What do you thunk?

[L. D. Jeffries]

Buddy of mine and I were just jaw-jacking this PM and the subject of spiral blades for planers/jointers etc.came up. When we went to the Griz tent sale they had some that you could retro fit. Pretty hefty price though. Began to wonder just how much better they would work. We both had a couple of doubts on how good they would be. mainly the idea that if you nicked one of the square blades and you turned it to a new edge would you have to turn ALL the blades in order to equalize all the rest? How would you keep track of how many times they were realigned? We both thought that although a nice idea, just how great would this be for the average shop? Anyone out there have any experience with these?

[pelligrini]

I think there are a few guys around here with the newer style cutterheads. Suprised no one has weighed in. I probably wouldn't spend the money on one.

It looks like Popular woodworking has an article on them coming up. http://blogs.popularwoodworking.com/...tterheads.aspx

[L. D. Jeffries]

After reading the blog on Woodworkers site I kind of think that the whole thing about spiral cutters is a coin-toss! Although the article didn't really say a lot it did spell out the pros & cons. Seems like a good set of regular blades, kept sharp will do as good a job as the spiral ones, plus for a h**l of a lot less green. Anybody who does have one, chime in and change my mind!

[steve-norrell]

I have one and I love it. I got it from http://www.holbren.com/spiral-cutterhead/ and it came with new bearings, ready to mount in my DW735.

I agree that cost is a factor but the spirals could be a significant advantage when you don't have the where with all to frequently resharpen the regular blades. Also, DW blades were (and may still be) of less than outstanding quality and top-of-the-line replacement blades are quite costly (when compared to the DW knives).

The Byrd spiral does an excellent job, although it is important to make only repetitive minimal cuts rather than deeper ones. The surfaces are very smooth and require only minimal sanding.

IMO, they are worth the money if you are willing to part with the cash.

Regards, Steve