Thread: Helical Cutterhead for DeWalt 735 Under $500

Originally Posted by Old Hilly

Possibly, although this head has only 2 "spirals" or rows of cutters and from memory the Shelix has 3 rows. The reduced number of cutters doesn't seem to make a difference to the quality of the finish compared to the original straight knives. Running the timber through on speed 2 gives a nice finish with only minimal sanding. I don't think I need to go out and buy a drum sander.....yet.
The idea behind both the small Shelix and this head was, I think, that you don't need to undo 30-odd torx screws, remove the carbide cutters, insert the bare head and then put everything back together again. The problem is that the thickness scale is "off".

Hi Hilly


Can I ask if you have the Sherwood cutter head for a while? I have been thicknessing some 240x35 reclaimed iron bark fascia board. With fresh blades the 735 handles it well, but the blades donÂ’t last long in that timber! Also I feel it puts the machine under a lot of pressure. I thi k helix might help with that.


I did see it has 2 spirals rather than three or four. I wonder how the Sherwood would handle that work, and how the blades would hold up over time?


Any one else out there thatÂ’s had it for a couple of years or more?


I did see on alibaba there a company doing a 4 spiral/58 tooth cutter for $460 plus $150 shipping which looks like a good unit based on the pics . Obviously there is risks around quality and warranty with that though.
Alibaba Manufacturer Directory



Cheers
Shane

Skelly, the brief answer is no, I haven't done much work with it. I am going to use it to plane down some freshly-cut Tallowwood decking boards when they dry out a bit. You will need to re-calibrate the depth scale and the rotary "quick-set" knob but that won't take long. The scale is out by about 1.5mm which is about half the difference between the diameters of the old and new cutter heads. The thing that you will notice is the difference in the shavings. The old straight knives gave quite long shavings whereas the new multi-blade head gives much smaller chips perhaps 10x2mm and very thin. The finish on these green boards is quite good. I doubt they will need sanding, possibly just a light go-over to clean up where the screws go through.
As for buying from overseas on a one-off basis.....Not for this little black duck, you never know what might arrive and getting your money back could be a problem. Yes, PayPal offers protection but do you want to wait 3 months for your money and then have to post the item back to somewhere in China? At least the Sherwood people speak English and are really helpful.

I've never read a report from any user who isn't happy with any kind of spiral cutterhead, even if it was an Accucut, as fitted to the Carbatec and H & F lunchbox thicknessers. As to the carbide cutters standing up to the rigours of cutting wood, any wood, imo that's something you don't need to be concerned about. Even in timbers very high in silica the cutters will last many times longer than hss.

If my DeWalt wasn't already fitted with a helical head I'd have no qualms about fitting this head.

The users who don’t think spiral heads are great don’t tend to post those ideas. I know three pro woodworkers who don’t like them. One of them is going to lose a lot of money to replace his spiral headed Felder AD951 with the tersa version.

I have straight knives on both of my machines and only sort of wanted a helical for noise reduction. ( I don’t work with a lot of highly figured wood.)

Which is their choice. But if you want to machine cranky-grained Australian hardwood and do not have the facility to sharpen those straight knives on a regular basis then spiral cutter heads are a cost-effective solution. In a similar situation there are those that truly believe that recorded music sounds best when it comes off a vinyl platter and is amplified by a thermionic valve amplifier. CDs and solid state electronics are considered unworthy items for an audiophile to own. We all have our opinions.

In the absence of any reasons why they don't like them I'll have to take that second hand info. with a grain of salt.

Thanks for you thoughts fellas on all perspectives.
I am keen to get one for the noise, less load on the machine and also to save buying new blades constantly. I guess it just a question of whether the Sherwood will do a good job or I need to shell out nearly double for the shelix type one.


I got through my iron back today. One thing I love about fresh blades is the glassy finish that come out on them!!

B1CE1099-098A-4385-B2A7-893270A42B81.jpg
Cheers, Shane

Originally Posted by Greg Q

The users who don’t think spiral heads are great don’t tend to post those ideas. I know three pro woodworkers who don’t like them. One of them is going to lose a lot of money to replace his spiral headed Felder AD951 with the tersa version.

I have straight knives on both of my machines and only sort of wanted a helical for noise reduction. ( I don’t work with a lot of highly figured wood.)

From my understanding the Tersa heads on professional machines are a cut above (sorry..) the the usual straight knives on hobby level machines.

Today, I finally got around to installing the spiral head I bought months ago.

Took a couple of hours. Would have been easier if I had a large / deep socket set.

Mostly self inflicted difficulty. (pro tip - it's easier to get the old head out if you don't get distracted and leave one blade installed...)

Quick test cut - major difference in noise levels.

Well, there is a claim that these spiral heads vastly reduce or eliminate tear-out in hardwoods. Sorry to say, but, from recent experience with some knotty ironbark that looked like it had a nice grain pattern, well, I still got tear-out. Nothing half an hour with a big Makita 6" Random Orbit Sander didn't fix but the shine wore off the penny pretty darn quickly. Got 85 Tallowwood decking boards, 102mm x 25mm x 1375mm to play with later in the week, we shall see how we go then.

I have an old school SCM S50 4 blade (sectional feed) and a Sherwood 500mm spiral head and the Sherwood gives a better finish when milling Ironbark.

The chips are also smaller, so better for the dust extraction bags, but the spiral does put more load on the motor because there is always a blade in contact with the wood