(Duplicating this post in **General **from the **Surfshop **section at recommendation of member to generate discussion. If this is out of place, feel free to remove)
Hello there, I am new to this forum though I have watched it closely as many of the posts pertained to a hobby of mine- collecting, restoring and reintroducing vintage power tools into my woodshop. I am not a surfer (live in Oklahoma but am fascinated with the application of machinery in board-shaping and woodworking. Recently, I purchased a helical cutterhead on Ebay from a Canadian gentleman, Mike with Sheartek, and am very impressed at the value and perfomance of this tool. It eats the gnarliest, exotic grained wood with ease, and leaves a wonderful finish. I am not sure if this would be a useful tool for board shaping, but the carbide cutterheads are a dream on synthetics as well. It reminds me of the Rockwell Delta Uniplane I use to surface larger exotic wood stock. I struck up a conversation with the seller and recommended that he investigate making a simlar cutterhead for the Skil 100, he was very receptive of the idea.
At the moment, I am looking for a spare cutterhead to send him so that he can get this fabricated. Would anyone know of a source? I have two Skil 100s and may just end up sending him an entire unit for fabrication and testing.
If you’d like to visit his store, navigate to the link below:
Spiral Cutterhead for Makita 1900B Electrical plane
I’ve also attached a pic of what you receive in the package, for the price it is an amazing deal. Milled, solid-steel cutterhead with 4-sided carbides, 5 spare cutters, bearings, spare mounting screws and installation T-handle wrench.
I’m not associated with the seller nor am receiving anything in return, just a really satisfied customer who is trying to introduce a top-quality product and hopefully encourage him to fabricate a similar set up for the Skil 100 and other popular shaping planers.
Very interesting product. Given the number of “gear-head” Skil 100 owners out there, me included, I think this would be well received. As everyone here will tell you,Pete Casica is our resident hands on engineer for the Skil and several other similar machines. Maybe he will check in with comments.
I think it is going to happen, I’m arranging to send a planer his way. I figured better for him to have the entire unit for testing and engineering the part rather than the cutterhead alone.
Do you all feel that the price point is manageable? (135 USD) I don’t really have any surfboard foam to test my Makita with but out of curiousity did try it out on some HDU sign foam, mowed right through it. I have seen the carbide drums for the Skil 100 (like a gold porcupine) how do those perform? Is a grinding or shearing action preferable in surfboard shaping?
I have never heard of anyone having to “repair” a Shapers Aus. grit barrel.? Maybe you can clue me. I can cut any stringer with mine, but prefer to use blades on the stringer work to prolong the sharpness of my grit barrel. I know a very well known shaper who has done a tremendous amount of volume shaping (primarily longboards since the Spanners day’s )whose only complaint about his grit barrel is that it was finally starting to wear out. I sold one of the gapped barrels to a shaper on the East Coast a couple of years ago and he was happy to get it and most likely still happy. Spiral blades are not a new thing. I’m not an expert, but at least two manufacurers introduced spiral blade planers back in the day. The problem with Spiral Blades is finding someone to accurately sharpen them. I suppose (depending on how they are made) they could break and fly apart. Aside from those comments; I advised Blake to move his post to General Discussion because there would be more interest over here. If those blades would work and we’re more effective than standard blades, for the money you couldn’t go wrong. But they have yet to be proven for surfboard shaping. So who will be first?
I shipped him a unit, he is actually at his factory overseas right now but when he gets back to Waterloo, Ontario they are going to tear it apart and proceed with the build.
Like I mentioned, I am delighted with the finish the Makita helical leaves on wood so I hope that translates over to the Skil 100 and the foam world!
I just bought one of these at the wood expo at maleny I have a 1900b. I have plan to use it for shaping with some advice from kazuma about how to modify my planer so wish me luck.
Well, I fitted it. It was a little stressful as i was worried that I was going to break something and the instructions were pretty limited. But if you have ever replaced the cutter head bearing before you will be fine with it, me I had never pulled apart the engine of a power tool like this.
but am fascinated with the application of machinery in board-shaping and woodworking. Recently, I purchased a helical cutterhead on Ebay from a Canadian gentleman, Mike with Sheartek, and am very impressed at the value and perfomance of this tool. It eats the gnarliest, exotic grained wood with ease, and leaves a wonderful finish. I am not sure if this would be a useful tool for board shaping, but the carbide cutterheads are a dream on synthetics as well. It reminds me of the Rockwell Delta Uniplane I use to surface larger exotic wood stock. I struck up a conversation with the seller and recommended that he investigate making a simlar cutterhead for the Skil 100, he was very receptive of the idea.