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Thread: Help Me With Snipe

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    San Diego area
    Posts
    365
    Say Larry, can you explain this a little more?
    'My favorite is to run a short scrap piece through in front and in back'

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Camas, Wa
    Posts
    3,853
    Take the bed rollers below the bed. You don't need them if you keep the tables waxed. I know some people like to keep them a few thousands above the bed but the caused me nothing but trouble. I have no snipe on my G0453 with the infeed and outfeed tables dead flat.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    West Lafayette, IN
    Posts
    6,529
    I think Larry means to follow the main board immediately with a short sacrificial board. That sacrificial board should then receive the snipe instead of the main board.

    But before you do these tricks, why don't you make sure the machine is properly adjusted as we suggest? Lower the bed rollers, adjust the outfeed roller pressure, wax the bed.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    San Diego area
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    365
    Oh that's another good idea,

    heading out to the shop now!

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Berwick, Nova Scotia, Canada
    Posts
    425
    Quote Originally Posted by Cary Falk View Post
    Take the bed rollers below the bed. You don't need them if you keep the tables waxed.
    I have the Busy Bee version of the standard 20" planer, the CX 20. I installed a spiral cutter head. l lowered the rollers but had an issue where the piece would nose dive into the gap and get hung up on the edge of the infeed roller gap.
    Mike

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    San Diego area
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    365
    well we waxed the table, adjusted the outfeed pressure 2 turns or so, lowered the rollers, but what helped the most was holding the end of the timber up a little higher then level as it exited,

    much less snipe now :-) but still getting it, right when the rear end of the piece leaves the infeed roller at the 3" mark, can't figure that out.

    but it's much nicer planing job so thanks to all of you!

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    New England
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    2,474
    Can I ask what those timbers are? Old growth fir? They are pretty gorgeous.

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    San Diego area
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    365
    Oh yeah pretty nice sticks! they're STK wr cedar, also called #2 Bttr appearance grade, still kinda wet so we're been letting them air dry, under a fan.

    I think a good part of my problem was,

    that they're heavy 20' long semi green timbers!

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    Issaquah, Washington
    Posts
    1,320
    [QUOTE=glenn bradley;2674727]Knowing how snipe occurs:

    Attachment 357049

    It is a feed path problem. There is a fix for planing short stock by affixing longer rails to the material and cutting them off when you are done:

    Attachment 357050
    Maybe you could do something similar but, opposite:

    Attachment 357051[/Q UOTE]

    Plus 1 on Glen's solution. Simple, easy and effective.

  10. #25
    I agree with Justin. You need the timber angled a bit down at the start and the end. The weight of the timber wants to leverage it up into the cutter both as it starts through the planner and as it exits. Pushing it up a bit prevents it from tilting up.

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    So Cal
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    3,738
    Maybe the ends are not flat the infeed roller pushes it down flat then after a it's past it rises up into the cut and snipe is installed.The outfeed roller pushes it back down.Thats my guess from a thousand miles away.
    Aj

  12. #27
    Here's a suggestion for visualizing the cause of snipe.
    Imagine that the planer is like one of those monster trucks (I can only imagine, since I've never seen one). As the front roller/wheel climbs over the leading edge of the board, the body of the truck tilts upwards. Unless the planer's supports are very rigid, there is always a tilt. When the leading edge of the board meets the cutter, the distal roller is lower than the front roller and the cutter height is midway between the two rollers. As the board hits the distal roller and goes under it, the roller carriage rises at the distal end also, lifting the cutter blades. The result is that the leading 3", representing the distance from the middle of the carriage to the rear roller, is cut deeper than the following longer part of the board. As the trailing edge of the board exits, the opposite sequence of events occur and the front roller falls below the distal roller's position, causing a deeper cut of the board, again about 3" from the end. Failure to keep down side of the board tightly against the bed of the planer helps exaggerate the snipe, both on entry and exit. While everyone recommends lifting the board end that is not under the planer, on entry and exit, this only is part of the solution. The rigidity of the carriage in resisting the tilt when only one roller is on the board (as on entry and exit) contributes to the snipe. This can't be fixed by any adjustment of the usual planer. Unless your planer locks the height of the front and distal roller, snipe is inevitable.

    As described above by others, the only solution that fixes the problem is to extend the apparent length of the board by either tacking boards to the sides or planning on wasting 3" on either end. I've also tried pushing my many pieces of stock through as rapidly as possible, or staggering the entry of narrow pieces so that the carriage never drops off the boards. This is like Lucille Ball and Viv at the chocolates factory: the conveyor always seems to overtake your efforts. I've also tried wedging the carriage in an effort to stiffen the movement of the carriage. It was a lot of work and I never could say that I had a solution.

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Kingston, ON, Canada
    Posts
    223
    I agree with the approach Larry's suggesting here.

    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Frank View Post
    My favorite is to run a short scrap piece through in front and in back. It seems to eliminate the problem for me.

    I went thru trials on my DeWalt 735 and 15" Planer to try to eliminate snipe. I found that I could greatly reduce it but never completely eliminate it. While I could not see it at times, I could measure it with a digital caliper. The best I could get is a few thousandths of an inch.
    Marty Schlosser
    Kingston, ON, Canada
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  14. #29
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Mountain Home, AR
    Posts
    547
    I've got the same planer and same snipe issues. When I run a batch of several shorter boards I try to keep wood constantly under the rollers - as the end of one enters the planer I feed in another one beside it. When the last board goes in I feed a sacrificial board in next to it and the snipe is almost, if not completely, gone. I also sometimes will do a light final pass with the bed adjusted up maybe 1/4 turn - just enough to plane off the infeed roller prints. Usually this gets rid of the snipe when I'm doing just a board or two, but not always.

    I tried setting the feed rollers below flush, but board ends would tend to hang up in the gap. Right now I have them set flush or maybe proud .001" or so. Enough to keep wood moving anyway. I also have the pressure backed way off, but when running rough sawn lumber I crank them down more so it feeds better. I've monkeyed with it enough to know that I'm just chasing my tail and won't ever tune away the snipe. Sacrificial boards seem to be my best option for reduced or eliminated snipe.

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    San Diego area
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    365
    Damn, now we're getting hangup, the piece jams right when the board hits the rear edge of that slot in the table that the front bed roller sits in .. and the infeed roller digs a divet into the top edge .. I filed that sharp edge a little. The bed rollers are below, what's causing it to jam up right there, too much or too little infeed roller tension?

    when you're screwing the roller tension hex nut down, is that increasing the tension on the spring? I tried increasing the tension, taking a full turn and a half down, putting them just below the surface, can't tell if that helped. If we feed it in by jamming the piece in, it seems to not get hung up right there.

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