The helical cutterhead (left) uses individual solid carbide cutters, each with four cutting edges that can be “indexed” four times should the first edge become dull. We include five extra carbide cutters, screws and two drivers with the PJ-882HH. One driver is placed in a screw to hold the head steady while the other driver loosens the screw at the cutter to be replaced or indexed.
Helical Cutterhead
There are many cutterhead designs that carry the helical label, including simple straight blades broken into segments and dispersed around the cutterhead cylinder. However, despite the name, they retain many of the liabilities of the long blade designs. While designing the PJ- 882HH 8" Parallelogram Jointer we wanted to incorporate the performance of a true segmented, shear-cutting helical head.
The PJ-882HH 8" Parallelogram Jointer helical cutterhead is so
effective because its carbide inserts are arranged in spiral-shaped rows. The inserts have a 4” radius ground into them and are mounted so they approach the wood at a 14-degree angle. That creates a true shear cut that eliminates much of the impact and the resulting fiber disturbance other cutterhead designs deliver to the wood.
The helical cutterhead cuts so efficiently that it dramatically reduces the noise made when cutting wood. In fact, it is so quiet, new PJ-882HH 8" Parallelogram Jointer users often think it is not cutting wood at all, until they see the results. The shearing effect of the helical cutterhead produces a remarkably smooth surface on even heavily figured wood.
The solid carbide cutters in the helical head last far longer than straight knives, but just in case, we provide extra cutters, screws and drivers to install them
The helical cutterhead inserts are precisely machined from solid high-grade carbide, each with four identical cutting edges. If an edge eventually goes dull, you simply index it to the next cutting edge! Each insert has a marking at one edge that makes indexing all or any number of them the same way very easy, though needing to do that is unlikely.
Because the inserts themselves and the seats into which they fit are so precisely machined, there is no adjustment or “fitting” necessary. Indexing or replacing an insert takes just seconds. Simply loosen its retaining screw, turn the insert to its new position and tighten the screw.
The durability of the carbide combined with the low impact, shear cutting action mean the inserts have an extremely long life, far exceeding that of straight blades. The potential life span of these carbide inserts means that many PJ-882HH 8" Parallelogram Jointer users may go years before having to index them. Should a hidden piece of metal be encountered and actually damage a few of the carbide inserts only the ones actually contacting the metal need to be indexed or replaced.
