Byrd Shelix Cutterhead

[mtrager]

Grizzly has a sale on the Shelix cutterheads. I know they retrofit well for their jointers, but I have an 8" Bridgewood and they do have a "generic" Shelix cutterhead for it.

But I have read stories where getting the bearings onto the new cutterhead has been a bear for some folks. I would imagine due to it's being generic and different jointer bearings varying slightly in size. At least this is what I get out of what I've read.

Does anyone have any experience retrofitting a Shelix cutterhead onto non-Grizzly jointers?

Thanks in advance,

Mitch Trager

 

[Travis Porter]

I put a shelix on my Invicta DI-42 16" jointer. I used acetone and dry ice to "shrink" the shaft and the bearings literally slipped on quite easily. I did buy new bearings to put on my unit, but I had no issues removing the old bearings off of the old cutterhead whatsoever.

My only negative and I can't really say that it is much of a negative was that the conversion for my unit came with no instructions whatsoever.... FredP came over and helped me tear the unit apart and after an hour of trying to figure out how to remove the fence assembly things went pretty smoothly.

As for pricing, www.holbren.com also sells shelix and you can get a 10 percent discount if you use their code. I did and got mine for a lot less than what Byrd had them listed for on their website as Holbren's regular price without discount was around $400 less than what Byrd had them listed.

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

What Travis says. No instructions, but generic slide show on the Byrd site. Putting a Byrd on a jointer like an 8" Delta DJ-20 is a piece of cake (compared to a 15" planer with gear box that you must drain and disassemble!).

My advice if you plan to reuse the bearings is to get a free loaner bearing pulley from an autoparts store to remove the bearings from the journal. Unless you have something good to press the old or new set of bearings on the Shelix, take it to a shop where it is a snap for them to do with a hydraulic press while you wait. It is worth the $5 or $10 it will cost you.

 

[mtrager]

Thanks for the quick replies - I look forward to other folks' opinions and experiences.

Mitch Trager

 

[redhawknc1]

I just purchased a Byrd Head for my Powermatic PJ882 Jointer. Haven't done the install yet. Need to find a place to buy the replacement bearings. Also, looking for a machine shop to install the bearings. I think it will be a good upgrade...

 

[SteveColes]

I did what you are thinking of doing. I bought the head from grizzly to be put into a shop fox 8". Thinking that since the Shop fox was made by grizzly, everything would work well. :no::no::swoon::swoon: The shaft length on one side of the head was too short. So to be sure, you need to know the length of the shafts on each side and the length of cutter head itself on the original head and the diameter of the cutter head. If you want to use the original bearings, then you need to be sure that the diameter of the new shaft is the same as the inner diameter of the current bearing.

While most of the things are fairly standard, they are not always exact. There are way too many variables. So my advice is too forget about reusing the bearings. If the lengths of the shafts are OK, then you can simply buy the bearings you will need. The bearings are inexpensive. Measure the diameter of the new head's shaft and the OD and width of the old bearing and now you have the exact spec for the bearings you will need to make the conversion.:eusa_danc

A second way to do this is the way I would prefer. Call Byrd and/or holgren and buy from them. All you have to do is tell them make and model. Byrd will actually press on new correct bearings and then the operation of replacement will be fairly simple with minimal concern about incompatibilities.

Final comment is that while there a lot of theoretical issues that could screw you up, in real life it probably won't be that bad. Just call Grizzly and see if they can give you the specs for the head you want to buy and then compare.

 

[mshel]

Got mine from Holbren last year when the ebay cashback was great. After all the discounts, I ended up paying 50% of retail. I installed the head and new bearings (jointer) by myself in about an hour and a half. You won't regret the expenditure but I would definitely check out Holbren because he gets his stuff directly from Byrd.


Mike