The Changing of the Cutterhead
In the February
2011 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine (PWM), we discuss differences in carbide
cutterheads – some shear as they cut, and some have carbide knives that meet the wood
straight on. There are only a few choices, but there are many differences. I learned
a lot while researching the article.
This past week while in the PWM shop with a bit of free time on my hands – it was
the days between Christmas and New Years – and because we promised a video on changing
out a three-knive cutterhead with a staggertooth head (a Byrd cutterhead from Byrd
Tool Corporation to be exact), I set up the video camera and pulled mechanic-type
tools from the tool chest so I could swap the cutterheads.
The process was much easier than I had anticipated – the change was quick and without
problems.
The results are astounding to say the least. There is a dramatic reduction in noise
and the surfaces left on boards straight from our planer are killer. While the video
is about 12 minutes in length, the change-out time was just more than three hours.
It might just be the most productive three hours I spent during 2010, with dividends
reaped for many years to come.
Sit back and take a look at the video. Chances are you’ll want to find a few hours
during the new year to make your shop time more productive.
Here’s a book and an article that provide additional planer and cutterhead information:
Woodworking Machinery Basics Jointers and Planers (click
here) demonstrates how to adjust knives to compensate for small nicks, discusses
table parallelism adjustments and much more.
Setting
Jointer and Planer Knives by Robert W. Lang is an article to download that gets
your blades installed the right way and gets you back milling woods quickly.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.