Hi all,
I recently bought a floor model jointer/planer with a helical insert type cutterhead. The machine is a Baileigh and the cutterhead says "Warrior Machinery Spiral Tech" on it. The cutters look pretty grungy and I haven't actually gotten the machine wired up yet so I don't know if they're in good shape or not. I went ahead and ordered a set of 10 inserts from Baileigh this morning, which they charged me $90 + $15 shipping. I was a bit aghast at that, because Byrd and other brands charge about $35-45 for a set of 10.
What I'm trying to figure out, for future reference, is whether any other brand cutter inserts are compatible with the ones I bought. I'm willing to pay postage if someone can mail me a Byrd insert, or if someone has a Byrd head and is willing to take the time to inspect and document, I could mail them one of my inserts to compare. These are set at a slight angle and the cutting edge has a subtle radius like the Byrd inserts, so I'm hoping the geometry is the same. The nominal size of each insert is 15mm x 15mm x 2.5mm.
I realize that carbide cutterheads last a LONG time, but this machine has a 16" head with six rows, for a total of 102 inserts and I'm not keen on paying over a grand just for inserts when it does come time to replace these. The other factor is that because it's a planer and jointer, the inserts will get a lot more wear since they're doing double-duty.
Below is a bad photo of my equipment:
I recently bought a floor model jointer/planer with a helical insert type cutterhead. The machine is a Baileigh and the cutterhead says "Warrior Machinery Spiral Tech" on it. The cutters look pretty grungy and I haven't actually gotten the machine wired up yet so I don't know if they're in good shape or not. I went ahead and ordered a set of 10 inserts from Baileigh this morning, which they charged me $90 + $15 shipping. I was a bit aghast at that, because Byrd and other brands charge about $35-45 for a set of 10.
What I'm trying to figure out, for future reference, is whether any other brand cutter inserts are compatible with the ones I bought. I'm willing to pay postage if someone can mail me a Byrd insert, or if someone has a Byrd head and is willing to take the time to inspect and document, I could mail them one of my inserts to compare. These are set at a slight angle and the cutting edge has a subtle radius like the Byrd inserts, so I'm hoping the geometry is the same. The nominal size of each insert is 15mm x 15mm x 2.5mm.
I realize that carbide cutterheads last a LONG time, but this machine has a 16" head with six rows, for a total of 102 inserts and I'm not keen on paying over a grand just for inserts when it does come time to replace these. The other factor is that because it's a planer and jointer, the inserts will get a lot more wear since they're doing double-duty.
Below is a bad photo of my equipment: