Spiral cutter head for planer thicknesser

[Against_The_Grain]

Looking at @Grantx's posts it seems he did eventually buy an iTech with a helical head, only to sell it two months later after deciding the craft wasn't for him.

I can see the appeal of spiral/helical cutter heads, but they are a serious outlay for a hobbyist woodworker who may only use their machine a handful of times a year. If you're looking to upgrade it makes sense to look at new machines with spiral/helical cutter blocks, but retrofitting a block that's worth more than the actual machine is just a non-starter in my opinion. I'd personally invest the money elsewhere like getting a high-quality planer, Axminster has their craft planer thicknesser with a helical cutter head for £1500, which would buy you a very nice quality secondhand Sedgwick or Felder machine which will be built far better overall

I change the straight high-speed steel knives in our planing machines probably every 3-6 months depending on the workload, four-cutter planer moulders more often, in a professional factory that planes mostly Oak, Accoya and Pine on a daily basis. Someone who planes rosewood, iroko, or other abrasive timbers all day every day may see a benefit from cutter heads with carbide inserts for longevity but for most workshops they are just completely unnecessary.

 

[Mikebart]

Looking at @Grantx's posts it seems he did eventually buy an iTech with a helical head, only to sell it two months later after deciding the craft wasn't for him.

I can see the appeal of spiral/helical cutter heads, but they are a serious outlay for a hobbyist woodworker who may only use their machine a handful of times a year. If you're looking to upgrade it makes sense to look at new machines with spiral/helical cutter blocks, but retrofitting a block that's worth more than the actual machine is just a non-starter in my opinion. I'd personally invest the money elsewhere like getting a high-quality planer, Axminster has their craft planer thicknesser with a helical cutter head for £1500, which would buy you a very nice quality secondhand Sedgwick or Felder machine which will be built far better overall

I change the straight high-speed steel knives in our planing machines probably every 3-6 months depending on the workload, four-cutter planer moulders more often, in a professional factory that planes mostly Oak, Accoya and Pine on a daily basis. Someone who planes rosewood, iroko, or other abrasive timbers all day every day may see a benefit from cutter heads with carbide inserts for longevity but for most workshops they are just completely unnecessary.

I paid £800 for my planer new hobby use and have done the maths if lucky it might be worth the same now secondhand, don't have the room for anything bigger so with tax/import duty etc £650 for new head doesn’t add up more so I would go for a better quality machine so would cost more than the new equivalent machine from Axi,so even more money and for my usage not viable proposition.

 

[Fanous]

I went from the same machine as you got, to the axminster spiral head. Twice the money, but well worth. I've done loads of work on it, and still not needed to rotate the carbides. I can't tell if it's the best purchase for the money, but doing me a great service.

 

[matronryan]

I got in touch with Axminster and they do not supply a helix cutting head for my model. I have two options:
1. sell the machine and buy a bench mounted planer thicknesser which can accommodate the helical cutting head.
2. Keep the machine and continue to use blades.

Option 1 means I lose the jointing option in my shop.
Option 2 means I must live with tear out.

For now, I will keep the machine and look into the Centrofix blades.

Thanks for the input.

Hi did you ever find centrofix blades for your axminister craft?

 

[Woodman22nd]

Your machine is highly practical and certainly a worthwhile investment for a spiral cutter retro-fit. This enhancement offers substantial noise reduction, a smoother timber finish comparable to sanding up to 120#, and eliminates costs associated with replacing straight knives, sharpening, or setting up, indefinitely! The Sheartak Spiral Cutterhead comes with a one-year warranty starting from the date of purchase. If you are dissatisfied with its performance, you may return it for a complete refund.

 

[Woodman22nd]

I have the Axminster Craft AC250PT Planer Thicknesses and am thinking of getting a helix cutting head.

1. Where do I buy one? Google doesnt show any UK companies that sell them.

2. Anyone here have one? What's your opinion?

You can buy from https://www.sheartak.com/sheartak-cutterhead-axminster-craft-ac250pt-planer-thicknesser.
Spiral cutterhead makes huge improvements.

 

[Woodman22nd]

Hi did you ever find centrofix blades for your axminister craft?

What is the model number of your machine?

 

[Against_The_Grain]

What is the model number of your machine?　You might find the spiral cutterheads for Axminister from https://www.sheartak.com/axminster-tools.

You've already tried hawking your goods on this thread before, give it a rest!

 

[Deadeye]

A couple of years ago I considered changing the three-knife cutter block on my P/T, which is similar to the AC250PT, to a Shelix helical cutter block. Unfortunately, the European models in that price range were not popular in the U.S. and Shelix did not know of any other model they could cross reference. However, if I sent them a detailed engineering drawing of my cutter block, they would look through their drawings to see if there was a match. They sent me a drawing template for a generic cutter block that I could modify by hand and enter the relevant information.

The drawing had to include the end to end details to two decimal places as well as the bearing race dimensions in the main casting. If they could not find an exact match, they would find one that was close that could be modified to match the dimensions of my machine. If a close match was not available, they would machine one. Regardless of which direction they were able to go with a match, the estimated cost of the replacement cutter block would be about $900 plus shipping.

The estimated shipping time for an exact match would be 10 to 12 weeks. If they had to modify or manufacture a cutter head, the shipping time would be 16 to 18 weeks. Since the cost of the cutter block was nearly the purchase price of the P/T at the time and I would have to disassemble my machine in order to reverse engineer the cutter block, I abandoned the idea.

You might not want to read this, but I recommend either learning to live with the machine you have or move on to a different machine that has what you want. Speaking from experience, if you try to polish a cowpat, the best you can expect from your efforts is a shiny cowpat.

I went through almost exactly the same process I have a multico planer and multico thicknesser and it was uneconomic. To be fair, the company said it was charging just the ongoing repeat cost...but it still seemed high compared with a) popular US models and b) the price of the machine