2 Versions Of Byrd Helical Cutter For DeWalt 735

[Wiley's Woodworks]

The shaft wall is referring to the part the cutters butt up against. The instructions in the box you got show the proper seating of the cutters is to have their tops flush with the shaft wall NOT where the cutters sit proud (above) the shaft wall (black part of the cutter head) as they do in practice. If you rub your finger on the cutter vs the shaft wall you'll see the cutters sit above slightly vs the instructions. They acknowledge that the instructions are incorrect and the cutters should indeed sit proud of the shaft wall. See in the pic below from their website where it shows the cutters top sitting proud of the shaft wall. I have no timeline of them updating their info, just copied there response and posted it here.

I tested mine on a 8/4 piece of rough sapele yesterday and it worked flawlessly !

View attachment 220954

Excellent clarification. The photo shows exactly how my cutter heads seated on the rotor. This time I will rub my fingertip across the back edge of each cutter blade.

 

[spitzerone]

I went through the same process but decided instead to go with the Cutech 2 speed planer instead saving myself quite a bit of cash. I do have a Byrd head on my Powermatic jointer and I love it. I did the upgrade myself. You might want to look into the Cutech before you pull the trigger.

 

[spitzerone]

What are these BEARINGS OPTIONS about? Re-using old bearings or ???

Options:
13-Inch Cutterhead (Without Bearings)
13-Inch Cutterhead (Bearings Pre-Installed)
13-Inch Cutterhead (Bearings Included) Plus 10 Extra Carbide Knives
13-Inch Cutterhead (Bearings Included) Plus 30 Extra Carbide Knives

I personally went with replacing the bearings when I replaced the head on my Powermatic jointer. The additional cost was about $50 if I remember correctly. The bearings Iooked ok when I removed them to replace the head but that was looking at them externally. My jointer has been around a long time so I thought that rather than to be forced to go though a bearing replacement and all that it involves, the "insurance" of paying the extra $50 was well worth the time and aggravation that I would experience with a bearing failure was well worth the extra dough.

 

[jfynyson]

I went through the same process but decided instead to go with the Cutech 2 speed planer instead saving myself quite a bit of cash. I do have a Byrd head on my Powermatic jointer and I love it. I did the upgrade myself. You might want to look into the Cutech before you pull the trigger.

Looks like a nice low cost option but it looks like it only has 26 cutters for the 13” model (Shelix has 40 & FindBuyTool has 56) and they’re only 2-sided cutters vs most others have 4 sided cutters and you have to pay more to upgrade to carbide vs they’re HSS option. Still overall lower cost though. Also the Cutech looks to be spiral not a true helical, which some claim those (on some designs) do not provide a better surface on figured grain than straight knives vs the helical lower angle of attack plus many other cutters have cambered edges for a more slicing action. These features may not be worth $200 extra for some though. I’d love to see some side by side comparisons to see how little difference it really makes if even detectable.

Thanks for sharing !

 

[Wiley's Woodworks]

Yes--I received mine this week and will be installing it Monday. I went with this cutter because my common sense tells me 16 cutters per row is better than 10--the more popular Byrd cutter. I relied on Casey's advice on making this purchase. I will give a full customer review after installation and test runs.

No one can imagine what I went through to finally get my new helix head cutter installed in my new DeWalt 735 planer. Murphy's Law popped up so many times I lost count. The whole saga takes too long to tell, but here's the short version: uninstall--install--uninstall--reinstall--ship back to Amazon--receive replacement planer--uninstall--install. Add in stripped screws and special tools needed, and it took 6 weeks to get the job done. But I did it, and I now proclaim myself an expert on converting 735 planers from straight blade to helical cutters. If I get requests for details, I'll make a separate post on what I learned.

After a lot of research I purchased the helical cutter from FindBuyTool.com. Yes, they're a Chinese company, and I realized that risk going in. I relied on a recommendation from Casey in Hawaii, and my country boy logic told me 14 cutter inserts per row (X 4 = 56 inserts) would be better than 40 cutters on the Byrd shelical rotor.

Now, the review: the FBT helical cutter blows my mind with how well it performs. It delivers more than the manufacturer promises. It's quieter, by a lot, the wood surface is smoother (you can feel the difference and see it), and tear out on figured grain is significantly reduced if not eliminated. I consider the planed surfaces glue-ready right off the planer, and I wouldn't hesitate to apply paint without even sanding. Purchasing this cutter head is the best extra $ I ever spent in my shop.

I unequivocally recommend the FBT helical cutter, spending the extra $, and going through whatever hassles you encounter to swap out the heads.

 

[golfdad]

I bought the "Findbuytool" helical head Find Buy Head

Mostly it had 14 cutters per row 4 row vs the shelix with 10 per row. It came with in 14 days from china, cuts like a dream, and was less money

Did you get with or without the installed bearings

 

[jfynyson]

I got mine with the bearings installed and wouldn’t do it any other way personally.

 

[Wiley's Woodworks]

Ditto for buying

I got mine with the bearings installed and wouldn’t do it any other way personally.

with the bearings installed. You get brand new bearings and you avoid the hassle of removing existing bearings off the straight blade cutter and reinstalling them on your new helical cutter. Too many things can go wrong when you have to deal with the bearings. The extra cost is minimal and cheap insurance against screw ups plus the whole job gets done a lot faster.

 

[Ralrick]

No one can imagine what I went through to finally get my new helix head cutter installed in my new DeWalt 735 planer. Murphy's Law popped up so many times I lost count. The whole saga takes too long to tell, but here's the short version: uninstall--install--uninstall--reinstall--ship back to Amazon--receive replacement planer--uninstall--install. Add in stripped screws and special tools needed, and it took 6 weeks to get the job done. But I did it, and I now proclaim myself an expert on converting 735 planers from straight blade to helical cutters. If I get requests for details, I'll make a separate post on what I learned.

After a lot of research I purchased the helical cutter from FindBuyTool.com. Yes, they're a Chinese company, and I realized that risk going in. I relied on a recommendation from Casey in Hawaii, and my country boy logic told me 14 cutter inserts per row (X 4 = 56 inserts) would be better than 40 cutters on the Byrd shelical rotor.

Now, the review: the FBT helical cutter blows my mind with how well it performs. It delivers more than the manufacturer promises. It's quieter, by a lot, the wood surface is smoother (you can feel the difference and see it), and tear out on figured grain is significantly reduced if not eliminated. I consider the planed surfaces glue-ready right off the planer, and I wouldn't hesitate to apply paint without even sanding. Purchasing this cutter head is the best extra $ I ever spent in my shop.

I unequivocally recommend the FBT helical cutter, spending the extra $, and going through whatever hassles you encounter to swap out the heads.

I'd love to know the reason for the problems with the first/second heads you received? Were they all the same brand or did you have trouble with the Byrd and then switch to the FBT?

I just installed the Byrd head in my DW735 last week. I looked at the FBT but didn't think the difference in savings over the Byrd was worth the risk but you bring up a good point on the number of cutting heads. I also did have some trouble with the seating of a couple of cutter heads on the Byrd - I had a couple lines in the otherwise excellent quality cut. It was pretty easy to determine which blade it was and just loosen and ensure the blade sat correctly on the cutterhead.

 

[jfynyson]

I'd love to know the reason for the problems with the first/second heads you received? Were they all the same brand or did you have trouble with the Byrd and then switch to the FBT?

I just installed the Byrd head in my DW735 last week. I looked at the FBT but didn't think the difference in savings over the Byrd was worth the risk but you bring up a good point on the number of cutting heads. I also did have some trouble with the seating of a couple of cutter heads on the Byrd - I had a couple lines in the otherwise excellent quality cut. It was pretty easy to determine which blade it was and just loosen and ensure the blade sat correctly on the cutterhead.

Wiley had an issue with the DeWalt 735 from Amazon, not the FBT cutter as I recall.

 

[Wiley's Woodworks]

I'd love to know the reason for the problems with the first/second heads you received? Were they all the same brand or did you have trouble with the Byrd and then switch to the FBT?

I just installed the Byrd head in my DW735 last week. I looked at the FBT but didn't think the difference in savings over the Byrd was worth the risk but you bring up a good point on the number of cutting heads. I also did have some trouble with the seating of a couple of cutter heads on the Byrd - I had a couple lines in the otherwise excellent quality cut. It was pretty easy to determine which blade it was and just loosen and ensure the blade sat correctly on the cutterhead.

Hey Rick--I didn't have any problems at all with the FBT helical cutter. What forced me through the uninstall/install/uninstall/reinstall/uninstall/install process was a broken planer. After I had gone through the first round and installed the new FBT helical cutter, I started to mount the planer on a base and discovered a 2" piece had broken off of one foot. Because of all the vibration and stress that goes on with any planer, that was unacceptable. I found the piece in the bottom of the styrofoam packing, so I know it happened in shipping and therefore was Amazon's responsibility. They were good about returning the broken planer and replacing it for free, including all free shipping and pick up at my shop.

The end result is my FBT helical cutter went through 3 cycles of install/uninstall/reinstall. It held up like nothing ever happened, and now I am getting the smoothest cuts I have ever gotten with a bench top planer. I am thrilled with the end results in multiple ways. I am working on getting a side-by-side comparison between the Byrd shelix head (whatever shelix means) with 40 carbide inserts and the FBY helix head with 56 inserts. I plan on running one face of some sugar maple (harder than hard maple) through my planer and then running the opposite face through a 735 with the Byrd cutter head. I will post the results/opinions when this is done.

 

[charlessenf]

(whatever shelix means)

Simple, Bird 'n Bees Stuff
Helix is for boys and
Shelix is for girls!

 

[jfynyson]

Finally got around to using my new FBT helical cutter head on my DeWalt 735 and the results were flawless. I recently purchase several wood species that were 4/4 S2S and were milled from rough by the lumber dealer using a planer with straight knives. Must have been dull or hogging out way too much material as the sapele has a pretty bad finished surface. Some slight bow and minor twist but surface was pretty bad where the grain changed direction or swirled a bit. I used my No.8 jointer plane to flatten one side of each board (4 total boards cut down to rough length).

I took very thin passes less than 1/32 likely 1/64ish (didn’t measure) but both sides of these boards look & feel flawless. All tear out is completely gone. Consistent thickness all around and zero snipe (none at all). Not sure if the zero snipe has anything to do with the cutterhead but if you’re wondering I set my infeed & outfeed tables to be 0.020” higher on the outer edges vs the planer bed.

I wanted to wait to post until I’ve ran some of the walnut, ambrosia maple, QS white oak and mainly the tiger/curly maple. That curly maple is a high grade but very rough milling by the dealer. Anxious to see how this FBT cleans these up and I’ll report back (it’ll be a while though…maybe a couple months).