Thread: Replacement spiral cutter blades?

Hey all,

I wanted to write back in case there is any doubt.... I just put in sje-tools' carbide inserts and HOLY FRACKING COW!!!!!!!!

If there is ANY doubt, even a shred, simply buy them. Now.

I'm making a huge pile of chop boards of Gum that has turned to iron, or maybe steel. It is hard hard hard and the HSS inserts were really struggling. I thought I'd take the 30 minutes to swap them all out for the carbides to see if it was going to be better (its a tedious job) and just sucked the last few raw boards through the machine.

It is simply put - absolutely incredible... stunning in noise reduction, smooth pull and exit and an absolutely INCREDIBLE finish right off the knives. ZERO, absolutely ZERO tearout.

Don't waste a single second more - just buy them and put them in.

MAGIC!!!

Just so you know I'm not being stupid here..... I sanded a few of them using the Festool ROS125 on 120 grit.... It made the finish worse!

I needed to jump to 180 with the Mystery Random Action to improve it.

These new blades saved me a huge hunk of time... They sheered the timber clean and smooth, just like my very best smoothing Kanna.... Where is makes the timber shine as its planed - just like that. No need to do 80, 120 grits.

Keep in mind this is wavy, nasty gum that is dry 3 years and has turned to stone. It is utterly impossible to plane, so I'm seriously impressed.

Originally Posted by sje-tools

All I've had word back from the factory - K01 inserts will be back in stock 2nd week in March.

Cheers
Steve

G'Day Steve, Question please...
Do the "K01 Inserts" also fit into the Byrd Spiral Head Cutter??
Thank you... Cheers, crowie

Originally Posted by crowie

G'Day Steve, Question please...
Do the "K01 Inserts" also fit into the Byrd Spiral Head Cutter??
Thank you... Cheers, crowie

The K01 inserts here are only for the Spiral cutter head - not the Helix cutter head - however I've already had another request for blades to fit a Jet Helix head and the common size insert for all Byrd (and Jet etc) are 15mm x 15mm x 2.5mm. So the factory has already been told I will be ordering some (well as soon as they bloody ship the inserts I have on order - tomorrow I believe they should ship! As I've mentioned to all those who have mailed me - as soon as I have the Fedex track number I'll let you know!).

As for price - well much the same as the spiral cutter inserts - approx AU$3.8 per insert - given the varied number of inserts in a helix head I'll probably end up selling these on a per insert basis so you can choose how many you want. I've looked around on the Web and this price is much the same as buying the generic carbide in the US.

The only question I have for Helix cutter head users is - what are the preferred inserts? The straight or the curved edges? Not owning a helix head machine I cannot test . . .

Cheers

Steve

ps Evan - that's exactly the results I get - start sanding at 180 grit and up, cheers!

Good news . . . the new stock of K01 inserts are in transit and will judging by the tracking be with me come Tues or Wed at the latest.

Also in the next shipment which I hope will be dispatched late next week - with my router bits - the will be some straight 4 cutting edge K01 grade (actually even finer!) inserts for Byrd/Shelix heads, I did a bit of reading around and essentially discovered the radiused inserts don't provide anything over the straight edges. In fact in the reviews I've read of the radiused cutters actually visibly scalloping the wood . . . anyway when they arrive I'll let you know.

At some point I really need make time to do one of those GIFs for the sponsor panel!

Cheers

Steve

Originally Posted by sje-tools

Good news . . . the new stock of K01 inserts are in transit and will judging by the tracking be with me come Tues or Wed at the latest.

Also in the next shipment which I hope will be dispatched late next week - with my router bits - the will be some straight 4 cutting edge K01 grade (actually even finer!) inserts for Byrd/Shelix heads, I did a bit of reading around and essentially discovered the radiused inserts don't provide anything over the straight edges. In fact in the reviews I've read of the radiused cutters actually visibly scalloping the wood . . . anyway when they arrive I'll let you know.

At some point I really need make time to do one of those GIFs for the sponsor panel!

Cheers

Steve

Thank you Steve.... Yes the straight edge seems to be correct....
The Byrd/Shelix Cutter Head has 4 rows of 10, so 40 for a full set, but packs of 10 would be okay as with the 4 sides on each bit you'd have to be very unlucky to have to replace all 40 at once....
Cheers, crowie

Any of these carbide inserts fit the Hammer? I have the A3-31.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by sje-tools

Good news . . . the new stock of K01 inserts are in transit and will judging by the tracking be with me come Tues or Wed at the latest.

Also in the next shipment which I hope will be dispatched late next week - with my router bits - the will be some straight 4 cutting edge K01 grade (actually even finer!) inserts for Byrd/Shelix heads, I did a bit of reading around and essentially discovered the radiused inserts don't provide anything over the straight edges. In fact in the reviews I've read of the radiused cutters actually visibly scalloping the wood . . . anyway when they arrive I'll let you know.

At some point I really need make time to do one of those GIFs for the sponsor panel!

Cheers

Steve

The Byrd inserts have a 4" radius on them. As for the scalloping issue, you have to be feeding the timber VERY fast for it to be noticeable; even at 60ft/min (18m/min) through the thicknesser it's no worse than straight knives.

I think there needs to be some clarification on what is and what isnt a spiral head.
Some of the machines sold by Carba-tec and other suppliers are not spiral head machines, sure they have a big spiral machined on the cutterhead but this does not make it a true spiral head.

If the cutter inserts are at 90 degrees to the cutter block axis then this is not a spiral head it is just segmented.

A true spiral head has cutters which are offset from the cutterhead axis and as far as I know have and need to have a radius on the cutting face as the edge moves across the timber in an arc.
My machine uses inserts that have a 150mm radius.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

The Byrd inserts have a 4" radius on them. As for the scalloping issue, you have to be feeding the timber VERY fast for it to be noticeable; even at 60ft/min (18m/min) through the thicknesser it's no worse than straight knives.

Originally Posted by mark david

I think there needs to be some clarification on what is and what isnt a spiral head.
Some of the machines sold by Carba-tec and other suppliers are not spiral head machines, sure they have a big spiral machined on the cutterhead but this does not make it a true spiral head.

If the cutter inserts are at 90 degrees to the cutter block axis then this is not a spiral head it is just segmented.

A true spiral head has cutters which are offset from the cutterhead axis and as far as I know have and need to have a radius on the cutting face as the edge moves across the timber in an arc.
My machine uses inserts that have a 150mm radius.

Excellent point, I hadn't thought about that but it does make sense

Steve, I'm happy to do a test of the straight-edge inserts if you want. We have a small Byrd head for the spindle moulder that only has 10 inserts.

I do wish manufacturers and suppliers of machines would not tell us lies about the the heads but they do.
A true spiral head will need cutters that have a radius to match the cutting arc.
A segmented head will have cutter inserts with a straight edge
The inserts need to be properly matched to the head to cut correctly.

Curved inserts in a segmented head would give a scalloped cut and straight cutters in a spiral head would cut grooves as the corner swings around on the arc.

The Byrd shellix is proper spiral head and doesn't need a silly big spiral machined around the head
The same goes for my 10x8 combination machine it is a true spiral head without any unnecessary groove cut in the head to mislead us into believing it is something which it is not.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Excellent point, I hadn't thought about that but it does make sense

Steve, I'm happy to do a test of the straight-edge inserts if you want. We have a small Byrd head for the spindle moulder that only has 10 inserts.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Any of these carbide inserts fit the Hammer? I have the A3-31.

Yes, +1, but I think the news is not good Derek.


I think the head of the Hammer A3 31 is Spiral. You can see that the cutters are on on angle of perhaps 3-5°:




The dimensions are:
2.45mm thick
13.45mm wide (tapering back to ~11mm on the smaller face), so that means an angle of 63.5° on the cutting face.
There is a radius on the 13.45mm cutting edge

Each corner also has been chamfered off (curved, I think, but I didn't use a loupe):




The things you learn about your own equipment just by reading a thread - I had never observed that chamfer, or the curved cutting edge before.

Hey guys,

Thanks for the feedback - in the meantime I did further research and discovered the Bryd/Shelix cutter uses a R100mm on the cutting edge . . . I was misled by some other info. So I already mail the factory and they've responded there is no issue on the radius, so for Byrd Shelix heads I will have some stock!

As for the Hammer A3-31 inserts - I don't see why not - from a read around SilentPower Sprial inserts are 13.8 x 13.8 x 2.5 - however I cannot find the radius - I'll have a bit more of a look around in the morning.

Cheers
Steve

Originally Posted by sje-tools

As for the Hammer A3-31 inserts - I don't see why not - from a read around SilentPower Sprial inserts are 13.8 x 13.8 x 2.5 - however I cannot find the radius - I'll have a bit more of a look around in the morning.

Including that all important corner chamfer Steve? That's what stops them from leaving tracks - same as very slightly rounding off the corners of a plane blade.

If I had a way of measuring the height of the arc (of the cutting edge curve) then I could determine the radius, but is no possible with my measuring equipment. You only need the height of the arc and the width to determine the radius.

By eyeball I'd say the height is around 0.25mm, and in that case the radius would be about 90mm. At 0.2mm height it would be 113mm radius.