My Inca 550 Jointer/Planer needs adjustment to eliminate snipe.

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi, I have an old Inca 550 jointer planer machine. It is in need of adjustment to eliminate snipe. I have had it for about eight years and it has always worked great giving me planed boards without snipe. Recently I fed a board into it at the higher feed rate and also had to much of a depth of cut. The board jammed and ever since the planer gives me a good amount of snipe. Maybe a sixteenth of an inch, maybe more. Well I went through the owners manual but didn't seem to find anything about snipe adjustment. I also just joined the yahoo inca owners group. I will post my plea for help on there as soon as they accept me. Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated. Pete

[Jim Becker]

There may be someone at Garrett Wade still familiar with that unit...they used to sell them.

[Hank Knight]

Pete,

I have an Inca 570 - same as yours except it has the Tersa head. I don't know of an adjustment to eliminate snipe with the planer. I've found I get substantial snipe on heavy stock. When the stock clears the infeed roller the outfeed roller doesn't exert enough pressure to keep the stock flat on the table and weight of the board pulls the tail end up into the blades, gouging or sniping the last 2 or 3 inches. I can eliminate it by supporting the end of the board as it exits the planer. If you find an adjustment to fix this problem, let me know.

Hank

[Pete Lamberty]

thanks for the replies guys. Hank, I never had any snipe at all before I jammed the board in there. Although I will support the board when it comes out, I feel that this is just a band aid fix. I feel that I should be able to get the machine to run with no snipe if it did so in the past. I am going to keep looking for an answer and if I find one I will try to let you know. Pete

[Pete Lamberty]

HI Hank, I spent a couple of hours down in the shop tonight trying to figure out my snipe problem. I took alot of the machine apart and cleaned whatever I could. With the tables off and all the inards showing I ran some wood through the planer. No snipe. I have no idea what I did, maybe I didn't do anything. I put everything back together and I get no snipe at all. Boy, am I happy!!! I rarely put anything longer than 4' through the planer. I tested it with a piece of hard maple that is 7 inches wide, 15 " long, and 1 and 3/4 " thick. I also ran some soft wood through it. Like you said, I don't think there are any adjustments that can be made to the two feed/presure rollers. They seem to put pressure by useing springs. I'm sorry I can't help you out. Pete

[Hank Knight]

Pete,

I think I'll take my 570 apart and put it back together. Maybe they just need to be reassured we love 'em once and a while. :)

Glad your snipe is gone.

Hank