Thread: Helical Cutters

Contact Wanita at Wood Working Warehouse in Braeside 0395873999 she is very helpfull. I used a Jet jointer in their shop similar to the one you have shown with a Shelix Spiral Cutter was smooth quite and I was very impressed. But they are not cheap.

Interesting question, Hitch.

If you add the cost of the helix cutter (say $1,000) to the base price of the thicknesser, $1,500 you get a total machine cost of $2,500. The question then becomes ...."will this perform better than a $2,500 machine?

Remember the old maxim: quality is what you have left when you have forgotten the price.

Cheers

Graeme

Have A byrd Shelix fitted to a Jet 15" machine which is identical to the carbatec one, BEST INVESTMENT you could make on a machine this size!!!
CHEERS HARDWOOD.
The Hardwood Refinery Custom Furniture & Hardwood Timber Dining Tables Newcastle N.S.W

Hi Hitch,
I read in a mail out from carbatec that they are going to be or they are offering the 15" thicknesser and the 8" buzzer with optional helical heads so it might be worth giving them a ring. I run the 25" powermatic thickesser which has a helical head similar to the Byrd Shelix. I thought it was a Byrd but unlike the smaller powermatic cutterheads which are Byrds powermatic manufacture the big cutter head themselves or somewhere else other than Byrd. I have been running it for about 15 months now and have just replaced the cutter inserts for the first time. (4 sides I generally get between 3 and 4 months between having to rotate the inserts.) I am pretty happy with the system although I would probably have a look at some other systems (tersa etc) before buying it again. I can't fault it and it is great for wayward grain but it just isn't quite the quite the magic bullet that some salespeople would have you believe. Changing the inserts while requiring much less finesse than straight blades still is time consuming.
Recently when it came time to replace the inserts although the postage and handling price was severe to say the least US$150 for a package under a 1Kg buying the inserts off the Byrd website saved me a lot.I was quoted $8.50 each in Australia. It worked out I saved $5.02 per cutter insert this multiplied by 174 inserts even with the postage translated into a saving of $704.00.
Ben

Thanks Glenn, I will contact WWW closer to purchase.

Graeme, very good point you make. Guess my real preference is for JET machinery (colour would match my table and band saws) however the cost with helical cutters is probably more than my skill level and usage can justify. The Carbatec 15" thicknesser with helical cutter will cost $600 more than the equivalent JET with standard cutters and the Carbatec jointer with helical head is priced the same as the JET 8" with standard cutters. I think for my likely relatively low usage the Carbatec machines plus helical cutters will be a very good option.

Thanks Hardwood, your comments confirm what I have heard from other sources. I saw the JET thicknesser with Sheilx cutter demonstrated at the Sydney WWW show in 2008 - it was amazing.

1canetoad - thanks for the tip. I 'phoned Launceston Carbatec and confirmed that the machines I am interested in are available with "spiral" cutters. For mine much better than the retrofit option. Appears they have been so popular there is a waiting list to purchase - or could that just be sales talk!

Thanks again guys for taking the time to respond, it has been very helpful. For now I think I will go with the Carbatec offering however I have 4 or 5 months to come to a final decision. We recently 'migrated' from Australia to wonderful Tasmania and currently live in the shed that is to become my workshop. Our house build is scheduled to start in the second half of January 2010 with completion around May/June. I'm not sure which is the most exciting - the new house or the prospect of at last having the opportunity to set up a dedicated workshop from scratch.

Regards

Ian

Some (or possibly all?) Jets are available with a helical head as standard. I regret not getting it on my JPT310, but then again, I probably would rather have a Shelix rather than a standard helical head. We're getting a new SCM 16" jointer at work that we're fitting a Shelix to... must say I am rather anxious to see how that baby works!

The version of the JET JPT-310 fitted with a helical cutterhead as standard (JPT-310H?) is A$1000 more than the standard machine. Not bad considering the width of the cutterhead.

Mind you, I believe this uses JET's own version of the helical cutterhead to get the price down, so quality may not be quite up to the Shellix item.

Needless to say,I bought a 3-phase JPT-310 just before the helical cutterhead version was announced

Not sure if JET are planning on offering a helical cutterhead upgrade option for existing owners. According to some forums in the UK/USA the feed gearing is slightly different on the helical cutterhead JPT-310, in which case non-helical machines won't be easily upgradeable.