Spiral cutter thicknesser

[colin_parton]

Has anyone had any experience with one of the new Carbatec spiral cutter thicknessers? Are they really much quieter and do they produce a far smoother finish?

[tcowdroy]

A colleague had one made up for his old Barker thicknesser. It cost him $1200.00 or so. It works beautifully - smooth cutting, quiet(er) and great on figured timber too. However, he recently ran out of sharp edges to turn to (after three years of use) and was quoted $900.00 to replace all the blades! Guess it depends if you consider the positives are worth the cost.

[wolften]

...wait for the Melbourne woodworking show, I'm sure Carbatec or Jet will have one as a demo there as they did in Brisbane.
Wonderfully clean cutting and quieter than a jointer.
I'm saving my pennies for one.

[elanjacobs]

Haven't used the Carbatec, but trade school has a couple of spiral thicknessers and they're incredible. MUCH quieter and the finish is almost good enough to polish as is.

[Lignum]

I haven’t seen any timber go through a Carbatec machine so I have no idea of the quality, but just be aware that it’s not a true spiral cutter.

[elanjacobs]

just be aware that it’s not a true spiral cutter.

What's a 'true' spiral cutter?

[Mr Brush]

You can scratch JET from the potential suppliers......hopefully Carbatec will have one of their spiral head machines at the show for us to play with. If it is as quiet as they say, there should be no problem running demos in a show environment?

JET Australia still aren't officially importing the JPT-310 with helical head option (even though it is available in other countries), and from my correspondence with them they have little interest in doing so.

In fact, judging by JETs rapidly declining relationships with their official distributors, I wouldn't be surprised if there is even less JET product on display at the WWW shows than last year....and even that wasn't much !

[rsser]

Yes, a demonstrator at the recent open day of Woodworking warehouse was showing a retrofittable spiral cutter head and made the point that C'tec's wasn't a spiral. I took that to mean the square TCT cutters could be arranged in a spiral around the cylinder or in straight lines across.

I must say the finish his left was pretty darn good.

Talking about a grand or so to fit one to an ML392. Ouch.

[Lignum]

What's a 'true' spiral cutter?

The Carbatec is just a standard cutter head block with staggered tungsten cutters all at 90deg, then a "spiral" has machined into it to make it appear to be a helical head

The only helical aspect being the slight curved edges on the tungsten cutters. In use they are no different to a standard blade cutting inline with the timber/grain. They would be heaps quieter because of the staggered tips, less blade resistance, and chip ejection would be improved because of the hollow in the helical machining.

Compared to the Byrd, that head is completely helical with the cutters all at 83deg making it a proper helical with a sheer cut.

[Edit - Just measured my Byrd (Jet 8" Jointer) and it has 5 rows of 8 blade tips, 25mm center to center with a 10mm spacing]

[colin_parton]

Thanks for that! Now, how about comparing benchtop thicknessers and stand-alone models? By benchtop I'm particularly thinking about a DeWalt.

[havic]

hi guys
been browsing the net and came up with CTS manufacturing they do the shear spiral cutter heads as well the spiral cutterheads anyone dealt with this mob before i go and purchase one it doesnt include bearings or pulley oh 425 us$ plus $ 210 for freight to melb its for a ct 508 leda craft any feed back is appreciated . HAVIC

[havic]

well guys
finally my bro and i installed the shear cut spiral head cutter wow and
what a difference it makes less noise we can talk over the machine with ease the footprint it leaves after running a piece thru is excellent a quick sand with 120 grit an were on our way my brother did a great job installing the c/head and measuring it up for about $650 what can i say no regrets at all except should have done it sooner i think the best thing i can say is that if you are thinking about it do not hesitate at all feel free to contact if you need some help
REGS HAVIC

[Lignum]

Sounds great Havic Great arnt they.

I couldnt imagine woodworking life with out one now. Do you have any pics of the cutter head.

[Pops]

Hi Havic,

Have also been thinking about spiral heads. Any chance of some photos of the head and or the installation?

Cheers
Pops

[TP1]

Just as a matter of interest, what does it cost to replace the blades on a Spiral cutter block?