For me, I didn’t have a helical head for my planer. I got one and it made prepping stock MUCH easier and basically no sanding needed.
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A wise man once said; “Never feel bad about buying a tool”. Buy all you can afford and have room for 
My most used/critical for CNC are a cyclonic dust separator, and ear protection (Bose noise cancelling). Listening to music whilest CNCing makes things much more enjoyable. When paired via bluetooth to a home assistant thing (e.g. Echo, Google) I also get announcements over the music when a package is delivered to the front porch, the dryer is done, or when the wife calls for help after the dog runs away with her socks.
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I don’t understand why we need to impose limits.
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A torque wrench good to above max recommened for your collet; ER20 and >1/4 inch needs 55 Ft-Lb (watch the units). A crows foot wrench (ER20=30mm) to apply the torque. I’m going with a dedicated setup.
A mini blower to remove the chips dust collection missed.
Palmyra bristlebrush to clear the fuzzes - thanks to Woodsmith’s CNC Bootcamp u-tube.
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I have a Makita 2012NB 12" planer that uses two HSS blades. It works just fine for “normal” wood, but I like to use curly wood a lot, and unfortunately, with the grain going all different directions in it, there is no way to run it through the planer and not get tearout somewhere on it.
Run it this way - grain is chunked out in a few places where it was facing the blades.
Run it opposite direction - grain is chunked out in different locations where the grain is facing the blades now that it is the opposite orientation.
I bought a Shelix cutter head from here: https://shelixheads.com/
And it took 10-12 months to show up because they “wait to get a batch” before they make them.
Then, I ended up not putting it in for another 6 months due to the weather, since I don’t have room in my current shed to do it.
When I finally got it installed, oh man… It was soooo nice! The one board I was describing above - curly walnut - was planed without even the slightest tearout anywhere. I’ll see if I can find the video of that board when I planed it for the first time. I may have posted it here before. I’ll have to look through my posts.
Here’s the Shelix head in the planer.
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Video of my first cut with the Shelix cutter head.
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Late to the game here but I would not recommend a planer since you have one. It’s the CNC with a flycutter. Planers only make the top of the board look like the bottom of the board and the rollers apply alot of downward pressure that artificially flattens cupped boards and the board comes out just as cupped only thinner. A planer sled will solve that but they are finicky to use. There is no downward pressure on the CNC so it will flatten perfectly. Lots of videos available online. The only drawback is that it is slow. I often flatten one side then do the other side on my planer. Also, planers are typically limited to boards over a foot long. I often use my CNC to flatten thick stock for easier bowl turning. Works great. I would also get a fine brass or nylon brush to clean the sawdust residue off the cutters when you remove them. Sawdust left on the bit attracts moisture which makes rust. Good luck and have fun!
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I haven’t done much curly stuff yet. Maybe some slight curl in a few boards thru the new head and, yes, it looks great no matter what I put thru it.
- I have found that shop vac works better than my dust collector.
- Knowledge,
- Calabration, learn that first, if it is not calabrated down to the 100 of a inch, you will have fit problems,
- Welcome to the CNC world
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