Milling saw

[Zodiac45]

I hate fuzz....I didnt know that it's still there after running it through the planer. I havent run any of my box elder through yet, its still drying. I also have the same problem with the soft maple I've been cutting too.....true about the nature of the beast

Zodiac - We have a cedar fence at one of my dads rental properties, we have to oil that thing every 2 years and it has been there forever. We skipped the oil the last 5 years I think....kinda keep putting it off. Now its gray-scaled! By brother was messing around with a pressure washer last year and ended up crushing the wood fibers, making it fuzzy. At least it was in a hidden spot. Oil works nice on cedar....I'm not too sure about paint....solution...expensive Benjamin Moore exterior oil base paint and primer....it will cost a small fortune though, I think a 5 gallon runs around $180 out here for the paint. Not sure though, It's been awhile since we used it on the houses.
Heart goes out ta ya!

Yep you're right on the money Burl,

It was from getting too aggressive trying to "scrape" with a pressure washer. Needless to say it added allot of work but in the end, I have to say, it came out well since that paintjob was done nearly 13 years ago and it's really held up well. Now the program is one side a year whether it needs it or not! Go's fast and is good maintanence.

 

[woodshop]

Yea, I've seen those spiral cutters. They seem like a great idea, also your able to rotate the cutters so you get 4X the wear right? ....

Correct, when dull, you rotate each carbide cutter 90 degrees to a new side, so you effectively get 4 solid carbide "blade changes" with each set. I was leery of some of the claims of how long the carbide lasted compared to steel knives, but was not disappointed. I've gotten over a year on the first side of the set in my planer at this point, and they still don't need changing. At this rate, that set will last me 5 years. Of course, I'm not a true full blown production shop, but I probably run more wood through my shop than most woodworkers. The set I installed on my 8" jointer though, about 9 months so far, do need to be rotated soon, so they do wear out eventually. Some of that was due to a job where I edged a lot of plywood, which because of the glue and other factors, is hard on cutters. At any rate, in my humble opinion, from what I've seen so far with these things, if you can stomach the initial higher cost, in the long run they are not any more expensive than standard knives because they last so long. The icing on the cake is they also give you a superior finish in situations like planing figured lumber.

 

[Burlhunter13]

Correct, when dull, you rotate each carbide cutter 90 degrees to a new side, so you effectively get 4 solid carbide "blade changes" with each set. I was leery of some of the claims of how long the carbide lasted compared to steel knives, but was not disappointed. I've gotten over a year on the first side of the set in my planer at this point, and they still don't need changing. At this rate, that set will last me 5 years. Of course, I'm not a true full blown production shop, but I probably run more wood through my shop than most woodworkers. The set I installed on my 8" jointer though, about 9 months so far, do need to be rotated soon, so they do wear out eventually. Some of that was due to a job where I edged a lot of plywood, which because of the glue and other factors, is hard on cutters. At any rate, in my humble opinion, from what I've seen so far with these things, if you can stomach the initial higher cost, in the long run they are not any more expensive than standard knives because they last so long. The icing on the cake is they also give you a superior finish in situations like planing figured lumber.

Zodiac - At least you keep up with the regular maintenance with you house! Keeping constantly on top of it will save the headache in the end. I have yet to find a good way to clean the fence without just sanding it after pressure washing. I like how you do business!

Woodshop - I think you sold me on the idea of the spiral cutters....I will probably use the plainer less then you do (I have the bandmill here and for the most part thats what the main use will be, just cleaning up the lumber from it.) Yours lasted 12 months on one side, heck, that'll do for me! I have some figured wood here as well as burls that will need to be plained in the future, I would like to avoid tear-out. The carbide feature sounds 10X better than the steel blades......now to come up with the money . Thanks for the review!

 

[woodshop]

Woodshop - I think you sold me on the idea of the spiral cutters....I will probably use the plainer less then you do (I have the bandmill here and for the most part thats what the main use will be, just cleaning up the lumber from it.) Yours lasted 12 months on one side, heck, that'll do for me! I have some figured wood here as well as burls that will need to be planed in the future, I would like to avoid tear-out. The carbide feature sounds 10X better than the steel blades......now to come up with the money . Thanks for the review!

When I upgrade or contemplate buying equipment I always take hands on experience from guys who have used the stuff as better info than anything else. If you follow the money, that is where the bias will be. Woodworking mags are often the worst culprits as they try not to bite off the hand that feeds them, advertising is where they make their money.

Spiral cutterheads with solid carbide cutters ARE superior in many ways, but they do have a few drawbacks as with anything. One of the biggest is that it does take more effort to run the wood past them. In a 15" planer with huge serrated rollers pulling the wood through, no big deal, but on a jointer you can definitely feel the difference. It does take more effort to push that board over that cutterhead. As you would suspect, I notice it most in 8 inch boards (I only have an 8 inch jointer). In some woods, you really do have to push harder, and when you're dealing with an 8ft long 8"wide board, that becomes a factor. Something else you may already know... you CAN sharpen steel to a slightly finer edge than carbide. Nature of the metal. That means for a newly sharpened set of knives in your machine you will actually get a cleaner sharper cut than any carbide blade. The diff is often negligible though, and the flip side of that is that steel blades lose that super sharp edge much quicker. A carbide edge will technically not be quite as sharp, but it will stay sharp way longer as you run wood through it day after day. As far as tearout on figured wood... note that although the spiral cutterhead does do a much much better job on that, there is little you can do about some tearout in some figured stuff... that grain is going every which way and sometimes there is no planer or jointer in the world that will slice it completely clean. Bottom line... if you do a lot of planing or jointing, in the long run the spiral cutterheads are simply cheaper, wiith less down time and less maintenance... and that's enough reason for me regardless of anything else.

 

[Burlhunter13]

When I upgrade or contemplate buying equipment I always take hands on experience from guys who have used the stuff as better info than anything else. If you follow the money, that is where the bias will be. Woodworking mags are often the worst culprits as they try not to bite off the hand that feeds them, advertising is where they make their money.

Spiral cutterheads with solid carbide cutters ARE superior in many ways, but they do have a few drawbacks as with anything. One of the biggest is that it does take more effort to run the wood past them. In a 15" planer with huge serrated rollers pulling the wood through, no big deal, but on a jointer you can definitely feel the difference. It does take more effort to push that board over that cutterhead. As you would suspect, I notice it most in 8 inch boards (I only have an 8 inch jointer). In some woods, you really do have to push harder, and when you're dealing with an 8ft long 8"wide board, that becomes a factor. Something else you may already know... you CAN sharpen steel to a slightly finer edge than carbide. Nature of the metal. That means for a newly sharpened set of knives in your machine you will actually get a cleaner sharper cut than any carbide blade. The diff is often negligible though, and the flip side of that is that steel blades lose that super sharp edge much quicker. A carbide edge will technically not be quite as sharp, but it will stay sharp way longer as you run wood through it day after day. As far as tearout on figured wood... note that although the spiral cutterhead does do a much much better job on that, there is little you can do about some tearout in some figured stuff... that grain is going every which way and sometimes there is no planer or jointer in the world that will slice it completely clean. Bottom line... if you do a lot of planing or jointing, in the long run the spiral cutterheads are simply cheaper, wiith less down time and less maintenance... and that's enough reason for me regardless of anything else.

Its going to be awhile before I can afford a spiral cutter, but I'm taking you advice on this one! I have a 26" woodmaster planer...the spiral cutter is somewhere around $1500-$2000 depending where I go. I was also looking into getting a totality new planer through Grizzly....most of them come with the spiral cutter new. I have to figure it out with my old man first... but he's hooked on the idea too.
I appreciate it buddy!