Upgraded my Ridgid surface planer

Alan Bienlein

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I've been thinking for a long while about replacing my Ridgid TP1300 surface planer with a grizzly GO453 15" planer. I've had this planer since 2005 and it's served me well but I'm just getting tired of trying to find the replacement blades for it.
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Well when I got the 2012 catalog and saw how much they raised the prices I began my search to just upgrade mine with a spiral cutter head. I came across this website http://www.accu-head.com/#! that sells the same cutter head made for the steel city lunchbox planer but made to fit many other lunchbox planers. It cost $250 plus shipping and comes with 26 two sided hss cutters on the head along with 10 extra cutters, set screws and the torx driver to remove and install them.
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Here it is installed in my surface planer.
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I'm going to store the old cutterhead in the box the new one came in and I will probably use it to make me a 13" joiner just like the one made here http://woodgears.ca/jointer/homemade.html
I ran a bunch of magnolia thru the planer tonight for drawer parts for a toolbox I'm building to replace two metal mechanics toolboxes. Talk about a difference both in noise reduction and the size of piece I can run thru it now without it bogging down!:woot::score::highfive:
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In talking with their service tech I also found out they are going to be coming out with carbide inserts for it which was the deciding factor for me to do this. I figure it was worth it cause I got the surface planer for FREE!
 
well from the picture, it looks like they align with each other and possibly leaving a fine strip that doesnt get planed, normally the insert type have 4 cutter edges not just 2 alan..i had read that some of these heads take more power to run but i like that your saying it doesnt and the noise change has got make a good change. how was the finish on the cut?
 
The cuts were smooth with the 2 sided hss cutters that came with it. I had a pack of 10 4 sided carbide cutters lying around that were the same size so I figure I would give them a shot. At first they left a line so I went back and rechecked them and it was better but still left a slight ridge. As I ran some more wood thru the planer the ridge went away and the surface got smoother. The carbide cutters were cutting better than the hss ones.

Here is the link to where I got the cutters.http://www.carbideprocessors.com/4-sided-1-hole-insert-knife-t04f-grade-14mm-x-14mm-x-2mm-southeast-tool-si-141420-sp/

The head is 13" long and is made up of 26 1/2" wide segments that the cutters bolt to. Since the cutters are just shy of 9/16" wide they overlap each other when cutting.

As far as these heads needing more power to run I think someone doesn't know what they are talking about. I had no problem with a 12" wide piece of oak taking off 1/32" at a time like I have always done with this surface planer. The old 2 knife head would have bogged down real bad.
 
Good to hear the cut quality was better. My first thought when looking at the web site was that the cutters are not angled or arranged in a spiral (ala Byrd) so I was unsure what the benefits would be.
 
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