Hello everyone,

I have had this sitting around work for a month or so,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14head.jpg

waiting for me to find a chance to bring my planer in from home and install
this new Byrd Shelix cutterhead. This is the first one Byrd has made for a
General 130, so I hope this goes well.

I finally brought my planer in this week,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14start.jpg

First step, drain oil,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14drainoil.jpg

and remove dust hood.

I next removed the pulley from the cutterhead and was about to remove the
three screws that hold bearing cap to the side of the planer when I noticed
this,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...oubleblack.jpg

Hmmm. The head was larger than my black robbie screwdriver. This is a tool
store, I have to have one around somewhere... After 15 minutes of looking I
gave up and decided to make one. I don't know what it was that I started
with, but we have a bin of them at work, so 5 minutes later on a bench
grinder I made a robbie bit that would take out the screw,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...ubleblack2.jpg

Now I was able to take the screws out that hold the bearing cap in place.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14bearingcap.jpg

I took the gear housing apart so I could take the nut off the end of the
shaft that holds a small worm gear in place. I used a tiny puller to get it
off,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...gsmallgear.jpg

With the bearing cap screws out and the nut and gear off the other end I was
now able to slide the head out of the machine. There was some liberal BFH
usage against a block of wood against the end of the shaft to get it
started.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...dcomingout.jpg

I pressed new bearings onto the shaft with a 20 ton hydraulic floor press
and installed the head the same way it came out.

Then came the problem that held me up for 45 minutes. I could not get the
woodruff key out of the old head. Most people are familiar with a key and
keyway on the end of a shaft for a pulley. A small piece of square bar stock
engages in a keyway (groove) in both the pulley and the shaft to stop it
from free spinning. I usually tap a woodruff key (small semi circle piece of
metal) with small hammer to remove it. I hit this key so hard I was worried
I was peening it, it would not budge. I ground a cold chisel to a sharp
point and drove it into the end of the key and ended up prying it out. I
had to file down all the marks I had made in the key and tried to fit it
into the new head. Nope wouldn't fit. I spent 10 minutes looking around the
shop trying to find another one. I found two, one was too thin and the other
was the same size and would not fit either. I spent quite a while filing the
key until it finally fit into the shaft,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14woodruff.JPG

With the key in place, I could the worm gear back in and reinstall the big
bolt that holds everything in,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/i...tingheadin.jpg

Install new gasket and reassemble gear box.

Time for an oil change,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14oilfill.jpg

Put oil fill and sight plugs back in, reinstall dust hood and button
everything up.

Time to fire it up,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14planing.jpg

Cool.

Take a look at the curly maple board,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/14board.jpg

Not one bit of tear out. Nice upgrade.

I ran out of time today to do the final modification, that will have to wait
until Monday.

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him.