Helical Cutter Head for DW735

Helical Cutter Head upgrade for the DW735 thicknesser with 45 inserts and true helical shape (not spiral!).

I personally use this cutter head and have been running hard walnut, matai and hard american maple. Previously my HSS straight cutter blades would quickly dull on hard woods with fine cuts between 0-50lin m and slowly tapering down to significant tear out (and extreme noise!), which then led to more sanding. I would be replacing the blades often after a few hundred meters which is quite costly.

Few pros and cons from my experience:

Pros:
- Significantly less noise, as 1 insert is colliding with the timber (rather than a 300mm blade).
- Longer life on blades - carbide is much hard and durable than HSS, less blade changes needed, especially when planning hardwoods.
- Single blades can be rotated if damaged, 4 usable sides vs 2!
- Cleaner finish cuts - on the 'finishing cut' mode on the DW735, sanding is not necessary after cutting with a helical cutter, towards the end of the life of the blade, a small light finish sand may be needed.

Cons:
- Install requires removal of the original shaft, bearings, motor chains and belts. It's quite involved and should be undertaken by only by experienced machine tinkerers. I can provide advice having completed a few installs and have links to a great youtube video explaining the process. Takes around 1-2hrs. I do offer this as a service but my time is quite limited...
- Blade change is more time consuming -> rotating 45 blades is required. Will take 2-3x longer to swap blades than straight blades, but you'll be doing it less often...
- Running costs - I'd say roughly 1 carbide blade side is equivalent to 2-3 HSS blade turns, if you're planning a lot of hardwood, you'll likely be saving after using all 4 cutter sides. I provide replacements for $3.2 a cutter head - $144 for 45 heads - which is equivalent to around 8 HSS blade sets.

Any questions please get in touch