Shelix Install Issue - Not all 15" Planers are the same...
#11
Happy New Year!

I've been wanting to upgrade to a spiral cutterhead for quite some time to help minimize the amount of time I spend fighting tearout and changing knives. A few weeks ago I noticed Grizzly had Shelix cutterheads discounted as part of their Christmas sale so I asked nicely and LOML approved the purchase as my Christmas gift this year. Based on recommendations from the WoodNet community I checked in with Holbren and they confirmed the Shelix head should fit my generic Taiwanese planer (looks very similar to the Grizzly G1021 or Delta DC-380) and they agreed to match Grizzly's price so I was happy to place the order with them.



I received the cutterheard and and eventually headed out to the shop to start the install following the instructions provided by Byrd. Disassembly went smoothly at first and the head and gearbox came out of the planer without much issue. Then things went down hill. I removed the bolts holding the gear box together but it did not separate nicely as the instructions implied. I bought this planer used and the gear selector that is supposed to allow you to change speeds was "stuck" the entire time I owned it. I never saw a need to change speeds anyway so this didn't bother me but the fact that the rod (#131 below) was seized in the cover casting made it difficult to pull apart and resulted in it breaking at the point where it is bolted to the yoke (#129) as the gear case was forced apart. A bit of creative work with a 3-jaw puller removed gear #120 allowing access to the helical gear #112. The helical gear was also stuck on shaft and was a challenge to remove. After removing bolt #113 we ended up pounding the cutter head shaft out of the gear and through the bearing in the rear case.



At this point it seemed like we were out of the woods right up until I checked the fit of the helical gear to the mating feature on the new cutterhead and found the spline on the head wasn't even close to fitting the slot in the gear. Ugh.



I got in touch with contacts from both Holbren and Byrd and they confirmed that it wasn't as simple as receiving the wrong version head (they commented they are all the same) but that this planer seems to be different than everything they've come across in the past so they asked if I could take some measurements for comparison.



The slot in the helical gear measured out at about ~0.325" while the spline on the cutterhead measured ~0.400" exactly as spec'd by Byrd. This confirmed that the head was good but my planer was in fact different than 99% of the similar models out there.



After providing these measurements Garry from Byrd suggested that the easiest path forward would be to mill out the slot in the helical gear to match the cutterhead or if that wasn't something I could get done easily he offered to send me one of the standard gears with the hope that the only difference was the slot width. The offer was much appreciated but since I had to replace the gear shift handle anyway I ended up ordering a replacement gear through grizzly along with the other parts. If that doesn't fit then I'll have to fall back to milling out the slot in the original gear.

While I was reviewing the parts diagram (above) to find the right replacement parts I also noticed that my gearbox was clearly setup differently and after some head scratching it appears it only has gears to support a single speed and that the gear change handle was likely "seized" on purpose by bending the handle shaft to prevent someone from trying to shift into the non-existent 2nd speed. I've heard of planers like this with "single speed" gear boxes but I'd be surprised if this sort of hack was the typical production approach to dealing with the gear selector handle. At this point I'm guessing I will likely end up taking a similar approach once I get it put back together but I'll have to play around with the gearbox once I get the replacement parts to see if any better options are pop out. It was also interesting to note that my planer is missing the entire chain tensioner assembly (#106 etc. in the diagram below) nor the mounting features in the casting to support it.



Once I get parts and get this oddball back up and running I'll report back on how things worked out. Hopefully this info is useful to someone else out there that might have an odd-ball 15" 4 post planer like this one with a single speed gearbox, no chain tensioner, and non-standard cutterhead drive spline. It turns out these clones are not all the same after all... If anyone has suggestions on how to deal with the gear selector on the single speed gearbox please share your thoughts.
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#12
Really a nice post! I have the feeling this info will help some other poor soul in the future. My compliments on your perseverance.
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#13
My Sunhill planer also did not have the chain tensioner. Runs fine without it.

My gearbox was also full of stuck parts, but not as bad as your planer. My planer shaft gear, however, slotted to the Byrd head just fine.

I was able to maneuver my gears around as split the case enough to get the case apart. Some penetrating oil and some effort finally got the bits taken apart.

I think we'd all like to see your gear set un-installed and installed as I cannot fathom a single speed box with with a speed selector.

If truely single speed, I'd probably eliminate the yoke and shaft 129/131 and install a bolt and o-ring in its place.
Rocket Science is more fun when you actually have rockets. 

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." -- Patrick Henry
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#14
That planer looks like my Rockwell Invicta RC33 13" planer. I think your planer is 1 speed and the knob #134 knob just disengages the feed rollers.
I don't think my planer has a chain tensioner either. Don't worry about it.
I long for the days when Coke was a soft drink, and Black and Decker was a quality tool.
Happiness is a snipe free planer
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#15
Pirate said:


That planer looks like my Rockwell Invicta RC33 13" planer. I think your planer is 1 speed and the knob #134 knob just disengages the feed rollers.
I don't think my planer has a chain tensioner either. Don't worry about it.




I've never had any issues so I'm not worried about the lack of a chain tensioner. I just pointed that out to show that there are more differences than just the gearbox and drive spline dimensions. I can't think of a case where you would want to disengage the feed rollers but that is essentially what the selector knob would do in this setup as you pointed out. Unless someone can suggest a case where that capability would be benefitial I think it may be a "feature" that originated from some lazily engineered cost reductions. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. The planer does what it needs to do I just thought it was an odd design.

Maybe the previous owner disliked this feature enough that he chose to bend the selector handle shaft to disable it. Once I get the gearbox back together I'll see if there is any reason I would need to do something similar or if it would be fine to allow it to be disengaged.
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#16
Mr_Mike said:


I think we'd all like to see your gear set un-installed and installed as I cannot fathom a single speed box with with a speed selector.

If truely single speed, I'd probably eliminate the yoke and shaft 129/131 and install a bolt and o-ring in its place.




Mike - glad to hear your swap worked out in the end. I'm sure mine will eventually as well. Regarding the gearbox I'll try to grab some pics once I get the replacement parts and get it back together but essentially parts 119 and 121 both only have a single gear. 121 can still slide along 122 but there is no second set of gears to engage. Without the control yoke there is the chance that the gears could disengage without a way to pull them back in alignment.
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#17

I believe the 121 gear slides on the 122 shaft to engage/disengage the 119 gear/shaft, and is held engaged by detent # 128.
I have had times with a past planer when I needed to disengage the feed.
I wouldn't start discarding parts.
I long for the days when Coke was a soft drink, and Black and Decker was a quality tool.
Happiness is a snipe free planer
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#18
Once in a while something odd pops up like this. The first time I ran into a bizarre issue was when pulley on I think a Grizzly G0586 was either too big or small for the shaft. Customer called factory and they had no idea of a change.

My opinion is parts get made wrong and rather than toss them, they make the mating part to fit. Not sure if that is the case on the planer but seems odd to copy a design and change the spec on something like that.

Good luck and hope it works out. If you cannot get it resolved you know you can always return the head.
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#19
I saw the Grizzly sale last week and decided this morning to pull the trigger on the 15" byrd head for my Delta planer....and the sale ended. Doh! I need to make up my mind earlier!
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#20
ckx707 said:


[blockquote]Mr_Mike said:


I think we'd all like to see your gear set un-installed and installed as I cannot fathom a single speed box with with a speed selector.

If truely single speed, I'd probably eliminate the yoke and shaft 129/131 and install a bolt and o-ring in its place.




Mike - glad to hear your swap worked out in the end. I'm sure mine will eventually as well. Regarding the gearbox I'll try to grab some pics once I get the replacement parts and get it back together but essentially parts 119 and 121 both only have a single gear. 121 can still slide along 122 but there is no second set of gears to engage. Without the control yoke there is the chance that the gears could disengage without a way to pull them back in alignment.


[/blockquote]

Excepting the idea that a neutral could be preferred one could sleeve part 122 to preclude dis-engagement.

However, since you have parts on order, Just build it back up. Heck, you could even add the change gears if you like. I never use high speed though.

I'll be interested to see if the new shaft-end gear meshes properly with the other gears in the case.
Rocket Science is more fun when you actually have rockets. 

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." -- Patrick Henry
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