Stationary Planer Recommendation

[Cian]

packerguy® said:

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[blockquote]Don_M said:

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I have also read the finish with a spiral cutter head is not quite as good as with standard straight blades.

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I disagree with that. Mine comes off like glass in most instances....

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Yup. The helical head is amazing.

[TGW]

I know I am swearing by the devil at the altar of the church of helical cutterheads but a helical cutterhead nor a new planer isn't the best choice for everyone.

A traditional gibbed head of good quality does not normally have disposable knives. Instead you sen the knives away for sharpening once they get dull. A set of knives may last some 10 or 20 years of professional use before they become too narrow and must be replaced. In hobby use they may last 50 years or more.
Traditional gibbed heads produce a very good surface on some kinds of wood. It all depends on what you are working with. I live far north and use mostly local slow grown scots pine and birch. There isn't much figure in it. My two knife head from 1957 produces a very good surface. HSS knives are proven to be much better than carbide for this wood.
A thick head also seems to produce a better surface than a thin head.

You should not throw money at a problem which doesn't exist. Nothing becomes better from wasting money. I think you should decide for yourself whether or not you are going to work highly figured very hard wood and choose cutterhead accordingly.

Then comes the question of which planer to buy.
Less money will buy you a better machine if you look for a high end secondhand machine. Heavily built professional quality planers are often sold off cheap from industries because the planer may need a small overhaul and some economist has figured that it is easier to replace it than having an employee tied up for several days repairing it. A one man business or advanced hobbyist may get a tremendous leverage on ones money by going this route because there is no tax and hardly any overhead costs on work you do for yourself. Professional quality machines are a whole different world than hobby machines. They do a better job faster and may work for centuries with an occasional overhaul. Though this means that you must be a little bit mechanically inclined and have some spare time you can spend saving lots of money.
Once again choose what fits you best.

[WilliamHodge]

Don M, If your blades don't last long, there might be some things you can do to make them last longer, no matter what kind of planer you have.

I see a lot of people put wood on the floor of their shop,and get sand on it. Wood always needs to be stickered.

Rough lumber needs to have the end chopped off before planing. Wood can't be stacked with the end on the floor. Sand gets mashed into the end.

Wood surfaces, like benches, carts, and machines, can not have non-wood items on them that could shed sand on to surfaces.

Don't sand wood to be planed. The grit dulls knives.

Buy wood from a mill or dealer that keeps their wood clean. I know of one dealer who has a yard paved with rock dust. When the wind blows, the rock dust goes all over the wood.

Run rough lumber on one side of the planer, and take the second pass on the other side of the planer. This keeps the nicks on one side, so you can finish up wood on the good side. This is a good reason to own a 20" planer.

I keep a Delta 12" portable planer set up to clean up dirty wood, like wood that is painted at the wholesaler with heavy paint, or wood with grit smashed into it.

Finally, running some wood with a lot of silica grown into the wood, like teak, or salvaged wood, will beat the knives up pretty quickly.

Straight or insert, if your knives don't last long, something is being put into the planer to shorten their lifespan.

[Bob10]

I have a PM 15", PM 16"ph and Delta 13" available if you are looking for used both of the single phase machines are in SF

matching 8" jointers for both

[Ken in KC]

Don,
In early 2014, after reading countless reviews and comments by owner's of several different brands of 15" planers, I bought the G0453P to replace a Delta 22-580. Additionally, I purchased the Byrd head separately and installed it in to the new planer. I did this because i already had a Byrd head in my DJ-20 and was very pleased with it. A side benefit to me was that they used the same size cutters for both heads and I already had a stock of replacements. The install wasn't too complicated and there are video's out there that help a lot if you haven't done anything like this before.

I installed the Byrd head prior to ever plugging the thing in, so i don't know about cut or sound with the standard head. I can tell you that with the Byrd head it is quiet. I love not having to wear hearing protection while running boards.

While you can see the "tracks" from the Byrd head running down the board, they are VERY slight in my experience and are gone very quickly when you start sanding. However like live4ever said, if you try to "sneak up" (1/4 turn of wheel) on an exact cut dimension, you will get serrated in-feed roller marks. In my case this was just learning this machine over the previous. I now know how much one rotation of the crank takes off in a single pass. So now i just plan ahead as i'm getting closer to final dimension and use a 1/2 or full turn of the wheel for the final pass. Not hard at all when you get used to it.

I did have to adjust my in-feed and out-feed tables to deal with a little snipe. After messing around with the tables, i got it to no snipe on the out-feed side of the board and a little on the in-feed side (less or none if i actually lock the head in place) At that point it was good enough for me and i quit messing with it.

In my case, this was something i wanted to do for a long time and i'm completely satisfied with G0453P and the Byrd upgrade. If i had to do it over again, i would do the exact same thing.

Hope this helps,
Ken

[AHill]

I don't have a stationary planer. But I do have experience with a helix cutter head. I upgraded my Delta 22-580 lunchbox planer with a Byrd Shelix head. I think the cut is smoother than my 2 bladed conventional cutter head. It's definitely much, much quieter now.

As for those who still own 22-580's, the rollers work just fine if you keep them clean and wax the tables. One thing that's helped keeping my rollers clean was improving dust collection by sealing the interface between the dust collector adapter and the machine using duct tape. A very marked difference in the efficiency of dust collection. If I ever upgrade from a garage to a real shop space, I will consider upgrading to a stationary planer.