Delta Bench Planer Making Inconsistent Thickness

[Sean Rippen]

I have an old Delta bench planer that I inherited from my grandfather, and I’ve only just noticed while planing 1/16th strips on a planing sled that the first 3 inches on both ends of the strips are thinner than the middle.

Any idea on whether this is fixable and how? I’ve been thinking about buying a new planer (that actually has a dust collection port!), so this may be just the catalyst I need.

Thanks!

[Ron Citerone]

Sounds like snipe. If you are getting a good surface on the cut the easiest solution is to start wit pieces too long and cut the snipe off. Ever planer I have used has some snipe. Pulling up on the board as it exits the infeed roller may help some. This topic has seen a lot of threads on many forums. If you search it you will find a lot about it in addition to what you get here.

[glenn bradley]

Many benchtop planers lack a carriage lock. See the DeWalt DW734 for a good example of one. For strips that thin you could try a method similar to that shown at 1' 20" here.

[David Stone (CT)]

As noted, it sounds as if you're describing snipe, which is a characteristic of planers. It might or might not be possible to lessen it by adjusting your machine, but I suspect the other issue is that you're bumping up against the limits of what is possible/practical to achieve when planing very thin stock. IME, even using a planing sled, super thin stock is going to vibrate enough to cause discrepancies--and sometimes self-destruct. So I wouldn't assume getting a new planer, or futzing with your current one, is necessarily going to solve this issue. (In fact, I had better luck planing really thin stock back when I had a lunchbox planer than my current PM 100--which maybe (?) owed to the cutterhead being faster and/or the gaps between the rollers smaller.) If your current set up allows you to consistently plane 1/16 " with 3 " of snipe at either end, maybe just allow for six extra inches of waste and call it good.

BTW, if your planer is the first generation Delta lunchbox (22-540), which is what I had, there actually was an optional hood for dust collection available back in the day, though it appears discontinued. A planer that spews chips all over the place is definitely a headache.

[Bruce Wrenn]

BTW, if your planer is the first generation Delta lunchbox (22-540), which is what I had, there actually was an optional hood for dust collection available back in the day, though it appears discontinued. A planer that spews chips all over the place is definitely a headache.

I own two of the 22-540's. One has the factory DC hood, and for the other I made one from 1/4" BB plywood and a down spout fitting. Hardest part was finding metric studs and wing nuts to replace bolts. Found them in the Lowes.

[Sean Rippen]

Great - thank you for the replies. I had heard of "snipe", although I had misunderstood what it was. I suppose I will just go with the "plane a longer board than you need" method to get around the issue. With that said, does anyone have a clever way to plane thin strips down to a uniform thickness? I am considering doing it by hand, which obviously won't be perfect, but should be "good enough". With so many amazing tricks amongst woodworkers, however, I'd be interested in hearing if there was a better way. And no, I do not have a drum sander or easy access to one.

Thanks!

[Richard Coers]

Great - thank you for the replies. I had heard of "snipe", although I had misunderstood what it was. I suppose I will just go with the "plane a longer board than you need" method to get around the issue. With that said, does anyone have a clever way to plane thin strips down to a uniform thickness? I am considering doing it by hand, which obviously won't be perfect, but should be "good enough". With so many amazing tricks amongst woodworkers, however, I'd be interested in hearing if there was a better way. And no, I do not have a drum sander or easy access to one.

Thanks!

How many strips do you need? Simplest is to buy 1/16" veneer. Second would be to take your ripped pieces to a cabinet shop and have them run them through a thickness sander. Third would be to buy a drum sander.

[Phil Mueller]

I saw a youtube video (can’t remember which one), where a “drum sander” was fabricated for thin stock using a disk sander. He set up a fence away from the disk (the fence was at least as tall as the width of the pieces being sanded, and at least the full length of the disk) and ran his pieces between the fence and disk sander. He moved the fence closer and closer to the disk until the desired thickness. I suppose you could also do something similar with a belt sander secured on its side, although that might take a bit more fabricating.

I haven’t tried this, but thought of giving it a go next time I need thin material.

[lowell holmes]

Check this site.
Sean could not post it.

https://www.lowes.com/pl/Dewalt--Too...rchTerm=dewalt

[Charles Lent]

I once had one of those Delta 22-540 planers, and minimized the snipe problems by feeding a piece of scrap the same thickness as the work piece and then feeding the work piece in alongside the scrap and before the scrap piece had cleared the cutter. I did the same thing with the trailing end of my work piece, feeding another scrap piece in before the work piece cleared the cutter. This way, the scrap pieces received the snipe and the work piece did not. The problem with this, and many other planners is that the head rocks slightly as the in feed roller rises up on the beginning of the work piece, and the work reaches the cutter with the head at this angled position. When the work piece reaches the out feed roller the head levels out and the center of the work piece is planned correctly. Then, as the trailing end of the work piece reaches the in feed roller, the head again tilts causing the cutter to again cut deeper than it should.

Keeping the cutter head from tilting as the leading and trailing ends of the work piece enter and leave the drive rollers in the planer head is the solution to preventing snipe on your work. Unfortunately, the two post planers are not designed in a way that make it possible to correct this problem. Better planers have 4 post suspensions for the cutter heads, and have much less snipe problems, but all seem to have it to some extent, especially the bench top planers. I now own a DeWalt 735, which is a 4 post planer and it's snipe line is almost non existent, but still there,.Although in most work it is so small that a few swipes of sandpaper can pretty much eliminate it. For precise work with my DeWalt planer, I still resort back to using leading and trailing pieces of scrap to keep the snipe from occurring on my work.

Charley

[Lee Schierer]

I have an old Delta bench planer that I inherited from my grandfather, and I’ve only just noticed while planing 1/16th strips on a planing sled that the first 3 inches on both ends of the strips are thinner than the middle.

Any idea on whether this is fixable and how? I’ve been thinking about buying a new planer (that actually has a dust collection port!), so this may be just the catalyst I need.

Thanks!

It's called snipe and I used to get it on my lunch box Delta planer. I cured the problem by building it into a table with 20" in feed and 30" out feed tables in addition to the attached tables. I insured that the tables were exactly level with the plate inside the planer. The stand also serves as storage space for my shop vac, various jigs and my hammer drill case.