Helical Heads

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5

Anybody have experience rotating the blades on a helical head? I used to work in a shop with General tools and when we rotated the blades they never were as good as the factory setting. Always got small ridges or grooves as though the blades weren’t fully seated… yes, we did spend time cleaning out any buildups we could see but those were a 12" jointer and a 24" planer so a LOT of carbide! I just have an 8" jointer (KIng) to rotate but I was just wondering if there was some trick/tip etc to avoid a similar problem.

Thanks!

Angellos

Angellos

I just rotated the carbide inserts on a 24" North Tech planer and the cut came out perfect.I was holding my breath.This one has 144 helical carbide inserts, but I didn’t need to rotate all of them.
I would like to find a hardened steel torx wrench.Some of the torx screws were
really tough to get out and I went through
a fair number of steel bits.Mild steel bits
of that size are really weak.Don’t want to crank them down.I think about 12lbs. of torque should work.I guessed.
Very happy with the cut, reduced noise level and ease of maintenance.

steve66

Good, hopefully this machine behaves the same way. Did you use a torque wrench or just hand tighten?

Angellos

I think you want to torque them all the same. It’s not much, I used a screwdriver type torque wrenches from Wiha to do mine. Before rotating them one edge for another, I rotated them inside out first.(Moved the center ones to the outside edge, and the outer ones to the center). Mine required 45 inch-pounds.

"I long for the day when coke was a cola and a joint was a bad place to be" Merle Haggartd

I hand tightened mine.I could not put any more torque on it without twisting off the torks bit.Figured that was enough.
Interesting point Fred on moving the inserts from edge to center.I will be giving that some thought.I like the ease of always having a razor sharp tool.

steve66