Planer Snipe

[Vince Shriver]

Has anybody really solved planner snipe? Wether lunchbox planers or 15 inch machines, seems the only way for-sure to solve the issue is to mill extra material, then cut off the snipe. Anyone?

[Rod Sheridan]

My Hammer A3-31 has zero snipe, the Felder planers are the same.

Here's a question for MiniMax owners, does your planer have snipe?

Regards, Rod.

P.S. It might be interesting to compare deigns.

My previous was a General 130, bed length was 21 1/4"

Hammer is 21 1/2" so bed length isn't the answer.

Could someone measure their planer for relationship between rollers/pressure bar/cutterhead?

Maybe something will turn up.

[Chris Padilla]

I get snipe with my Minimax FS-41Elite (16" jointer/planer). I haven't measured the bed length but around 20" seems about right. If I'm a bit more carefull with how I feed the board, I won't get snipe but occasionally, I do get it.

[glenn bradley]

seems the only way for-sure to solve the issue is to mill extra material, then cut off the snipe. Anyone?

Not at all. There is no need to live with this on a properly functioning and setup machine. On my little DW734 the cure was elevating the ends of the infeed and outfeed tables. Same process for my Dad's DW753.

I elevate the tips so that a straight edge setting on the end of each table (passing through the planer) is the height of a dime over the platen. I actually set the straight edge on the dimes and raise the table tips to meet it.

This solves the snipe problem for all but long boards. For longer material I use roller stands. The height is set to continue the elevation of the table tips out to the stands position. This does mean that you have to control your material and not just let the planer grab it and spit it out ;-)

If you think about it, snipe is a result of the trailing end of the material rising into the cutter head. You just have to stop that via table adjustment or for units without tables; roller stands or human intervention.

[Lee Schierer]

I get less than .003-.005 snipe on the ends of boards on my Delta lunch box planer since I mounted it in a dedicated table.
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~us71na/lsfence1.jpg

After sanding the .003" isn't noticeable except by measurement with calipers.

[Steve Clardy]

I raise the board up slightly before it comes off of the infeed roller.

[Jim Kountz]

Not at all. There is no need to live with this on a properly functioning and setup machine. On my little DW734 the cure was elevating the ends of the infeed and outfeed tables. Same process for my Dad's DW753.

I elevate the tips so that a straight edge setting on the end of each table (passing through the planer) is the height of a dime over the platen. I actually set the straight edge on the dimes and raise the table tips to meet it.

This solves the snipe problem for all but long boards. For longer material I use roller stands. The height is set to continue the elevation of the table tips out to the stands position. This does mean that you have to control your material and not just let the planer grab it and spit it out ;-)

If you think about it, snipe is a result of the trailing end of the material rising into the cutter head. You just have to stop that via table adjustment or for units without tables; roller stands or human intervention.

Ditto, I have the same planer and did just about the same thing to all bit eliminate snipe. When my blades start getting a little dull it seems to make snipe more noticable but still not bad.

[Curt Harms]

I feed the board wrong. As long as the board starts flat and I support it while the last few inches pass under the cutterhead, it comes out smooth. The only planer I've had that snipes no matter what I did was the old Delta 22-540. I was able to reduce snipe with that planer but never did eliminate it. I found it interesting that the Jet J/P will plane 7" long stock without snipe. The Delta planers didn't like to plane shorts without feeding problems and snipe.

Curt

[harry strasil]

I don't get any snipe with my Delta 22-540 lunchbox, but I have added column locks.

FWIW, what causes snipe is the tiny bit of movement in the elevations screws, if you check how far your blades are away from the outfeed roll, that is usually the amount of snipe there is. When the piece goes under the infeed roll it cocks the whole head up just a tad, and when the outfeed rolls make contact it moves up against any slop in the columns or screws. When the end goes thru same thing after the infeed roll looses contact with the piece it moves back down like the outfeed did when you started it.

An easy way to prevent snipe is to glue, use double sided tape, small nails or screws and put a small sacrificial piece on each side of the infeed end the width of your bottom planer table, the same on the other end and you should end up with absoulutely no snipe.

Ok, I am a neander, but I spent my working life as a blacksmith, weldor and machinist, I found out the above by accident as I had my finger on the machine at the column and noticed the slight movement.

[harry strasil]

A blacksmith or machinist has to modify everything to suit them, just their nature.

[Vince Shriver]

I don't get any snipe with my Delta 22-540 lunchbox, but I have added column locks.

FWIW, what causes snipe is the tiny bit of movement in the elevations screws, if you check how far your blades are away from the outfeed roll, that is usually the amount of snipe there is. When the piece goes under the infeed roll it cocks the whole head up just a tad, and when the outfeed rolls make contact it moves up against any slop in the columns or screws. When the end goes thru same thing after the infeed roll looses contact with the piece it moves back down like the outfeed did when you started it.

An easy way to prevent snipe is to glue, use double sided tape, small nails or screws and put a small sacrificial piece on each side of the infeed end the width of your bottom planer table, the same on the other end and you should end up with absoulutely no snipe.

Ok, I am a neander, but I spent my working life as a blacksmith, weldor and machinist, I found out the above by accident as I had my finger on the machine at the column and noticed the slight movement.

How about a picture or diagram, Harry?

[Alex Shanku]

Setting the pressure bar in correct relation to the cutterhead eliminates snipe on planers. For small, lunch box planers, you would have to do what some of the guys above have listed.

[harry strasil]

How about a picture or diagram, Harry?

pic or diagram of what?

[Prashun Patel]

+1: elevate the ends of the infeed and outfeed supports slightly.

[Greg Crawford]

I had a Delta 22-580, and now have a PM 15HH. Both of them have built-in column locks, but they would both snipe if setup wrong. On my new PM, I spent hours getting the infeed and outfeed roller height and pressure adjusted. The manual called for .030" lower than the cutterhead, which alone left marks from the serrated infeed roller on any board that had less than .030" taken off, plus the boards had a bad tendency to snipe. I think I set both rollers at around .007" and backed off the pressure significantly. As mentioned above, cocking the outfeed table up slightly helps, plus I always try to hold my material flat against the outfeed table as it's coming out. I've noticed that when the trailing end of the board clears the infeed roller, the board wants to jump a bit.

One other method to reduce it is to feed the material at an angle instead of straight through. This has many benefits, but for snipe, all you do is angle the piece the other direction for the next cut. If there is any snipe from a previous cut, it will be planed off. There may be new snipe, but this doesn't allow a pattern to get started.

I agree with many of the others that on almost any planer, snipe can be minimized or even eliminated wiht the proper setup and technique. If you can't totally eliminate it, use the trick of running boards butted against one another. That way, only the last board gets the snipe.

[John Thompson]

I have a York-craft 20" (idenical to Grizzly 20") that will rarely produce snipe up to about 60". But keep in mind that you have cast iron table support for about 30" + on both infeed and outfeed. Anything over 6' I use a Ridgid flip top support on both sides and add an additional 2" to the stock on both ends as I was trained to do. Sometimes it was needed and sometimes not but I look at it as better safe than sorry.

Sarge..

[Rick Garrity]

pic or diagram of what?
Perhaps the clamp mechanism you made for your planer?

I have that same planer and have tried all of the normal tricks. I was trying to think about how I could create post locks.....


-Rick

[Vince Shriver]

pic or diagram of what?

Are you saying that you sandwich the workpiece between two sacrificial pieces (the width of the planner bed)? Also I'd really like to see those column locks you cobbled up. Tks, Vince

[Andy Bardowell]

I wouldn't mind seeing some more pictures of your table Lee.

[Guy Belleman]

single base all the way through. No matter how I adjusted the tables on each side, they would just not line up really well, all of the way through. So, with a piece of melamine to make a base table all the way through the planer, over both tables, and a strip on each end to hook the table, all snipe went away. Now I have to miss-feed the piece to get snipe.

[harry strasil]

just some scraps same thickness as material to be planed stuck to outside edges, to raise the back side and the snipe is on the scraps.

You have to drill 2 1/4" holes in the housing at the proper location to install column locks on opposite sides, I put one on the left side of the front and the right side of the back.

[harry strasil]

Also I'd really like to see those column locks you cobbled up. Tks, Vince


well the first tries were a cobbled afair I guess, but it took a while to perfect the cobbling so that it worked. More like R & D thing.

I guess I'll just keep the locks to myself, wouldn't want somebody to put a cobbled up affair on a nice machine would we.

[John Seybold]

I just adjusted my Felder jointer/planer (an AD 741) to eliminate snipe. This machine allows you to set the pressure on the infeed and outfeed rollers by means of pairs of nickel-sized set screws (you can see them at top and bottom in the attached view-from-above image with the dust chute removed). These don't actually move the rollers; they preload the springs to change how hard the rollers press down on the board. The rollers are set so they bottom out a little bit below the cutterhead.

314911

I thought the problem was inadequate outfeed roller pressure, so I started by cranking down the outfeed side. That made a slight difference, but I was still getting a lot of snipe. When I backed off the infeed roller pressure, though, the snipe went away. I don't know whether the roller was compressing the board, or maybe causing the whole cutterhead assembly to flex upward, but reducing the pressure did the trick. I was then able to back off the outfeed pressure a bit too without re-introducing snipe. I have the leading edge roller set with just enough pressure to draw the board cleanly and firmly into the machine, but no more. I do have to be a little more careful to support the board on the way in to avoid leading edge snipe.

[Yonak Hawkins]

As glenn says, if the planer is properly set up snipe shouldn't be a problem. One thing to check is the proper height of the rollers. After adjusting mine recently I eliminated the snipe.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

6 year old thread...... Hope he fixed his planer or tossed it out by now..... :)