Question for you who run spiral heads in your planers.

[oakiemac]

Was over at a freinds shop a few weeks ago and he had a 24" planer with the spiral head. Ran some boards through the machine and they all came out good but had very fine lines that went the length of the board. Freind said that was normal for his planer and he always ran them through a belt sander to remove the lines.
Is this normal? if so I will have to rethink my goal of getting one because I dont want to add another step of having to send it through a sander and I don't own a belt sander.

[WDH]

My 15" Grizzly GO453Z does not leave lines.

[red oaks lumber]

true spiral heads leave little lines, mine does but it is my ruffing head so i dont care.

[jim king]

There are many types of spiral heads  out there now.  My 20 inch General  has 300 chips at an angle that slices (not cuts).  I rotate the chips 1/4 turn a month with NO down time for sharpening.  The only time I have noticed a line was when the chip was removed for turning there was a buildup of resin or debris under the chip and when replaced it was not cleaned and equal with the rest.

Now we have boards that look like they are sanded and flawless. We are planing bloodwood and others much harder.  If I had regular knives most of my day would be spent sharpening and changing knives.  With the helicals I work for a month with out touching them.

[crtreedude]

I have never noticed lines on ours, we have both Grizzly and Shelix.  We couldn't live without ours, since it allows us to use wood with knots in them. No tear outs.

[Larry]

Yeap, spiral heads sometimes leave faint lines and scallops.  Conventional heads just leave scallops.

A planed surface is not a finished surface from any planer...unless your thinking construction lumber.

[metalspinner]

Plus, it's alot easier to remove tool marks than tearout.

[oakiemac]

I was just wondering if they all leave those lines. Sounds like some types do and some don't.

[metalspinner]

If I hold a board up to get a raking light across the face, I will see the tooth pattern from the spiral head.  It's more obvious on woods like maple and cherry than it is on courser woods like oak.  But then it all goes throught the sander, anyway.

[Cedarman]

Oakiemac, I put off for several years changing my straight knife head to a helical head on our 26" planer.  Cost about $3000 to change over.   When I did I kicked myself for not having done it years before.  If your knives are seated properly you may see extremely fine lines.  Most of it is the way the light reflects from the way they cut the board.  Very little tear out around cedar knots if any.  And can run a 50 times longer before rotating knives.   With straight knives I used to see very fine knife marks across the board.  If you look at moulding, you will see knife marks many time.

Take some of your boards to someone with a helical head and see how you like the way they plane.

[GF]

I run a 20" Shelix on mine, and it does leave small fine lines.  I put off going to a Shelix for some time, after I went to it I never regretted it and would not go back to the standard blades. 

Gary

[ljmathias]

Sure would like to hear about helix heads on the Woodmaster 25" planar- anyone out there have this machine?  I've been looking and looking and just about have the cash to buy one- sale on right now that looks real attractive.

Lj

[Norm]

I have a woodmaster 25" planer that sits in the corner. It's ok for occasional use but mine has straight blades not the spiral. I have a grizzly 20" that has a spiral head in it that I like better.

[WDH]

You should sure look at that Grizzly 20" spiral head planer in your deliberations.