Grizzly H7764 Byrd Tool 6-Inch Shelix Cutterhead

I got some tiny nic's in the blades on my Grizzly G0452 Jointer and figured with these being onsale at Grizzly, why not avoid the hassle of the getting new knives and having to get them set correctly and all that trouble again. It arrives packaged as seen, in great shape, and I'd be very impressed if the shippers were able to damage this in shipping. Installation was a little tough - pulling the bearings off the old jointer head required a pulley puller/extractor that I borrowed from a local auto parts store for a fully refundable deposit. Here is my short version of Installation steps for the G0452 series jointer: Remove the top fence (two hex screws) and then remove the fence support (four hex screws). Once they are removed, take off the belt (I just rolled it over the upper pulley) and lower both infeed and outfeed tables (the outfeed has set screws on the back that need to be loosened). To remove the cutter head, there are two 17mm nuts on the front and back at the base of the jointer platform above the base, below the cutting head holding it in place. This takes a bit of time to get these off, but once off the cutter head will just lift out. (In the interest of safety I removed the blades on the old head to avoid cutting myself while trying to perform the next steps. ) Use the puller to take off the pulley (and spine key) and the bearings. It's recommended to not apply pressure against the outside of the bearing to get it off the shaft, however I did it and have not had any trouble with them since installing them. Once the bearings and pulley are free, install them on the new cutter head. (Again, in the interest of safety, before removing the new cutter head from the packaging, I used some hockey tape to wrap the head (it spins in the shipping box) so I could handle it with "less" concern for the need for a trip to the ER. ) The bearings are a different ID for front and back, and once they are installed - I used a block of wood to hammer them in to place the installation is basically the opposite of removal. Getting the two 17mm nuts started is likely the hardest part. So what you're really interested in - Well, it cuts, and it cuts well. After the initial start up/installation and vibration check I ran some already dimensioned red oak through it. I didn't however remember to reset the infeed table height, and ended up taking a 1/4 off the 3/4" board edge. The jointer could have cared less that I was making such a deep cut and the edge was outstanding considering the speed and the depth of cut I took. (This was a mistake on my part, I usually only take 1/16 at most, generally 1/32nd while jointing edges. ). After resetting my infeed table height to a more manageable 1/16th" I face jointed the same board (about 5 1/4" thick now) and the jointer had no trouble and was noticeably quieter than before. I usually use ear protection, and with out ear protection it was about the same as it was with ear protection on the old cutter head. Overall I'm very impressed with the cutter head so far, and I've since run about 100bf of oak, poplar and hard maple though it with no noticeable degradation of performance or cutterhead sharpness. If you're not upgrading to an 8" jointer any time soon, and it's time to replace your HSS cutter blades, spend the money, it is worth the upgrade. I'll likely be replacing the HSS knives in my DW735 with a Byrd tool once I've used up the last edges on my last set.

Night and day difference on a new 6” jet long bed. Ran 40 board feet of rough, 8/4 hard maple and walnut over this new head and no noticeable change in sharpness/cutting quality. That would have blown the edges right off the straight knives. Finish is outstanding. No lines. Some very light scalloping, but we’re talking a couple thousandths. I’m getting a full 6 1/8” of width face jointing on my head. Noise is reduced. It’s also surprisingly easier to feed material across it. This allows for a much more consistent feed rate, although the feed rate is a little slower. Much easier to keep the face against the fence when edge jointing as you don’t have to muscle the board as much across the cutter head. I will never go back to straight knives on a jointer. They go dull in 30 mins, the finish is hit and miss, and they take half a Saturday to install and recalibrate. Best upgrade in a long time. Worth every penny.

I have lusted for a Byrd cutter head for my 6" Jet jointer for a number of years and I finally gave in to my passions and purchased one. Installation is easy, although if you don't have the knowledge and tools to remove the bearings from your existing cutter and re-install them on the Byrd, get help early so you don't damage anything. I made a bearing separator from a large washer and and a gear puller, that worked just fine. The biggest installation problem was shimming the jibs to parallel the cutter to the out-feed table, I think its a Jet problem, no fault of Byrd. I just finished surfacing about 200ft of rough sawed walnut, some fairly gnarly and: No noticeable wear or nicks on the cutters Very quiet in operation. Very easy to feed. Small chip size. Almost no tear-out but finish is improved if the grain direction is observed. Conclusion: In a perfect world of absolutely straight and flat grained, knot free stock the Jet's 3 blade HSS cutter head would probably give a better finish until the blades start to dull. But in the real world of wild grain and knots and the hassle of changing a set $70 cutter blades in the middle of a job,if even only occasionally, I think that Byrd Shelix is a good value and a great addition to any shop.

I spent some time delaying upgrading to this. I finally decided to pull the trigger once I got a large enough commission to help pay for it, plus I knew I had a lot of milling ahead of me. I decided to pull the trigger on this before the planer. This cutter head does not disappoint! For installation you will need a gear puller. It makes removing the bearing housings extremely easy. I ordered a couple of 2 packs on Amazon for new bearings instead of fooling with taking off the existing ones. Changing out the head couldn't be any easier. There are a couple of videos on YouTube that are helpful. The most useful one is a guy changing out the Ridgid 6" Jointer (which is what I have). He replaces his with a different brand, however; the process is the same. I did have to balance the cutter head after installing. I simply cut a strip of an aluminum can and placed inside the mount for the bearing housing. This squared it up easily. Come to terms with the fact that you'll have to adjust your outfeed table. Not a hard process and probably something you should have experience doing anyway. A couple months in and this thing is still surgically sharp. I recently jointed some 6" very curly maple and this thing is still coming out glass smooth. This is after I've run ~100BF of pecan through it. Normal straight knives would've been blunted from that alone. All in all, great product. It gave me the courage and justification to go ahead and upgrade my 13" planer as well. The initial set up and cost hurst up front but the precision and lack of frustration from crappy straight knives is well worth the cost in the end.