Shopsmith Forums

This company sells a spiral carbide cutter head for the shopsmith planer. They don't list one for the jointer.

https://shelixheads.com/SHELIX-heads_fo ... _SHOPSMITH

As beeg said, the cost is high.

jle wrote:This company sells a spiral carbide cutter head for the shopsmith planer. They don't list one for the jointer.

https://shelixheads.com/SHELIX-heads_fo ... _SHOPSMITH

As beeg said, the cost is high.

This may be to what Mike was referring. They might be fabricating something for the jointer, They are the company I bought the spiral cutter for my Delta 22-560. Since mine was not an often ordered machine, there was a 4 month wait. I don't have a Pro planer so I did not check to see if they had one for it. Significantly higher in price than mine. I presume they are trying to recover some development cost. Or maybe they presume that since you own a ShopSmith you are wealthy!!

Be well,
Ben

benush26 wrote: This may be to what Mike was referring. They might be fabricating something for the jointer, They are the company I bought the spiral cutter for my Delta 22-560. Since mine was not an often ordered machine, there was a 4 month wait. I don't have a Pro planer so I did not check to see if they had one for it. Significantly higher in price than mine. I presume they are trying to recover some development cost. Or maybe they presume that since you own a ShopSmith you are wealthy!!

Be well,
Ben

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Shopsmith 12" Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $651.00

Your planer
DELTA 12'' Planer, 22-540
This SHELIX head features 4 wings of knives with a total of 40 knives. $437.00

A Delta planer with 60 cutters (fair comparison to the Shopsmith)
SHELIX for DELTA 12'' Planer, 37-790 Jointer-Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $967.00

A Delta planer with 60 cutters (fair comparison to the Shopsmith)
SHELIX for DELTA 12'' Planer, 37-790 Jointer-Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $967.00


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JMO


That seems like a big potential for some thing to happen.

Not much protection on a jointer.

Hobbyman2 wrote:A Delta planer with 60 cutters (fair comparison to the Shopsmith)
SHELIX for DELTA 12'' Planer, 37-790 Jointer-Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $967.00


==============


JMO


That seems like a big potential for some thing to happen.

Not much protection on a jointer.

Have removed the shields? If the fence is set right then only a small portion of the cutter are expose, that should be covered by the swing away guard as you push the wood through. Again if the fence is set right the wood should cover the cutters, until the cut is finished at which time the swing away guard should swing back in place. Where do you see all this exposure?

rpd wrote:

benush26 wrote: This may be to what Mike was referring. They might be fabricating something for the jointer, They are the company I bought the spiral cutter for my Delta 22-560. Since mine was not an often ordered machine, there was a 4 month wait. I don't have a Pro planer so I did not check to see if they had one for it. Significantly higher in price than mine. I presume they are trying to recover some development cost. Or maybe they presume that since you own a ShopSmith you are wealthy!!

Be well,
Ben

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Shopsmith 12" Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $651.00

Your planer
DELTA 12'' Planer, 22-540
This SHELIX head features 4 wings of knives with a total of 40 knives. $437.00

A Delta planer with 60 cutters (fair comparison to the Shopsmith)
SHELIX for DELTA 12'' Planer, 37-790 Jointer-Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $967.00

Wow, I didn't know that the ShopSmith Pro Planer had 5 blades, therefore 5 wings. I just made my presumption on nearly the same width of blade. When you compare it the correct way (versus my way ), I guess it's not a bad cost "comparatively with other Shellix". I am looking forward to installing mine in my Delta. . Last year I did install all new bearings, which was easier than I first thought, but the Shellix comes with new bearings installed, so one less task for the change over.
I doubt I'll ever wear out the set of bits that come with it, but after needing to change out blades three times, if all I need is to replace a bit or two I'll be a very happy camper. As many have stated, the price is WAY up there, but I also like how quickly and fully the wood chips eject (on my friends DeWalt). He has a ShopVac with home made vortex and the smaller uniform wood chips never clog, but the bigger chips did quite a bit before he switched from blades to Shellix.
Not certain I'd go for the jointer Shellix upgrade (if it happens), because I'm satisfied with the jointer results and I've generally been more careful running pieces through the jointer than my planer .
So what does your prognostication ability says the cost of the ShopSmith jointer upgrade will be?

Be well,
Ben

Ed in Tampa wrote:

Hobbyman2 wrote:A Delta planer with 60 cutters (fair comparison to the Shopsmith)
SHELIX for DELTA 12'' Planer, 37-790 Jointer-Planer
This SHELIX head features 5 wings of knives with a total of 60 knives. $967.00


==============


JMO


That seems like a big potential for some thing to happen.

Not much protection on a jointer.

Have removed the shields? If the fence is set right then only a small portion of the cutter are expose, that should be covered by the swing away guard as you push the wood through. Again if the fence is set right the wood should cover the cutters, until the cut is finished at which time the swing away guard should swing back in place. Where do you see all this exposure?

==========


I dont have a SS jointer, my'n is a combo planer / jointer , that said I can't say,,, how,,, the guard is on a SS model .. If it is like my'n,,, the shield swings riding against the stock as it is pushed again the fence , I can see gaps between the guard and the wood ,Maybe I am just a little too cautious .

Not sue where the thought of not having a guard on the machine came from , I wouldnt own a jointer with out a guard , if I was using it or not.

not sure how a planer could not have a guard/dust shoot since the blades cut from the to of the machine?

All of this hand wringing over the safety of segmented helical cutter heads seems to me to be a little overboard to me. Most (all?) of the major manufacturers sell planers and jointers with them. There is more than one after market manufacturer. Amana Tools even makes a segmented spiral jointer cutter for a shaper. No guards on them.

https://www.toolstoday.com/p-5531-inser ... gLAPvD_BwE

I have not heard of OSHA racing to ban them because they are unsafe.

JMO

Good point..

My dad wont buy any thing but a ford ,, myself I am a chevey man.

Back in the days of my mill and cabinet shop we had a Grizzly jointer and planer with the spiral cutter heads and they are superior in several ways. They give a really nice finished surface or edge and each carbide cutter has four edges so you essentially have four sets of blades on the cutterhead which means you loosen a set screw and rotate the carbide cutter when one gets chipped. We had extra carbide cutters in a drawer and I don't think we ever actually made it to the point where we had used all four edges on a cutter and had to replace it. The other big advantage is that it throws off small chips instead of shavings and the dust collection is way better. I'm waiting for the blades on my SS planer to dull and when they do I will definitely order the shelix cutter head. I don't think a spiral cutterhead will ever work on a SS jointer because since there is no vertical adjustment to the cutters and it requires an adjustable outfeed table which the SS jointer does not have. That is one aspect of the SS jointer I wish they would remedy. Even with the steel knives it would make changing the knives a much quicker operation. But for all that it is still a great little jointer.
Paul