# Router bit - Yonico 16129



## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

I'm looking at some new router bits. I have always used the Freud brand of router bits (1/2" shaft) but tonight I found a configuration made by Yonico, that I really like. Does anyone have any experience with this brand of router bit? How did it perform, did it dull easily, run smooth and self cleaning? I appreciate any information or experiences you might be able to share about the Yonico brand. Thank you in advance, I will be routing Oak by the way.


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## Tom-G (Nov 11, 2012)

I have several Yonico router bits. Never had a problem with them. There are a few forum threads on them in the past few years. Just search on “Yonico”.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

If the manufacturer states the type of carbide, that's a big clue as to quality. For instance carbide hardness varies from C2, then C3 and finally C4. Even those simple grading units have evolved over the years and may not be the same as years ago:


Carbide Grades Explained » Carbide Processors Blog


Yonico bits are well regarded for performance and value.


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

I am the same as Tom-G.


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## Bernie_72 (Aug 9, 2020)

I picked up a 1/2" set of router bits from Yonico last year and I also own a Yonico 45 degree lock miter bit. The bits I have used have cut very cleanly and for the price they're hard to beat. I paid $149 for this set last year...it doesn't appear to be available now on Amazon but there are several sets like it:

Yonico 1/2" Router Bit Set​
I have started buying slightly better bits for ones I use on a regular basis. I picked up a few Whiteside bits over the last 3 months. I think Whiteside bits are about halfway between the cheaper Yonico bits and the real high-end bits. I'm very happy with the first few whiteside bits I purchased, the spiral flush trim bit is very good. 

Whiteside Spiral Flush Trim Router Bit​


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

John Smith_inFL said:


> I am the same as Tom-G.


Good Morning John...For whatever reason I though of you this morning... as I chipped and swept the ice out of the bed of my truck. My thoughts...I should be in Mount Dora.


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## John Smith_inFL (Jul 4, 2018)

LOL ~ yeah, 83* (Eighty Three) degrees here his weekend.
Marion County experienced a little frost last week - some tomato plants were lost.
other than that, it is a nice entry into the New Year !!!
John


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## Yetti (Dec 30, 2020)

needshave said:


> I'm looking at some new router bits. I have always used the Freud brand of router bits (1/2" shaft) but tonight I found a configuration made by Yonico, that I really like. Does anyone have any experience with this brand of router bit? How did it perform, did it dull easily, run smooth and self cleaning? I appreciate any information or experiences you might be able to share about the Yonico brand. Thank you in advance, I will be routing Oak by the way.


Recently I have been using some of those Yonico router bits.I bought half inch shank they three-quarter inch flush pets one 2 1/2 inch long and one at 1 inch long...And I also bought a tongue and groove set half inch deep half inch shank.
I will say they are OK they’re not great are use them for some specific purposes but they’re not the same sharpness as a higher price bits. They begin to full a bit quicker than high-quality carbide bits. I keep my variable speed router RPMs as low as I can so they don’t heat up and that does extend the life quite a bit 
For the price, and if you don’t have a large production need for these , I will buy more of these bits if I just need to do 10 of these or 20 of those type of situation.
I hope that helps Brotha 

Yetti-


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## Tom-G (Nov 11, 2012)

Bernie_72 said:


> I picked up a 1/2" set of router bits from Yonico last year and I also own a Yonico 45 degree lock miter bit. The bits I have used have cut very cleanly and for the price they're hard to beat. I paid $149 for this set last year...it doesn't appear to be available now on Amazon but there are several sets like it:
> 
> Yonico 1/2" Router Bit Set​
> I have started buying slightly better bits for ones I use on a regular basis. I picked up a few Whiteside bits over the last 3 months. I think Whiteside bits are about halfway between the cheaper Yonico bits and the real high-end bits. I'm very happy with the first few whiteside bits I purchased, the spiral flush trim bit is very good.
> ...


All Yonico bits including the 50 and 70 bit sets are available here:






Router Bit Kits | Multi Router Bit Sets | PrecisionBits.com


Choose from a great selection of router bit sets that range from the small to the large. These multi-bit kits are a great purchase for all woodworkers.




www.precisionbits.com


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

Tom-G said:


> All Yonico bits including the 50 and 70 bit sets are available here:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info Tom, 
Like I said I have never used any Yonico router bits, but there is a world of difference in price between the Freud, I normally use, and the Yonico. Have you ever used the Yonico on any of the Oak species?


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## Tom-G (Nov 11, 2012)

needshave said:


> Thanks for the info Tom,
> Like I said I have never used any Yonico router bits, but there is a world of difference in price between the Freud, I normally use, and the Yonico. Have you ever used the Yonico on any of the Oak species?


I have used Yonico bits on birch and hard maple, and on birch and maple prefinished 3/4" plywood. The only maintenance I have done is to use bit cleaner on them periodically. I have always ordered directly from precisionbits.com.


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## _Ogre (Feb 1, 2013)

John Smith_inFL said:


> LOL ~ yeah, 83* (Eighty Three) degrees here his weekend.
> Marion County experienced a little frost last week - some tomato plants were lost.
> other than that, it is a nice entry into the New Year !!!
> John


83° use alt code 0176


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

I have multiple sets of Yonico bits. 
I'm a hobby shop - they are not used 8 hours/day x 52 weeks a year.
for my use(s)/needs, they do just fine.

if the 70 pc set ever is available, it's a darn good deal for the hobbyist. of 70 pcs, 30-40 likely will never be used . . . but having a bunch of profiles to pick from makes for an interesting day in the shop. all the trouble you can get into without having to order/wait for anything . . . .


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

Tom, Valid point. Thanks.

I have a project to build for all the family members that will require that I run a lot (and I mean a lot)of quarter sawn oak and my biggest concern is getting a bit that hold up and mill the Oak safely and well. Oak can be very tough and demanding. I'm thinking I may try one just to see how it holds up. Thanks for writing.


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## Bernie_72 (Aug 9, 2020)

needshave said:


> Tom, Valid point. Thanks.
> 
> I have a project to build for all the family members that will require that I run a lot (and I mean a lot)of quarter sawn oak and my biggest concern is getting a bit that hold up and mill the Oak safely and well. Oak can be very tough and demanding. I'm thinking I may try one just to see how it holds up. Thanks for writing.


I've used my Yonico bits with quite a bit of red and white oak. The white oak I use has all been quartersawn. The oak is probably the softest wood I've used them on. Most of my projects this year have been with black locust and I've done some work with padauk, bloodwood and purpleheart. So far the bits have held up well.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

Bernie_72 said:


> I've used my Yonico bits with quite a bit of red and white oak. The white oak I use has all been quartersawn. The oak is probably the softest wood I've used them on. Most of my projects this year have been with black locust and I've done some work with padauk, bloodwood and purpleheart. So far the bits have held up well.


Great Bernie,
Thanks for the info, I was hoping someone might have some experience with red and white oak and the Yonico bits. May I ask, What size Router are you using? I have a 1.75 and a 3.0 HP, but I prefer the smaller. Just wondering how the oak, Yonico and router size correlate to each other with your success. Thanks


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## Bernie_72 (Aug 9, 2020)

needshave said:


> Great Bernie,
> Thanks for the info, I was hoping someone might have some experience with red and white oak and the Yonico bits. May I ask, What size Router are you using? I have a 1.75 and a 3.0 HP, but I prefer the smaller. Just wondering how the oak, Yonico and router size correlate to each other with your success. Thanks


Both of my routers are 2 1/4 HP Dewalt DW618's so it looks like I'm right in the middle of your small and large router. I've never had any "lack of power" issues with the Dewalts but I generally take small passes whenever possible.


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

needshave said:


> Great Bernie,
> Thanks for the info, I was hoping someone might have some experience with red and white oak and the Yonico bits. May I ask, What size Router are you using? I have a 1.75 and a 3.0 HP, but I prefer the smaller. Just wondering how the oak, Yonico and router size correlate to each other with your success. Thanks


I have those.
I work primarily with red & white oak, ash and hard maple.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

TomCT2 said:


> I have those.
> I work primarily with red & white oak, ash and hard maple.


You are using the Yonico bits? Great to hear there is another satisfied user. Thanks for the info. Good to hear. What size Router are you using? 
I would like to use my 1.75 and I realize it depends on bit size, but Do you think it will be underpowered? I have a larger router, But I have always liked this Milwaukee. I think I'm going to order the Yonico's and see how they work for me. They have some profiles that I want that I can't find elsewhere anyways. So this is good news.Thanks Tom.


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

I have two Bosch 1617 variable speed. one is table mounted, the other kept for freehand/dovetail/panel rabbit-dado work.
depending on which blurb you read, it's rated 2 or 2.25 hp.
being a 'hobbyist' - they are not used for thousands of lineal feet per day - but mine have 'lasted' 4-5-6 years without issue in all but exclusively hard species. typically I buy 200-300 rough sawn BF - 2x / year, so that's an indicator of how heavily they get used - altho obviously not every BF gets bitten by a router.... altho I'd guessimate 80% of my BF gets a Yonico 1/4 round over on 2 or 4 edges. years and years of such 'light cuts' from the same bit....

and I'll tell you a little secret - I have other router bit sets - ala Grizzly, etc. the boxes are _identical_, the non-stick coating is a different color - but other than that - it's all made in China and likely in the same factory and to the same specs.

the only significant different is carbide cutting edges I've seen is for helix joiner/planer bits. there are carbides that are "harder" than others - but they don't seem to appear in router bits.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

needshave said:


> You are using the Yonico bits? Great to hear there is another satisfied user. Thanks for the info. Good to hear. What size Router are you using?
> I would like to use my 1.75 and I realize it depends on bit size, but Do you think it will be underpowered? I have a larger router, But I have always liked this Milwaukee. I think I'm going to order the Yonico's and see how they work for me. They have some profiles that I want that I can't find elsewhere anyways. So this is good news.Thanks Tom.


Thanks Tom, I guess I'm not surprised they all look the same and probably the same box. I use grizzly for shaper bits, seem fine, never had a problem.

I making all of these memorial boxes out of quarter sawn oak that my father in law had cut off his farm in the 50's. It's mostly 5/4 and some 2", most is 8-10" wide x 10' long. I just ran the first piece thru the planer just to see what it looks like. My planer was really starting to talk, so it is time to update those planer blades! 

Thanks for your help and information Tom.


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

yup. just looked, bought the planer in 2016 - had HSS helix bits. did the rotation - and it's now time to replace them. one can 'tell' by the noise - sharp new blades are whisper quiet - they get louder as they wear.\

I bought a carbide set - I'm going to do to the rough pass on my latest batch of rough sawn, then swap out to the carbide bits.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

Tom,
We were talking about planers and planer blades last night. I have an Oliver and A Powermatic planer. I was looking on a marketplace site last night. Someone had been transferred out of state and was selling all his equipment. I went to look at it this morning and ended up buying another planer. I ran it quite a bit at his location, run some rough cut oak an ash though it, it does a wonderful job. SO much more quieter than my others. It is a 15" bridgewood, 3 HP, 220V. The guy had not used it or anything in his shop since 2000.. There are a rack of rollers that goes on the inferred and out feed side to the panel bed. I already have them off. He has a Burke head that he purchased for it, but







it but never had a chance to put it on. DO you know anything about the Burke head, Found some sketchy information on line.

^^Update. I was talking to the original owner, and he said he mis-quoted it is a Byrd head. Which makes a whole lot more sense. A bit surprising though.


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## TomCT2 (May 16, 2014)

sorry - no experience with a Bridgewood planer - looks like a tank and at 240v should handle anything.


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## Bernie_72 (Aug 9, 2020)

needshave said:


> ...He has a Burke head that he purchased for it, butit but never had a chance to put it on. DO you know anything about the Burke head, Found some sketchy information on line.
> 
> ^^Update. I was talking to the original owner, and he said he mis-quoted it is a Byrd head. Which makes a whole lot more sense. A bit surprising though.


Your planer looks to be the same as my Grizzly 15". I did a full restore on that planer and installed a new spiral cutter head on it last year. If you need any help or advice I'd be happy to help. Replacing the cutterhead isn't difficult but there are a few tips and tricks I can help with. You should replace the bearings for the cutter head while you have everything apart. 

I'd also recommend checking the bearings on your bed rollers. You're going to have to re-adjust those anyways once you install your new cutter head and align everything. If you have a hard time finding replacement bearings let me know. I sourced some of mine from Grizzly & Jet directly but a lot of them I sourced off of Amazon. 

You'll find a lot of videos on installing Byrd heads. Here's a video from Grizzly on installing a cutter head on a 15" planer. It's not the exact same model you and I have but most of the steps are the same and most importantly the gearbox in this video seems to be identical. 






Here's a slideshow of my restoration process. It's not as informative as a real video but I have several photos of pretty much all sections of the planer as I pulled it apart and put it back together. The process seemed a bit intimidating to me at first but once I dug into it I found that this machine is actually very simple.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

Thanks SO much Bernie. I certainly appreciate your efforts and offer to help. I will take advantage of your offer. When I purchased the machine the owner said it was basically a jet or grizzly planer and you reinforced that. The Planer appears to be very well built. He said he used it very little and it has set for many years since he was not in the area long enough to do anything with it. 
Thats a great video you made of your restoration, you took it all the way down which is the way to do it if you're going to do it. It looks stellar. May I ask what were you using the JB weld for. I have used that before, Great stuff.
I just got back from the owners house, where I picked up the byrd head, it's all there wrapped in paper and never installed so I'm pretty happy with it.
While I was there, the owner ask me if I would be interested in his tables. SO I looked at them. He had three 4 x tables, made with 2" square tubing for uprights and horizontal frame work , each has one shelf. each table has a solid one piece 1/4" thick steel top and 1/8" thick steel shelf surface' They are mounted on 6" cast v track wheels. They are beautiful tables. I bought them all, but I have to get some help and my car trailer to get them back. Thankfully the car trailer has a winch on it otherwise, there is no way I cold handle these things. 
I didn't understand why the planer had these big feet on the frame. the tables have them as well He said he had it set up so that he could adjust the planer height so that it was the same as these tables, so Im going to follow his logic or vice versus.
But again, thanks so much Bernie, I want to try and find a parts list and schematic for it, so if you can steer me in that direction I would greatly appreciate it.


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

yonico are decent bits. i buy a lot of bits now that i am running a cnc. centurion tools sells some razor sharp bits at a very reasonable price. give them a look. no relationship here, but a satisfied customer.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

TimPa said:


> yonico are decent bits. i buy a lot of bits now that i am running a cnc. centurion tools sells some razor sharp bits at a very reasonable price. give them a look. no relationship here, but a satisfied customer.


Thanks Tim for the information. I'm not familiar with Centurion at all, I will do a google search and see what I can find. Thanks for the info... Also, Looks like you might be into tractors. I have 2 Old AC's a wd45 and a b both with wide fronts. Thanks Again.


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## Bernie_72 (Aug 9, 2020)

needshave said:


> Thanks SO much Bernie. I certainly appreciate your efforts and offer to help. I will take advantage of your offer. When I purchased the machine the owner said it was basically a jet or grizzly planer and you reinforced that. The Planer appears to be very well built. He said he used it very little and it has set for many years since he was not in the area long enough to do anything with it.
> Thats a great video you made of your restoration, you took it all the way down which is the way to do it if you're going to do it. It looks stellar. May I ask what were you using the JB weld for. I have used that before, Great stuff.
> I just got back from the owners house, where I picked up the byrd head, it's all there wrapped in paper and never installed so I'm pretty happy with it.
> While I was there, the owner ask me if I would be interested in his tables. SO I looked at them. He had three 4 x tables, made with 2" square tubing for uprights and horizontal frame work , each has one shelf. each table has a solid one piece 1/4" thick steel top and 1/8" thick steel shelf surface' They are mounted on 6" cast v track wheels. They are beautiful tables. I bought them all, but I have to get some help and my car trailer to get them back. Thankfully the car trailer has a winch on it otherwise, there is no way I cold handle these things.
> ...


Here's the parts list you. were looking for:

Parts List​
You'll see 2 different types of Grizzly planers in there. The core mechanisms are the same on both but some of the cosmetics and the electrical controls are a bit different. I suspect the G1021Z will be the closest match to your machine (it's the 2nd machine listed in the parts list document I linked). You'll find a parts reference table below the parts break-out diagrams. Those tables have Grizzly part numbers which you can order right from their site. If they don't have a particular part in stock don't order it. Some of the smaller parts I ordered from them that weren't in stock took 3 or 4 months to eventually come in. If you find a part you need that isn't in stock you can check Powermatic or Jet parts sites as they both have models that match our planer. If all else fails check Amazon but be careful, especially with bearings, to get quality parts. 

The JB weld you saw in my slide show was for a modification I did to the wheel that you use to change the height of the table. I originally bought this planer back in 2005 and used it a lot on lumber that I milled myself. I was never a fan of the small wheel that came with the planer so I bought a larger wheel that was designed for a table saw. I cut out the center section of my old wheel and connected it to the new table saw wheel that I purchased. I used JB weld putty to smooth out the transition between the piece I added and the wheel I purchased. That putty is very easy to use and has 900 pounds of holding pressure. It also sands pretty easily so it was easy to shape it after it hardened. 

Sounds like you got a nice deal on all those tables!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions when you start installing that new cutter head.


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## needshave (Oct 31, 2009)

Bernie_72 said:


> Here's the parts list you. were looking for:
> 
> Parts List​
> You'll see 2 different types of Grizzly planers in there. The core mechanisms are the same on both but some of the cosmetics and the electrical controls are a bit different. I suspect the G1021Z will be the closest match to your machine (it's the 2nd machine listed in the parts list document I linked). You'll find a parts reference table below the parts break-out diagrams. Those tables have Grizzly part numbers which you can order right from their site. If they don't have a particular part in stock don't order it. Some of the smaller parts I ordered from them that weren't in stock took 3 or 4 months to eventually come in. If you find a part you need that isn't in stock you can check Powermatic or Jet parts sites as they both have models that match our planer. If all else fails check Amazon but be careful, especially with bearings, to get quality parts.
> ...


Thanks Bernie for all the info. The parts list is a tremendous help. 
Thanks again for all you help,


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## TimPa (Jan 27, 2010)

needshave said:


> Thanks Tim for the information. I'm not familiar with Centurion at all, I will do a google search and see what I can find. Thanks for the info... Also, Looks like you might be into tractors. I have 2 Old AC's a wd45 and a b both with wide fronts. Thanks Again.


do you work them, collect, restore...? have a farm?


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