I'm building a Curly Maple and Purpleheart audio rack and the front edge of the Curly Maple needs to be pristine.  When I tried to run it across the straight knives of my jointer a while back it did what I expected it to do - it chipped.  So I ordered a Shelix cutterhead but they were back ordered and it just came in a few days ago.

 

The install of these is well documented so I won't bother with that except to show a few photos, the most significant being the huge drop in sound level.  I wear hearing protection at all times when equipment is running in the shop but it's still cool that the sound dropped this much.  The before and after sound tests were on the same piece of Walnut, 6" wide (the capacity of my jointer) and about 11" long, rough side straight off the sawmill for both tests.  I took the board from rough to smooth and recorded the highest sound for before and after.

 

 

 

 

David

Two weeks ago I ordered a Byrd OEM Shelix for my Dewalt 735.  10 to 12 week delivery.  Salesman said that Byrd can’t get enough help because of the $600 a week unemployment payment from Uncle Sugar.  

Seems like mine was 5 weeks.  It is well worth the wait, though.

 

David

Those not wanting to wait for Shelix might want to look at the Lux Cut web site. I had only heard of this company this week, but apparently they make/sell clones of the Byrd cutterheads. I can figure out whether these are N.A. made or not (this is a Canadian company) so I only mention it as an "oh, by the way". They might be just a tad cheaper.

10 hours ago, Ron Dudelston said:

Two weeks ago I ordered a Byrd OEM Shelix for my Dewalt 735.  10 to 12 week delivery.  Salesman said that Byrd can’t get enough help because of the $600 a week unemployment payment from Uncle Sugar.  

 

What the heck, are they paying skilled machinists minimum wage?  Poverty level for a family of four is about $500 a week...

 

@difalkner - glad to see you posting.  Was wondering how you weathered this last storm.

59 minutes ago, Cal said:

 

What the heck, are they paying skilled machinists minimum wage?  Poverty level for a family of four is about $500 a week...

 

 

Cal, I’m sure that the shop machines are CNC so they’re hiring lower skill people.

1 hour ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Those not wanting to wait for Shelix might want to look at the Lux Cut web site. I had only heard of this company this week, but apparently they make/sell clones of the Byrd cutterheads. I can figure out whether these are N.A. made or not (this is a Canadian company) so I only mention it as an "oh, by the way". They might be just a tad cheaper.

Out of stock, Fred.  Story of my life.

1 hour ago, Cal said:

 

What the heck, are they paying skilled machinists minimum wage?  Poverty level for a family of four is about $500 a week...

 

@difalkner - glad to see you posting.  Was wondering how you weathered this last storm.

Thanks for checking, Cal!  Delta was pretty mild here, not at all like Laura.  We got some light rain is about all.

 

David