Pros and cons of Byrd head on J/P

[jteneyck]

Thanks. For clarity, I have standard straight knives now, not a Tersa head.

My impression was that a shellex head takes less power than straight knives, yet someone mentioned that it takes more force to joint lumber on one. This is one consideration for going to the Byrd head, as it is underpowered when planing. The planer feed rate is nearly 30 ft per minute and I can't take more than 1/32" or it will bog down. So, what's the story, does the Byrd head use more or less power?

Thanks

John

[Philip1231]

On my jointer, necessary force applied to pass work over head is greater with Byrd head: not an issue for me since I dial it down 
so I am usually in the 1/64" range when face jointing.

[Derek Cohen]

John

It is my understanding that the shellix heads do require less power. I have a Hammer A3-31 with the spiral heads. It runs on a 15 amp plug rather than the 20 amp required for the tersa head.

It is not simply the ability to joint/plane a side without even having to read the grain direction (and still get a perfect finish), but the carbide heads last many times the straight blades, and if there is a chip, just turn one head (each has 4 cutting sides). I am about 3 years down the track on mine and have yet to turn one head.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Steve N]

John having both now, I always will. Sound is decreased by a notable amount, finish on harder to work pieces (curlies, birdseye, or even some wood where you just see a lot of splintering) is gone. The con I see a lot of is it leaves a lot of tiny scallops in your stock. I'm thinking they just need to adjust the height of ALL of their cutters, so they are the exact same. Or as close to exact as humanly possible. I don't see a need for any more finish sanding then I ever did. Mostly using a Carbide cutter you get a LOT more wood finished that you will ever do with a HSS knife on a traditional head. Then my personal fav. If you do those miles of work, or heaven forbid hit a nail, screw, whatever bullet.......... To change the 4 sided cutters you spend a few minutes determining exactly which cutter/s need swapped, and mere seconds doing it. I understand Joe's knife changing perfectly, did it for years, but it still is a wasted hour + depending on the head, and that only applies if you have a spare set ready to go. If not you could be a week waiting for sharpening to come back, or second set getting there. If you are like me, sometimes you get a string of days when you can woodwork, between regular work. Before indexed heads it always happened on my first day of woodworking

[frigator]

Its really the way to go John...no more trying to figure out grain direction, sending knives out, worrying about knots causing knicks. I havent owned a straight knive machine since 2002 and dont ever plan to. 

My understanding is there are some professionals who dont worry about  the finish off the jointer cause they are going to run it through their planer anyway. Plus they like to take a big cut, make one pass to joint. And if would be quite hard to push a 14in wide board over a spiral cutterhead taking a 1/8 in cut.  Me I would rather take a 32 off and not have to push so hard. But I do have to use a push block with a hook at the end on wide stock. Its very noticeable to me that it is harder to push.

[Philip1231]

And harder to push means both you and the motor (opposing forces) are working harder.  As mentioned, if you stay in the zone 
that IMHO you should be in most/all of the time in terms of thickness of lumber removed per pass (1/64" +/-) it will not be an issue.

[fredhargis]

I've read both opinions on the pwer question, some think it takes less, some think it takes more (there may be more in that camp). One thing I really wish I had did when I installed mine was check the draw using the same piece of wood before and after. I guess I'm in the camp that say they use more power, but not that much.

[Wild Turkey]

When I picked up my jointer head from the Byrd folks ( I live 20 minutes away -- they are great folks!) I discussed the power needs with the owners themselves.

They said that the power draw is slightly higher because the knives are always slicing, not the "impulse" load from different straight knives hitting at different times.

HOWEVER as straight knives dull the power needed goes up while the carbide inserts stay the same for a longer time.

But the difference is still small and difficult to measure.

I love mine in my jointer and my planer.

I have to wonder if some of the problems with pushing boards across the head is an alignment problem between the beds.

[Steve N]

I have to wonder if some of the problems with pushing boards across the head is an alignment problem between the beds.

WT I thought the same thing. I can't say I notice any appreciable difference between knives or the carbide cutters when pushing stock on my Jointer. I know cutters are well adjusted for height, and the beds are flat, less the slight amount I remove in a pass, and I have very well waxed beds so it's a very slick surface. Pushing isn't an issue.

[Tony Z]

The re-assembly on my Grizzly was infinitely simpler than the dis-assembly. Minor issue with key being a few thousandths wide, but a pass on the surface grinder cured.