Thread: 12" spiral vs 16" straight knife jointer

What is the cost to fit a third party spiral head to the SCM?

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I just called the guy - he said it will be several $1000!

I would take the SCM, spiral cutter head are not all they are cracked up to be

several thousand is cheap if done right on the SCM.

Spiral cutterblock on SCM is very very new, you will be extremely lucky to find one in the second hand market.

I think for a jointer you should be alright with a Leda.

If you are looking at JP combo then I say SCM and retrofit the cutterblock.

Straight knives - I will only use it if noise is not an issue and I have 2 set of spare knives floating around to be used.

Saying that - my previous JP combo was 4 knives system but it was Tersa. I dont think its that bad on a 4 knives but I have never used a 3 knife jointer, only a 3 knives planer. I say 4 is definitely better than 3 and less wear.

What model is the SCM? A Shelix head for our F410 was about $1500 off the shelf + bearings + an afternoon to do the swap. Mind you, that was over 5 years ago when the AUD was stronger. If you have to get a custom head made it gets super expensive.

At any rate, absolutely buy the SCM; you can always upgrade the head down the track, you can't upgrade the build quality on the Leda.

If you're really worried about HSS knives going blunt too fast, you can get carbide tipped straight knives from Carbitool

Has the MM got a Tersa head? The finish from either is line ball and those who use them professionally seem to be split on opinion. I would want to know what they reconditioned on the MM and what sort of warranty it comes with. As noted above the head can always be upgraded at a cost of a few thousand later on. You won't get a 16" jointer at that price very often I would reckon.

Here you go: https://www.machines4u.com.au/view/a...r-F410/442532/

I bet you could truck it over from WA, fit a Shelix head and still come out ahead, or at least not much over

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Here you go: https://www.machines4u.com.au/view/a...r-F410/442532/

I bet you could truck it over from WA, fit a Shelix head and still come out ahead, or at least not much over

This is a great buy!!!

I have a 12" Leda spiral head. Brought in new a couple of years go whence I decide to run a full 12" wide piece of timber across it which resulted in the belts slipping/burning and retensioning the belts didn't help so I relpaced them with some decient belts (the local supplier said to let him know the cost and he would reimburse me, but I didn't bother about it), I haven't had any problems. My reason for buying the 12" unit (upgrading from an 8'' unit) was to dress about 30 dirty used Railway sleepers which were 9" wide. the Leda performed great resulting it the sleeper being straight and true.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

What model is the SCM? A Shelix head for our F410 was about $1500 off the shelf + bearings + an afternoon to do the swap. Mind you, that was over 5 years ago when the AUD was stronger. If you have to get a custom head made it gets super expensive.

At any rate, absolutely buy the SCM; you can always upgrade the head down the track, you can't upgrade the build quality on the Leda.

If you're really worried about HSS knives going blunt too fast, you can get carbide tipped straight knives from Carbitool

Was it a complicated procedure to set the knives on the F410? I just imagine over 16" it could be difficult over such a long span.

Still dont know which way I'm going to go. Waiting on the company to get back to me with what SCM model it is so I can do some research.

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Was it a complicated procedure to set the knives on the F410? I just imagine over 16" it could be difficult over such a long span.

Nope, the blades have 2 springs underneath for use with a setting jig, but it had gone missing when we bought the machine so we just bought a set of magnetic blade setting guides.

Just an update, its a L'invincible F4

Originally Posted by qwertyu

Just an update, its a L'invincible F4

Ah, quite an old machine. It will never break, but any spiral head would have to be custom made

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Ah, quite an old machine. It will never break, but any spiral head would have to be custom made

What decade do you think its from? TBH the thing looks huge - I dont know if I'll have the room for it

Do you have any experience with it - difficult to set up etc? I also note that there isnt really any dust extraction will have to make my own port if I get it