Planer Snipe

[Jim Summers]

Hello All,

I have an old 12" planer made back in th 70's. It does what I need it do and unfortunately a little more. The 'little more' that it does is when the board comes off of the planer it has a small scalloped out area at the tail end. The amount and length of the scalloped area seems to be relative to the length of the board. I think I have heard of this referred to as "planer snipe" not sure though.

So I was wonder if the simple solution is to support the boards by some means other than supporting them by hand as they come out? Which is what I have been doing, but it still seems to happen. I generally just plan for it and chop off the ends.

The infeed / outfeed tables on the planer are only about 6-8 inches deep.

Ideas / Suggestions?

TIA

[Rick Lizek]

What brand of planer is it? Typically the snipe in non-lunchbox planers is from the bedrolls. Typically I set bedrolls about .003" above the bed. If you don't have bedrolls tweaking the rollers tension and heights will help some. More info would be better.

[Todd Jensen]

An outfeed table would definitely help. It seems no matter how careful I am by hand, I can minimize but not eliminate the end snipe. For what I do, I just allow for it and plane my boards long and cut off the sniped ends.

[Roy Wall]

I've heard of folks running an additional scrap board BUTTED right behind the good piece going through......they say this does the trick,,,,,

[Al Willits]

I sometimes lift up on the end that came out first, maybe 1/2" and that seems to help.

Al

[Steve Clardy]

I always lift up on the board before it comes out past the infeed roller.

[Mark Hollingsworth]

Ditto on lifting the board slightly as mentioned. It's the only way I seem to be able to reduce snipe on my 12 1/2" delta.

[Dave Morris]

Yep. I've had the same problem before, but it happened on both the front and back ends of the piece being planed. Grab a couple scrap pieces of the same material you are planing (at least as long as the minimum length your planer will handle) and run one before and one after the material to be planed. The ends should always be butted up next to each other as they enter the planer This is what eliminates the snipe on the middle board. If you need to plane more than a single board, it helps to run all the stuff you are planing in a single run. Then, if needed, adjust the planer cutting depth and run everything through again, with the sacrificial scrap pieces always being the first and last pieces. Simply repeat the process as needed until you reach the final board thickness. None of the boards should have any snipe except the scrap pieces. Then you can toss the two scrap pieces in the "out" basket.

[Jim Summers]

Thanks all,

I ran out to the shop tonight and checked the planer. It is a NuMark. Never heard of it before. But it has been in the family since the 70's maybe late 60's. Put a new set of knives in it a couple of years ago but other than no DC and pretty loud it keeps on planing. I googled around but did not turn up any manuals or info. No biggee though. I will use all the suggestions above and go with that.

Thanks again.

[Bill White]

Lift the back end goin' in and the front end when it's comin' out. This will go a long way in solving your prob. Yes, cut the blanks a little long just in case.
Bill