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Is a Spiral Planer head worth the $

Started by kczbest, February 23, 2011, 11:29:22 PM

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kczbest

I'm about ready to pull the trigger on a woodmaster 718. I would like to know what your experiences are with the Spiral Planer head, and if it's worth the $. I will be planing approx 40% Eastern Red Cedar, 35% Cypress, 15% Hickory, and the rest will be a mix of Pine and other Hardwoods.
Hail State!
2013 F150 Supercrew 4x4
John Deere 5303 4x4 with FEL
Cook's MP 32
Cat 289C with Bradco MM60 Forestry Mulcher Head

DR_Buck

Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

Norm


WDH

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Wrangler55

I wish I could afford one right now! In addition to the spiral cutterhead, I'd like to have the pro package. I could use every part of it.  The drum sander is especially attractive to me. I just wonder how long it takes to setup each configuration?

Hal
I'm so covered with sawdust, my nickname should be dusty...

metalspinner

I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

Woodwalker

Just cause your head's pointed, don't mean you are sharp.

sawwood

I have the 18 and i installed the spiral head cutter and wish i had do so when i bought the planer. It is so much quiter and
helps with wild grain lumber. Also it has the 4 sides and you don't have to fumble around with the gauge trying to set the
blads.  As for changing over to drum sander it takes me about 30min. For the moulder unit it takes a little longer as you
need to set the deph and inline with the guide rails. I have some photos in my album of the spiral head cutter. One outher
thing you might conder is the in and out feed tables, they are worth the cost also.

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

oakiemac

Mobile Demension sawmill, Bobcat 873 loader, 3 dry kilns and a long "to do" list.

kczbest

Thanks! I believe you twisted my arm enough to get one.
Hail State!
2013 F150 Supercrew 4x4
John Deere 5303 4x4 with FEL
Cook's MP 32
Cat 289C with Bradco MM60 Forestry Mulcher Head

jim king


Dan_Shade

I have one on my grizzly planer, I'm glad I spent the extra $$$ for it.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

Cedarman

Yes, yes, and yes yes yes yes yes.  Best money ever spent.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

Fether Hardwoods


crowder888


Den Socling

These guys seem to be pretty iffy on their recommendation.  :D  :D  :D

rph816

I have a 718 and 712 and I would say on the changeover it only takes me about 15 minutes to go from planing to sanding.  A little longer on gang rip and molding.  I've used the heck out of mine.  I'm saving up now for a spiral head.  I wish it didn't cost more than half what I paid for my whole machine. 

Any word on insert life?  I have planed about 3000 bd ft of various hardwoods this year and plan to do more in the future (rough off the sawmill).  I have 3 sets of knives and went through about 2 sharpenings each with some in-head honing in between.  Maybe 500 Bd feet per sharpening (each Bd/ft usually requires at least two passes usually 3 or 4).

Ryan

WDH

I have run well over a thousand bf through mine, and I have not turned the inserts yet.  I planed about 100 bf of red oak today and it was wonderful.  However, everything that I run through the planer gets treated vigorously with a wire brush on both sides and edges.  That really helps extend cutter life.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Ed

I've had my Powermatic 15HH for just over a year now. Couldn't be more pleased with the Byrd cutterhead.
Hickory, Locust, Cherry, doesn't matter....the inserts just eat it up, spit it out, ask for more!

Ed

metalspinner

I put my spiral head planer into action in April of 2008 and have run thousands of feet through it.  It's getting to be time to turn the inserts. ;)

The board surface is still very nice out of the planer, but the sound is louder because of the dull knives.  Also, the board doesn't feed as smoothly.  So it's time to open the hood and take care of some maintenance.  Not too bad for three years. :)
I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

WDH

Three years!  No, not bad at all.  I would love to hear from those that have turned the inserts to find out what to do and not to do.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Bill Gaiche

Large planers I am not familuar with. I have a small delta and have resharpened and bought new blades for it over the years. Planing postoak is pretty tough with blades even when new. I needed to do more postoak but knew that it was going to be slow. I have read on here and other places about spiral cutter heads and decided it may be a good idea. When I checked the prices I found that they were very expencieve for my small projects. I located this web site and bought a spral cutter from them. I was real skeptical at first about the quality and the ability to do a decent job. It was a just remove the old cutter head and install new. Took about 30 min. Ran a piece of postoak thru it and was impressed. Have done quite a bit sence I bought it a couple of months ago. Its quiter and cuts real good. It came with tool steel cutters not carbide, although you can buy them. They are expensive. For me for now the steel ones work good. If you hit a piece of metal all you need to do is turn the dull cutter and keep on. This works for me but may not for you that do a lot of planing. Good luck, bg  http://www.accu-head.com/

red oaks lumber

my first bottom infeed head is a spiral its 9'' wide with 100 inserts have turned all 4 sides got 500,000 bf  new carbide inserts a $1.27 each. those inserts have been feed paint, whitwash  coverd boards , mud ,rocks, hardware you name it it's probable seen it  if one breaks change it keep going. the most important thing is blowing the seat for the chip befiore retighting other than that they are very nice heads.
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

Fil-Dill

We usually get 12-15,000 bdtft from the first and 3rd side. We rotate from the first used face 180 deg. Then when it its dull, we usually get a little less bdft since the left and right edge are dull. We are not anywhere near getting 500,000 bdft from a set. More like 50,000. But we do love this head.
EZ boardwalk 40

Cedarman

Ours is a 26" head.  Probably run 100,000 before changing knives.  I take all knives out first.  Sometimes you have to use a wrench with the torx head and hit it with a hammer while putting torgue on to get it loose without stripping the torx wrench.  I then clean all sockets.  I take each cutter and scrape the buildup off to make sure the cutter will seat into the socket perfectly. I turn the cutter 1/4 turn. We use only carbide.  Most have a little dot in the corner to help get them all the same. Then retighten with a battery drill that you can set the torque on.  I run some lumber to make sure all cutters have seated properly.  Sometimes during the first few thousand feet a cutter may loosen up.  You can easily tell by looking at the board.  Absolutely the best money spent on a tool.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

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