Karl Leboeuf
12-20-2022, 10:45 PM
I recently purchased a Hammer A3-31, and with its factory settings I am getting some snipe on both ends of boards; about 0.004" deep on the end of the board that enters the machine, and a little less on the outfeed. The retailer I purchased it from sent me some short instructions for adjusting feed roller height and spring tension and so far I haven't had any luck. I was hoping some here might have some advice for me while I keep working with the retailer to see what can be done. I saw many posts on this forum from people that were able to tune up the machine to get no snipe and I'm hoping I can do the same! In case it matters, my A3-31 has the 'Silent Power' segmented cutter head.
Before I started making adjustments I did carefully clean the planer surface, applied a few coats of GlideCote, and some coats of paste wax. I tried locking the table to see if that would make a difference and it doesn't seem to have much impact. I have used some ~3' lengths of clear pine and soft maple to make test cuts on edges and faces. I did notice that the soft maple seemed to have less snipe than the pine, but it definitely isn't "no snipe".
I read and re-read a thread from 2019 about this issue (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?271424-Hammer-A3-31-Help-me-eliminate-snipe) and have tried to make the adjustments described there but haven't had any luck so far. Specifically, I tried increasing and decreasing the rollers' spring tension and haven't noticed much difference.
I also followed the procedure described in two YouTube videos posted by Felder to address this topic. The first one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcMntAKZyqw @ 2:20) addresses infeed snipe, and shows a process for setting the infeed roller height to 0.9mm or 3/100" below the cutting circle. The second one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-_21RcvKt0) is similar, except that it shows how to deal with outfeed snipe by setting the outfeed roller height to 0.3mm or 1/100" below the cutting circle. In both cases these measurements are briefly flashed on the screen at 2:20 into the video. After adjusting the roller heights on my machine to match these settings I tried increasing and decreasing spring tension again and I didn't get the result I was after. In some cases I could reduce the snipe to 0.002" for one of my test boards but it seemed to get worse for the others. I didn't keep careful notes of everything I tried, which I now regret...
Do any current or former A3-31 owners have any ideas? Would anyone care to measure how far below the 'cutting circle' their infeed and outfeed rollers are? Do I seem to be missing something obvious? I appreciate any insight anyone can offer. I gave up on it tonight when the bag of my dust collector got full and I started running out of scraps to sacrifice for the luxury of zero snipe. If I can finish some errands early tomorrow I'll pick out some boards, empty the dust collector, and get back to it.
Karl
Before I started making adjustments I did carefully clean the planer surface, applied a few coats of GlideCote, and some coats of paste wax. I tried locking the table to see if that would make a difference and it doesn't seem to have much impact. I have used some ~3' lengths of clear pine and soft maple to make test cuts on edges and faces. I did notice that the soft maple seemed to have less snipe than the pine, but it definitely isn't "no snipe".
I read and re-read a thread from 2019 about this issue (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?271424-Hammer-A3-31-Help-me-eliminate-snipe) and have tried to make the adjustments described there but haven't had any luck so far. Specifically, I tried increasing and decreasing the rollers' spring tension and haven't noticed much difference.
I also followed the procedure described in two YouTube videos posted by Felder to address this topic. The first one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcMntAKZyqw @ 2:20) addresses infeed snipe, and shows a process for setting the infeed roller height to 0.9mm or 3/100" below the cutting circle. The second one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-_21RcvKt0) is similar, except that it shows how to deal with outfeed snipe by setting the outfeed roller height to 0.3mm or 1/100" below the cutting circle. In both cases these measurements are briefly flashed on the screen at 2:20 into the video. After adjusting the roller heights on my machine to match these settings I tried increasing and decreasing spring tension again and I didn't get the result I was after. In some cases I could reduce the snipe to 0.002" for one of my test boards but it seemed to get worse for the others. I didn't keep careful notes of everything I tried, which I now regret...
Do any current or former A3-31 owners have any ideas? Would anyone care to measure how far below the 'cutting circle' their infeed and outfeed rollers are? Do I seem to be missing something obvious? I appreciate any insight anyone can offer. I gave up on it tonight when the bag of my dust collector got full and I started running out of scraps to sacrifice for the luxury of zero snipe. If I can finish some errands early tomorrow I'll pick out some boards, empty the dust collector, and get back to it.
Karl