Well finally after a two month wait I got my byrd spiral cutterhead today
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It is a generic 6" head and we were not sure if it would fit the shopfox or not. How's this for a box?
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included 10 replacement cutters and the tool to fit them. I bought replacement bearings and that's a good thing I did not want to try to remove the old ones it was worth the extra 15.00 I had to use a block of wood to install the bearings but it only took some extra time. It is easy to remove the old cutterhead you just lower both tables all the way and t here are two nuts on the bottom of the casting to remove and it comes out. Installing it is just a reverse. The key was a very tight fit so I had to install the pulley before I put the cutterhead back on. So I get it all tight raise the table to find the cutterhead just hit it. Well not all of the cutters just a few. It's the same with the infill table too. So I remove it and hit the edges with the angle grinder a couple of tries and the problem is solved. I am not sure if the head was a bit too big around or it's just the tables I know I had to make sure the knives were down in the cutterhead a fair amount or they hit the tables too. But once that was done I got the tables back to normal and everyone else stood back when I turned it on (G) it makes a different sound spinning I think it may just be the new bearing sound. Now the really scary part running the firs piece of wood through. Well it works though I have to adjust the outfeed table a bit. A perfect cut. Well almost. You get a few marks like when you use a flat blade on a smoothing plane you can feel the slight planning marks. I see that but it is no worse then the ripples you get with a regular blade. The wood is nice and shiny and no tearout. I tried bubinga and a couple other tropicals and some curly maple and plain cherry and they came out shiny and tearout free. The feed speed is as slow as when I had a back bevel on the knives. But it cuts far quieter then the regular head.
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