Charlie Self wrote:

Duane Bozarth notes:


One disadvantage I see is that the replacement cost is quite high for a
complete set when it does come eventually. The good thing is that
hopefully the quality of the inserts are such they will last a long
time...

With the Grizzly, you're looking at $80 for 40 carbide inserts. The same
machine, with its four knife cutterhead, costs about $50, IIRC, to replace the
HSS knives. ...

The particular set of heads I remembered seeing weren't Grizzly. The
individual inserts were roughly the same price but there were something
like 128 or so altogether, so the total replacement would be $320.
That, of course, isn't too terribly far removed from what a set of solid
carbide knives of equivalent total length would be. It is true you do
have a better chance of knicking only a subset, I grant, and again,
assuming the carbide is good quality, they should last a long time as I
noted...

But, I think you read more negative into my previous post than was
really intended...