During an extended period when I was trying to avoid having a conversation with my wife about my mother-in-law, I stumbled on to a site, http://www.holbren.com/spiral-cutterhead/, that had Byrd Shelix heads for Rigid, Delta and Dewalt 12 and 13 inch planers. Does anyone have any experience with this combination.
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Dave,
I don't have any experience with Byrd heads for those specific models but there have been lots of discussions on woodnet about swapping cutterheads in the Dewalt 735 and other similar benchtop models.
I have a byrd head on my planer (20" bridgewood) and I love it. Also, as a point of reference, Brian Holbren provides excellent customer service and a discount to NCWWers.
$0.02
J
I don't have any experience with Byrd heads for those specific models but there have been lots of discussions on woodnet about swapping cutterheads in the Dewalt 735 and other similar benchtop models.
I have a byrd head on my planer (20" bridgewood) and I love it. Also, as a point of reference, Brian Holbren provides excellent customer service and a discount to NCWWers.
$0.02
J
Dave,
I have Byrd's s-helix cutterhead on my DW735 and love it. Truth is I have not used it to its fullest though, in other words on really curly grained woods prone to chip-out. I can say that it is quite a bit quieter (after the fix below) than the standard DW blades and that's a big deal to me. Aside from that, the cut quality is excellent and I'm happy with my decision to get it.
One other thing, and this sold me on Byrd products forever! Initially, the cutterhead was noisier and made a strange clicking-type sound, like E.T. was tap dancing in my planer
. Cutting to the chase, I called Byrd, talked with their engineering dept, and sent the cutterhead back to them - at this point I wasn't sure if the problem was with the planer or the cutterhead and I told them that. Bottom line is, a few days after they received the head, MR. Byrd (senior) called me back and told me the problem was theirs: apparently the mounting threads were off by some nano-measurement, so the cutterheadhead was turning off-axis like an out-of-round bowl blank on the lathe. I must admit I was amazed they accepted responsibility :icon_thum instead of throwing it back on DeWalt, as one of DeWalt's parts could just as easily been the problem and I had no clue (I had sent them both connecting pieces). Byrd built me a new cutterhead AND bought the other part from DeWalt and sent both to me. This kind of service is rare in today's marketplace and my kudos go to the integrity of Byrd Tool!!
Short story is I don't think you can go wrong with a Byrd s-helix cutterhead! Hope this is helpful to you.
Russ
I have Byrd's s-helix cutterhead on my DW735 and love it. Truth is I have not used it to its fullest though, in other words on really curly grained woods prone to chip-out. I can say that it is quite a bit quieter (after the fix below) than the standard DW blades and that's a big deal to me. Aside from that, the cut quality is excellent and I'm happy with my decision to get it.
One other thing, and this sold me on Byrd products forever! Initially, the cutterhead was noisier and made a strange clicking-type sound, like E.T. was tap dancing in my planer
. Cutting to the chase, I called Byrd, talked with their engineering dept, and sent the cutterhead back to them - at this point I wasn't sure if the problem was with the planer or the cutterhead and I told them that. Bottom line is, a few days after they received the head, MR. Byrd (senior) called me back and told me the problem was theirs: apparently the mounting threads were off by some nano-measurement, so the cutterheadhead was turning off-axis like an out-of-round bowl blank on the lathe. I must admit I was amazed they accepted responsibility :icon_thum instead of throwing it back on DeWalt, as one of DeWalt's parts could just as easily been the problem and I had no clue (I had sent them both connecting pieces). Byrd built me a new cutterhead AND bought the other part from DeWalt and sent both to me. This kind of service is rare in today's marketplace and my kudos go to the integrity of Byrd Tool!! Short story is I don't think you can go wrong with a Byrd s-helix cutterhead! Hope this is helpful to you.
Russ
Dave,
I have Byrd's s-helix cutterhead on my DW735 and love it. Truth is I have not used it to its fullest though, in other words on really curly grained woods prone to chip-out. I can say that it is quite a bit quieter (after the fix below) than the standard DW blades and that's a big deal to me. Aside from that, the cut quality is excellent and I'm happy with my decision to get it.
One other thing, and this sold me on Byrd products forever! Initially, the cutterhead was noisier and made a strange clicking-type sound, like E.T. was tap dancing in my planer
Short story is I don't think you can go wrong with a Byrd s-helix cutterhead! Hope this is helpful to you.
Russ
Thanks for sharing your experience Russ, although purchasing a replacement cutterhead is not in the cards for me right now it is always refreshing to hear about good service from a vendor. :wsmile:
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