comparing helical cutter heads

[Bob D]

Shelix heads are on severe back order. Does anyone have experience or comments regarding Shelix vx. Lux Cut III heads? I am shopping to upgrade the head on my Powermatic 54a jointer.

Bob

[Leon]

Have you tried here?

[Leon]

And have you seen this? This guy is pretty interesting and seems to talk from experience. In about the middle of the video he talks about LUX heads and their rust proof finish.

[Bob D]

Mywoodcutters is just a reseller for Byrd. They do not stock anything. I placed an order with them in late October. I cancelled the order this week. I finally ordered the Lux cut III head, after going over reviews on Youtube. They claim to have large stocks - we will see what happens there.

[Bob D]

There was no link in your reply

[Leon]

Waiting is no fun.... I'm still waiting on my jointer/planer combo...... Although if it arrives too soon It will be in the way. LOL. I am working on a kitchen redo. New cabinet doors and drawers plus I am adding drawers to 5 of the bottom cabinets. About 21 drawers all together.

[Leon]

Sorry!!!

You may be happier with the LUX

[Bob D]

I ordered a Lux Cut III head and received it in about a week. I installed it today. This feels like I went from a crude axe to a surgeon's scalpel. It is much quieter, easier to control and very, very precise. I may expect to use my jointer a lot more now.

The Lux head is sold with new bearings installed. They are not optional. It also comes with tools to change individual cutters and five spare cutters. The quality of the head looks very impressive.

I used a gear puller acquired through the free loaner program at autozone parts to remove the holding blocks from the old cutter head. It worked perfectly.

Now to see if the pocketbook can spring for a new head like this for my Powermatic PM15 planer.

Bob

[dpb]

Thanks for the feedback...

I had looked some time ago for my PM 180 -- iirc it was $12-1300 w/o bearings and any extra inserts. That was enough to discourage me.

I'm not all that dissatisfied with carbide knives in the jointer that I'd put the money towards a larger machine instead of replacing head in this one.

[Jack]

My 15" planer with a spiral segmented cutting head is awesome. It's quieter and smoother (knots and wild grain are meaningless) than my 6"

3 blade planer. Should have replaced the head in my planer long ago. I personally would not consider buying a jointer, or planer w/o a segmented, spiral cutter head. The difference is not small.

[Leon]

HA! I thought you were ordering that for your planer to begin with. LOL

I just got this, still has the gunk on it.

With the helical head.

And yes that is a stationary Delta 15" planer behind it. That is on the has to go list.

[Leon]

And your comments are what steered me to buy the helical head of the new Jointer/Planer combo. A luxury item for more exotic rough cut pieces of wood. When I'm selling my work I use S4S wood, I'm not selling my time to prep wood.

[krw]

What is it? I've looked on the Jet site and don't see a JPJ-12. I assume it's a jointer planer.

My next major purchase is a jointer (I think) and I'm split between an

8" Jet, Laguna, or Powermatic. I doubt it's going to be the Powermatic. I don't see spending the extra $500. The Jet and Laguna are priced similarly.

I may settle for a 6" because of the weight of the 8". 600+ pounds is going to be difficult for me to moose into the basement.

[Jack]

I'm sure you'll be pleased. My comments above regarding the 6", 3 blade planer were strange, I meant to say 6" 3 bladed *jointer*. While my 6" jointer is a good quality machine, the blades suck unless super sharp, and then it is only OK, compared to a segmented cutter, and with face jointing, it is much louder than the 15" planer.

I'm not doing much wood work anymore, certainly not large cabinet jobs, so I don't plan on replacing the heads on the jointer. If I were younger, I would replace the heads or the entire jointer.

A major bonus for me, not often mentioned is the chips from a segmented planer/jointer are really nice and small, making dust collection a breeze, with no clogs even from a weak system.

[Leon]

Jointer/Planer Combo w/Helical Head

Soooo. In the past most of my work was 90% commission. I did not want to buy S2S or rough cut and charge my customer to mill the material. There is not that much of a difference in price getting S4S if you consider time to sort and mill. I had a small jointer many years ago, Craftsman, and got rid if it many years ago. I currently have a Delta 15" stationary planer and is seldom use it to capacity especially with having a 22/44 drum sander. Now I want to use more exoctic/expensive woods that are absolutely less expensive in rough cut form. So back to a large 12" jointer/planer I went. I'll likely be selling the Delta. I don't want to wast any valuable floor space, although with the new machine in place I seem to have gotten some free extra space......

My Jet is 600 lbs in it's excellent plywood crate, 500 out of the crate. And I have it on the Bora Portamate mobile base.

[Leon]

The gunk is still on mine, I am in the middle of a kitchen redo and I have no need for a jointer or planer right now. BUT I did add the plug and turned it on. It is very quiet compared to my 15" Delta 3 blade planer.

I'm sure I will be pleased.

I was hoping to steer away from large jobs and do more detailed exotic work. But here I am in the middle of a kitchen.

I understand that the chips are smaller. I really have not had an issue with my 30' flex hose clogging. I don't have duct work, just the long hose. I hook one machine up at a time and it goes to a JET 1100 CFM DC.

[krw]

I was just confused because your picture has JPJ12 on the side instead of JJP-12HH. Odd.

I have a 13" lunchbox planer that's done OK. I recently bought a

25/50 drum sander so I think I'm good there. I have a lot of lumber (ash and "sugar" maple) that's suspect. Most is finished S2S and that's being charitable. I'd like to use some more exotic stuff too but probably not that large.

I have on old Crapsman that never worked all that well. I'll have to put it where I intend to put the RAS. That be wherever they take scrap.

My lathe was about 450lbs but it came in pieces. The complication was that it was on my truck anf getting the bed and headstock off the truck was a trip. My bandsaw was similar weight but didn't have much trouble with it, though it tooks some engineerin. 600lbs just seems a reach to manage by myself. Haven't decided.

I saw the base. I have my drill press and router table on a similar (though only two swivel wheels) Portamate. The local Woodcraft was blowing them out a couple of years ago for $50 each so I bought what they had (3). I still have one, not sure for what.

[DerbyDad03]

Perhaps for me?

[Leon]

Yeah, the unit comes with 3 cutter head or with helical. I think they are the same other than that. I guess they only wanted one decal for the base. ;~)

I kept mine to tie our Choc Lab to. It kept her from running off when she and I were working in the garage. She loved it out there especially when the planer buried her under the shavings. After her we got a Grate Dane. She was not that in to working in the garage. Too dusty and hot. LOL. Great dog though. She would not run off. Then I got rid of the jointer.

I considered the 2 fixed/2 swivel wheel version but figured that with a heavy machine I would be better off not having to go back and forth to place it, vs push it in any direction.

[Jack]

For me, one of the nicest things about a planer is the ability to resaw/plane thick stuff to the size I want. Standard lumber is not always what I want, and hardwood almost never what I want. For example, for drawer's I never ever used 3/4" lumber other than on my first work bench. Drawer's are always 1/2 or 5/8" for me, and popular is good, but so is regular pine you get in all lumber yards.

It is not easy or cheap to find 1/2" or 5/8" lumber for drawer's. Same with table tops. I don't want

1-1/2" tops on anything. 5/4 is common but is seldom available or cheap around here. It's also how you get exact thickness on all your parts. Commercial sizes always vary from piece to piece. I spent a lot of years using ugly sizes or spending extra money before I got the planer.