Well, I took the plunge 
and am loving every minute of it. 
I ordered the piece from Holbern and Brian came like a trooper, as usual. Except for some delay at Byrd factory, delivery was timely and as promised. The unit comes with five extra cutting inserts and I ordered an additional 10-pack.
Installation was straightforward, except for two minor issues that had nothing to do with the Shelix unit, plus one design difference in the Byrd head. It runs a lot smoother and with about 1/2 the noise. The planed surface is so far beyond anything produced with the DeWalt blades that one would be tempted to dispense with any additional surface preparation like sanding. (Not really, but gives you an idea of the quality of the surface.)
The two minor problems included stuck screws (about six of the 24) on the DeWalt head, requiring drilling out the screw head and a tight helix gear at the end of the DeWalt head that yielded nicely to liquid wrench treatment.
The design difference is that left side of the Byrd head is not squared off as it is on the DeWalt head. Because of this, the head lock (see page 9, Figure 4 of the manual) will not work and can be left off. The only problem this might create is the requirement of extra caution to hold the head steady if (when?) you might have to replace one of the carbide cutters.
If you got the bucks, do any significant amount of level planing, or just are tired of changing out the steel cutters, the Byrd carbide cutting system, especially with Brian's free shipping and 10% discount to BT3Central members, is an excellent investment.
Regards, Steve
and am loving every minute of it. I ordered the piece from Holbern and Brian came like a trooper, as usual. Except for some delay at Byrd factory, delivery was timely and as promised. The unit comes with five extra cutting inserts and I ordered an additional 10-pack.Installation was straightforward, except for two minor issues that had nothing to do with the Shelix unit, plus one design difference in the Byrd head. It runs a lot smoother and with about 1/2 the noise. The planed surface is so far beyond anything produced with the DeWalt blades that one would be tempted to dispense with any additional surface preparation like sanding. (Not really, but gives you an idea of the quality of the surface.)
The two minor problems included stuck screws (about six of the 24) on the DeWalt head, requiring drilling out the screw head and a tight helix gear at the end of the DeWalt head that yielded nicely to liquid wrench treatment.
The design difference is that left side of the Byrd head is not squared off as it is on the DeWalt head. Because of this, the head lock (see page 9, Figure 4 of the manual) will not work and can be left off. The only problem this might create is the requirement of extra caution to hold the head steady if (when?) you might have to replace one of the carbide cutters.
If you got the bucks, do any significant amount of level planing, or just are tired of changing out the steel cutters, the Byrd carbide cutting system, especially with Brian's free shipping and 10% discount to BT3Central members, is an excellent investment.
Regards, Steve
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