer also. I say its about 5 yrs old. So far it has been very good. These heads don't pull the motor as hard as the knives do and they are a lot quieter. bg

xlogger

Wonder what the price and how hard it is to replace the motor with a good old USA motor if it did happen to go bad?
Timberking 2000, Turbo slabber Mill, 584 Case, Bobcat 773, solar kiln, Nyle L-53 DH kiln

Bill Gaiche

Don't know about the motor. I believe that a new unit would give you a lot of service, plus you do have some warranty to protect you. I say go for it. bg

hardtailjohn

I'm looking for a used cutter shaft for my 20" Jet... the rumor has it that the Grizzly and Powermatic are the same.....  If anyone hears of someone "upgrading" to the spiral, I'd sure love to buy their old one.
John
I'm so far behind, I think I'm ahead!

Handy Andy

I had a Woodmaster, spiral head, and sold it and bought a 15" Grizzly.  Reason was the speed.  The woodmaster at full speed is not as fast as the Griz in slow.  And the Griz has a faster speed as well, think it is 30 fpm.  I have blown the button on the Griz, tried to plane a trailer load of boards without stopping.  So the upgrade on the motor might be something to think about.  It is only a 3 hp motor, the dust collection is much better on the Griz, than the Woodmaster.  But you can't make molding on the Griz.  Mine is the G
O 453px.  Looked at the 20" Griz, the fast speed is slower than on the 15". 
My name's Jim, I like wood.

xlogger

thanks for the info I'll keep that in mind.
Timberking 2000, Turbo slabber Mill, 584 Case, Bobcat 773, solar kiln, Nyle L-53 DH kiln

Den Socling

I have a 20" Grizzly planer. When the Chinese motor burned up, I put on an American motor. I'm in AZ and can't look at it. I think I did have to tap the end of the shaft.

LorenB

Quote from: rs1626 on April 01, 2014, 09:17:25 AM
Has anybody bought the spiral head for there 18" woodmaster?  thinking about ordering one thought I would get the good or bad about them here

rs1626,

Once you get the spiral head you'll never go back to knives.  Just the pain in the butt, not to mention the cost, of getting knives sharpened and set properly is enough to warrant the switch to a spiral head.  The lower noise level is just a freebee extra. 

Admittedly a full set of carbide cutters for a spiral knife can be very expensive (over $200 for a wide cutter head), but the ones on my planer have four sides, so each cutter can give you four "sharpenings".  If you hit a rock or nail with a spiral head you just rotate the nicked cutters to a new surface and you are back in business producing smooth surfaces again. 

You will need to have a handful of carbide cutters for your particular head on hand in case one completely shatters, but it's almost impossible that you would ever need to replace the full compliment of cutters at the same time. 

Yes, the spiral heads are expensive.  There's a reason for that.  People want them because they have advantages over a head with knives. 

Get the spiral head; you won't regret it. 

-- Loren
Loren
Baker 3667D portable sawmill, Cook's edger, Logrite arches & peaveys.  Husky 272XP chainsaw & two Echos.

YellowHammer

I had a Delta blade planer, it was so loud we called it the "screamer" and went with the 15" Grizzly spiral head.  Loved the planer, never gave me any problem, and generally indexed the cutters about every 4 to 6 months.  I sold it for not much less than I paid for it, so resale was excellent because it's was a spiral head. Upgraded to a bigger Powermatic, with the Byrd head and it is even quieter. 
Here's a short video of the spiral head and it's relative quietness.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J_7y9uMJlmE
Also, when rotating and replacing the the cutters, the Byrd cutters index and set themselves easier and more accurately than with the Grizzly.  Carbide life is about the same on the two.
My advice, for what it's worth, get a carbide insert head and you will be thankful long after the sticker shock wears off. 
YH
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

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