Hammer A3 spiral cutter block

[Random Orbital Bob]

I saw this for the first time today. Each cutter is individually changeable and each has four cutting edges so that's 4 bites of the cherry before you discard them. Also, no knife setting jigs required with these babies. Very sweet indeed

(Mind you at over 2 large for the 12" model it blinkin well had better be good)

 

[ColeyS1]

Meant to leave a very average finish also- tersa blades however....

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[Random Orbital Bob]

Funny...the Felder salesman didn't mention that :roll:

 

[Otto]

Those 'shelix' heads are supposed to be awesome. Cleaner cutting, less tear out and quieter in operation. Very popular with American woodworkers. Is that one made by Felder?

 

[nathandavies]

I've read about it leaving ridges

 

[Doug B]

Funny...the Felder salesman didn't mention that :roll:

He wouldn't as the finish is excellent far better than standard blades.

 

[ColeyS1]

I've read about it leaving ridges

+ 1 there's a thread kicking about somewhere that spoke of those problems

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[custard]

I've read about it leaving ridges

If the workpiece is fed through straight, and the knives correctly seated, I don't see how it could leave a ridge. Even though Felder/Hammer don't offer a kit to retrospectively fit a spiral block I believe they will hire out one of their engineers to fit a third party block. A woodworker near me has gone through this process and when I can find a bit of time I'd like to pop over and see what it's like with a view to upgrading my own machine.

As far as I can tell there are two benefits to spiral blocks that pretty much everyone agrees upon, much lower noise and far more compact waste/better dust extraction. After that it becomes a bit of an argy bargy, with some claiming much less tear out on wild grained timbers, and others saying blade changes take forever and there's little practical quality difference on a correctly set up traditional machine with sharp knives.

I suspect that a lot depends on what you produce, joinery items for example might be considered "finished" straight from the thicknesser, fine furniture components on the other hand are likely to be worked quite a bit following thicknessing.

 

[MrYorke]

Have also seen a post somewhere about the 'ridges'. The fella was a bit pee'd off. Had photos on it as well.

Worth a search

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

The felder guy did start it up while I was there and it was stunningly quiet.

 

[RogerS]

I've read about it leaving ridges

You are right. There was a thread over on woodworkuk about this although it seems to have gone AWOL.

EDIT: Here it is http://www.woodworkuk.co.uk/forum/viewt ... lit=hammer

This was the picture of the scalloping that the guy got/

 

[deema]

I bought a machine with a Tersa block. Simply brilliant. I looked at the spiral blocks and IMO resin build up under the leading edge would cause problems when trying to change the edges around. Also I could not contemplate the thought of unscrewing moving around and retightening all of those cutters and getting them all correct.

You need ear defenders for either system I believe, so what's the difference? A Tersa leaves a brilliant finish, is a cheaper solution and you can change a blade in 10 seconds. No brainer!

 

[ColeyS1]

Thought I saw it somewhere. That was pictures of my tenoner- my lumpy bumpy tenoner

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[Random Orbital Bob]

I am truly ignorant of the Tersa system...what exactly is it? Does it require you to change out the block as well as get different blades? I also understand the blades are disposable? Would it work on a startrite SD300 (12" 3 knife cutter block)?

 

[ColeyS1]

I don't think you can retrofit them to a normal cutter block.
Just popped over shop and took these few pics

To change them you tap down the wedge next to the blade then slide them out. If you look closely on one of the pics you can see the profile of the cutter. The groove locates it so it's just slide it along then fire it up


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[RogerS]

I am truly ignorant of the Tersa system...what exactly is it? Does it require you to change out the block as well as get different blades? I also understand the blades are disposable? Would it work on a startrite SD300 (12" 3 knife cutter block)?

Check out Barke turnbaldes. They work well for me and seem to have the same benefits of Tersa.

 

[custard]

Tersa basically uses the centrifugal force of the spinning block to push the knives into the correct position, consequently they're just slotted into position. It takes just a few minutes to swap out the disposable knives.

Felder also have their own quick change disposable knife system, not quite as fast as Tersa but still pretty quick (takes me about five minutes to swap out all four knives on a four knife block) and like Tersa there's no setting, just change the knife and you're done. The benefit is you always have sharp, correctly set knives on your planer/thickneser. Actually swapping knives is so quick I keep a rough set of knives just for planing plywood (the glue lines murder your knives) and will fit them if I've a batch of ply drawer boxes to machine.

 

[Peter Sefton]

i have the quick change over blades in my Felder surfacer and my Hammer U/O, as Custard says they are very quick, it takes longer to dust off and clean down resin than changing the blades. I have used the spiral block a couple of times and the results have been very good. The noise level and energy consummation is lower than the standard block, its gives a much better finish on interlocked timber and a different surface finish. I have found you can get very slight witness lines with the grain showing where the edge of the individual cutters are but you have got to look hard to see them. I have been invited to the Hammer in house show next month, I will be playing with the cutter block on Saturday 5Th april if any body is around come and have a look.
Garry will be coming down with a few tools from the tool shop on the day.
Cheers Peter

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Many thanks chaps. So from that I take it that one doesn't just buy Tersa knives and fit them in your average cutter block, rather you need to buy a dedicated Tersa cutter block as an after market upgrade?

 

[Doug B]

The Felder tersa type quick change system is very good & fast to change, I was lucky enough to have use of a Felder planer thicknesser with this system last January, but as Peter eluded to the finish with less tear out is better from the spiral block.