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Thread: Spiral Head conversion
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11th August 2017, 02:25 AM #31Novice
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I'm watching with interest. I have the same Woodfast Planer Thicknesser, and am also considering the Spiral Cutter head upgrade. Please keep us informed of the final solution.
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16th August 2017, 11:19 PM #32SENIOR MEMBER
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Just a quick update on where i am up to as it has been a few days since i have been able to spend any time on the unit with other stuff going on.I finally took the outfeed table off and after being told that it could not be adjusted low and behold there are four grub screws to raise the height.Fortunately for me 3 of them were protruding so i could lower the table.These screws were unable to be seen as there was a pile of gunk in the holes so they were hidden and also being told it wasn't adjustable not some thing you would be looking for.Got pretty excited by this as i had a fiddle with the table the previous night and had the table 20 thou above the cutterhead so i was confident that i could get the table lower without having to machine anything.Had to leave it at that as other things were needed to be done.Today i went back up to the shed and managed to get the the out feed table just below the cutterhead then after a lot of fiddling got he infeed table level with the outfeed table.Then put the other bits and pieces back on and was mildly excited.Ran some redgum through that is pretty cranky both on the planer and the thicknesser and the finish was very nice.I am currently building a dresser with this and having small tearout issues.Looks like it could be solved hopefully.So i guess the lessons learned are when you are told it's going to be fairly easy to fit be wary.When you are told that it won't work as we have tried without major modifications be wary.If you are unsure of what to do get someone to help who has some sort of mechanical knowledge.I owe Chris and his son Drew a great deal for coming down and helping out without them it wouldn't of been possible.Even though Drews resolve was tested the other night.Not counting my chickens yet as time will tell but i only had one washer left that i couldn't account for.
It's very late so hopefully tomorrow i can put some more timber through and see how it performs .
cheers.....Roy
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3rd September 2017, 12:09 AM #33Senior Member
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I have an older Carbatec "professional" long bed 6" jointer. Recently I have replaced the cutter head with a CTS spiral. The difference is substantial in both cut quality and noise reduction.
Make sure that you measure the cutter head, mine was a larger diameter than what was a changeover size.
i guess that the machines have various suppliers of different parts and at this stage of manufacture they used a larger "Grizzly" Oem cutter head.
It is a no brainer for me to change over to a CTS cutter head in the thicknesser. As for the bearings, replacement is advised also.
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19th September 2017, 11:32 PM #34
Put a spiral cutter head on my 6" Carbatec Jointer.... amazing result... well worth the $400+
Next is to justify the $1200 to do the 15" thicknessner, maybe once I kill the current blades
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20th September 2017, 12:52 AM #35Novice
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Great news Roy.
I also now have a spiral cutter head in my Woodfast PT-310.
I took it to Timbecon in Perth and their spiral cutter was almost an exact fit. With a slight modification of the drive pully, some new bearings and a new out-feed roller ( Knew it was stuffed when I bought the machine), I have an amazing planer thicknesser that runs like it's almost new!!
Plus, I outsourced the headaches of fitting the cutter head to Timbercon for less than $200
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20th September 2017, 12:54 AM #36GOLD MEMBER
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I suggest anyone doing a head change gets sealed bearings and not the bearings with the tin shields as they do nothing except keep the big bits out.
CHRIS
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20th September 2017, 08:30 AM #37
At the Sydney Show I picked up a brochure on the Spiral Head and wanted to have a chat about fitting one to my 50s era Jeffwood 12" Thicky. The bloke at the stand was run off his feet with others wanting his attention so I decided to send him an Email when I got home. It took about 3 weeks for him to reply and he had to send the information about the cutter head to their Engineers for a quote. Apparently they had not at that stage done the conversion for a Jeffwood. Well the quote came in.....$1650......Mmmmm. The machine cost me $650. I went for an older machine, wanting the rigidity of "old iron". Well it certainly has that. The question now of coarse is ......or......maybe......decisions, decisions.
As Chris mentioned earlier its a decision that has to be looked at from a couple of angles. One thing about these machines is that they are simple. Not much to go wrong that can't be fixed by someone with basic mechanical skillsJust do it!
Kind regards Rod
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20th September 2017, 09:37 AM #38SENIOR MEMBER
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Yes, agonising decision that one. With the average off the shelf being around $700 that's a hard swallow.
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20th September 2017, 09:41 AM #39SENIOR MEMBER
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20th September 2017, 09:44 AM #40SENIOR MEMBER
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20th September 2017, 10:15 AM #41
A couple of years ago I bought spiral cutterheads for my carbatec 15" thicknesser and 8" jointer.
I too decided to kill the old blades as I had a large quantity of recycled painted hardwood to strip. I cleaned most of that up with the thicknesser then swapped the head. the old one was not just killed, it was mutilated.
I dressed up all that reclaimed hardwood on the jointer with the straight cutterhead still on it and the thicknesser, now fitted with the helix head. Naturally I turned the timber over when both sides were flat and parallel and went over the jointer finish with the thicknesser helix head for a much nicer finish. It is beacuse you can do that that I believe it is more important to convert the thicknesser than the jointer.
I still have some more hardwood to reclaim using the old blade in the jointer then I will replace the head in it as well.
The cost of the helix cutterheads is something I will never regret. The thicknesser head has paid for itself and the jointer head a few times already.
A couple of years ago, my neighbour advised me that my thicknesser was annoying them in their house and I had to modify work times and locations (old cutterhead) Last week after using my thicknesser with the new cutterhead right near the side fence adjacent to his back door and kitchen/loungeroom windows, I asked him if my thicknesser had bothered him recently. He did not even think I had been using it, such is the reduction in noise.
Cheers
DougI got sick of sitting around doing nothing - so I took up meditation.
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20th September 2017, 10:57 AM #42GOLD MEMBER
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I bought mine from the US https://www.holbren.com/byrd-shelix-planer-heads/ This supplier was very good and they are the genuine article
I notice now that Byrd heads can be had on Ebay.....Byrd Shelix: Power Tools | eBay
I might be wrong but I think Byrd were the original developors or at least involved very early in the peace HomeCHRIS
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21st September 2017, 12:22 AM #43Novice
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The guy at timbecon who did it re-set the tables after the job, so no problems there.
He found that there was a little bit of play in the screws holding the cutter head to the body, so was able to move the cutter head into the right alignment with the tables.
All up I think cost wise, I got change out of $1k.
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21st September 2017, 09:53 AM #44Senior Member
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A member requested a picture of the spiral head.
https://imgur.com/a/6ee5a
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