I'm considering getting a Shelix cutterhead for my jointer to improve performance on highly figured wood.

Does anyone have experience in switching to this cutterhead. was it easy to change and does it work well?

I upgraded the cutterhead in my Grizzly Ultimate Jointer (12") about 18 months ago. Grizzly used to offer a helical head upgrade for this machine, but discontinued it, so I had to do it with no instructions. Given this it took a few days to figure it out, working on it part time. After multiple calls I was able to find someone at Grizzly support that knew the machine and provided a few pointers that really helped in the disassembly. I had to go out to buy bearing pullers once I had the old head out of the machine to remove the old bearings so I could re-use the mounting blocks. The new head has worked well since. Occasionally I have to tweak a few of the cutters because one or two of them will creep up higher than the others. Shellix recommended a procedure for tightening them down again, l but I found this still occurs periodically.

I replaced the cutterhead on my 6" jointer several years ago. The procedure was easy enough, but I would suggest that 1 other person to help, as the directions call for, is essential. On an 8" or bigger jointer, don't even think about trying it alone. Yes the results of the new spiral head cutter are great, noise is reduced and sharpening blades is very distant in the rear view mirror. On highly figured wood just remember to take minimal cuts as possible, you can still get tear out with too aggressive a cut.