upgrade to shelix head on 15" powermatic planer

[measurecutcurse]

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of upgrading my 15" powermatic planer to a Byrd Shelix cutterhead.

I have the cutterhead and gearbox out of the machine, and the next step is to remove the gearbox cover and the gears, and unscrew the final gear so I can remove the old cutter head.

In the instructions from the Bryd web site, as well as 2 youtube videos I found showing the process, when the gearbox cover is removed, all the gears come out with it. However, one of the gears is not budging, and I'm not sure what to do.

below is a link to a picture of the offending gear.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
gearbox picture

[JGrout]

I just spoke with Jason and I think we have the issue resolved. 

Joe

[measurecutcurse]

Thanks Joe!

Indeed, I used a bearing puller to remove the bearing I was pointing to in the picture. I was worried about re-assembling the gear box, but it seemed to go back together well. I re-installed the cutter/gearbox, tightened everything up, didn't have any left over bolts (a first!), and ran about 100 linear feet of cherry through. Ran significantly more quietly, and there as little tear out. Very smooth finish.

I started the job yesterday afternoon, and finished up about 4:30 today. I took it pretty slow, but even for someone who generally lacks machine skills, it was a doable job. The head plus some new wrenches (never had a full set of metric wrenches...) ended up at $950

Thanks again to JoeGrout. He gave me the confidence to attempt this.