Dewalt 735 - snipe problem

[Fred Voorhees]

[QUOTE=glenn bradley -An alternative would be a permenant install of the sled Jim B. discussed. Instead of acting as a sled it would become your new platten; extending out from the front and rear of the planer.[/QUOTE]

Glenn, I don't think Jim meant that to be a permanent fixture within the planer. I think he meant it as a means to check the problem. That being said, I have the same planer and I haven't had much of a problem with snipe, if any. But I have to say, I can't for the life of me see how anyone could use the machine without infeed and outfeed tables. There is virtually nothing there without them on the machine. I didn't buy any with mine, but I had plans, and since then, have implemented, a built in situation with mine. It sits right level with my benchtop and has, virtually, a nearly twenty feet infeed table and roughly sixteen foot or so outfeed table. I have to beleive that this certainly helps with any snipe situation.

[Eddie Darby]

allen,
i'm just north of you in GA, would you mind stopping by and touching my planer. maybe that's all it needs! it turns out that the "service" issue mentioned earlier will not solve my problem. i've got the parts to replace the springs....now all i need is the time...maybe if i spent less time surfing SMC....naw!

Can you say how much force it takes in Jim units to compress the new spring, and can you let us know how the replacements work turns out.

Great thread. Thanks

[jim gossage]

followup post: i got some new springs from dewalt, flipped the planer upside down, removed the bottom, pulled out the front roller, and replaced the roller springs. no more snipe! HOWEVER, in the process of reassembling it, i accidentally bumped the elevation wheel. this threw the bushings that ride up and down the threaded guideposts out of alignment, and the elevation wheel would not budge after my initial reassembly. i was sure that i was now the proud owner of a $450 paper weight, but a careful anlaysis of the mechanisms, reassembly, and tune up with a dial indicator had my planer humming again. did i mention there were some 4 letter words that the neighbors probably heard?! if you are considering replacing the springs, send me a PM and i'll be happy to advise on how to avoid my initial debacle!

[glenn bradley]

Great solution Fred. I have thought about having a similar setup but just can't figure out where to put it. I'm jealous. I have the same musings about a dedicated area for my CMS but that has not happened yet either. I'd have to say with your install you were safe on not getting the tables ;-)

[glenn bradley]

Sorry about that Jim. I did miss item number one (how did I miss item number one???). At any rate I hope the service helps with the problem. On my dw734, the raised outer edges of the tables do the trick but I did have to experiment with some subtle adjustments till things got consistently good. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Allen Bookout]

Thanks for the report Jim. I have been waiting for the correct fix so that I will have the solution when I need it.

[Andy Howard]

followup post: i got some new springs from dewalt, flipped the planer upside down, removed the bottom, pulled out the front roller, and replaced the roller springs. no more snipe! HOWEVER, in the process of reassembling it, i accidentally bumped the elevation wheel. this threw the bushings that ride up and down the threaded guideposts out of alignment, and the elevation wheel would not budge after my initial reassembly. i was sure that i was now the proud owner of a $450 paper weight, but a careful anlaysis of the mechanisms, reassembly, and tune up with a dial indicator had my planer humming again. did i mention there were some 4 letter words that the neighbors probably heard?! if you are considering replacing the springs, send me a PM and i'll be happy to advise on how to avoid my initial debacle!

Jim,
Thanks for the followup! This is good info, as my DW735 is sniping also. How hard were the springs to get from Dewalt? What did they cost?

Thanks
Andy

[jim gossage]

Jim,
Thanks for the followup! This is good info, as my DW735 is sniping also. How hard were the springs to get from Dewalt? What did they cost?

Thanks
Andy

allen,
the springs were a couple of bucks, and dewalt shipped them in a couple of days. the springs are pretty easy to change, as long as you take precautions to prevent the bushings from moving on the threaded rods and the rods from moving in the planer housing - even a small amount - during servicing and reassembly; a 1/8th turn of one of the rods will move the head out of parallel by at least 0.020". each threaded rod has a double set of threaded bushings that are linked by screws and pushed apart by a stiff spring to raise and lower the planer head. i suspect that this assembly is what keeps the head from moving on its own during planing. the lower bushing can be adjusted to compress the spring more, and perhaps increase the locking force on the rods. although totally conjecture on my part, i think that increasing the tension on these springs could potentially be another way to limit snipe; the tech support folks at dewalt could not tell me anything about this mechanism.

[Laurie Brown]

Here's an example of what I spoke of in my previous post:

http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/sto...y/data/447.xml

I constructed a bed very like that from MDF, which is over 3 feet long. I have the same planer shown in that pitcure. I get about 2.5" of snipe on both ends of any board I run through it, which is a real pain. If I run boards end to end as mentioned elsewhere, there's no snipe where the ends of the boards meet, but the first one will have snipe on the end, and the last one will. I usually either cut the sniped section off, wasting wood, or sometimes I don't need to worry about it because I will be routing off most of that material, such as when making raised panels for doors. If the snipe isn't too bad I can sometimes sand it to where it's not noticeable. If there's some way to eliminate or at least minimize the snipe, I would love to know how!

[George DeMartino]

I just bought the dewalt dw 735, and it is generating snipe right off the bat (brand new) at the leading and trailing ends of the board (white oak). .008", give or take. Took it in for servicing and was told that it was within expected tolerances: .002" on PINE (which I typically don't use in my furniture building). Have 3 days left to return it to Home Depot, and would be included to exchange it for another of the same model. But now wondering if that's a mistake--am I better off keeping the machine and trying the fixes that folks have recommended here (such as the permanent sled, which I have not yet tried)?

[Andrew Hughes]

Are you sending wood thru that has one side flat?
The 735 I used to have did not snipe if I planed wood with the flat side down.

Aj

[Mike Ontko]

I've got the 735 as well and occasionally see a bit of snipe on the trailing 2-3 inches of the boards I process through it. I haven't determined if there's a particular reason it occurs--material type, thickness, and length of the board being planed, whether I tend to feed material more to one side than the other, or whatever. I find I can minimize or remove it by elevating the leading edge of the board slightly on the outfeed side. Similar to the sled that Jim has described, I use an auxiliary board (3/4" melamine, with a waxed surface) placed over the existing platten bed and extension wings to elevate the material so I can make thinner veneers. This also extends the length of the infeed and outfeed support, which seems to help. Most of the time things come out just fine but there's still occasional snipe. Over the past 2-3 years, I've run a considerable amount of ash, beech, cherry, and Douglas Fir through it. I've swept off the rollers on a couple of occasions, but haven't actually cleaned them as prescribed. It could be that the roller spring tension is fading a bit, especially after using it for two projects that involved a lot of 7-foot lengths of 8/4 ash.

For most of what I do though, I'm willing to accept this small amount of imperfection and just compensate for the possibility by milling rough stock that's a little longer than needed in case I have to trim off the sniped end. If it becomes a critical issue, then I'd likely give consideration to trading up from the lunchbox/benchtop style planer to a dedicated unit with a stronger feed system.

[George DeMartino]

Andrew: Yes, I've been very careful to test out the planer using boards that are perfectly flattened on the jointer, so that's not the problem. I guess I'll try the melanmine bed, Mike, and see if that reduces the problem. I've already tried adjusting the infeed and outfeed tables, tilting them down toward the machine, and that didn't solve the problem. I guess from what I'm reading here (in this thread) that other folks have had the same problem, and so there's no point exchanging the machine for another of the same make and model. But it's disappointing: i used a cheap delta for years, and never had this problem...

[Andrew Hughes]

That's a bummer George,I've heard some will snipe and some machines don't.I don't have my 735 anymore.
I have a PM with a HH head and it snipes.Ive adjusted it many time but some wood will snipe more than others.
So I just live wil it.

[lowell holmes]

I have the 734 planer. I find that lifting on the outgoing end of the board will prevent snipe. I think that is why the tables are adjustable.
You can adjust the tables to provide this lift with a bit of experimentation.

My first planer was a Porter Cable and it was bad for snipe.
Lifting on the ends of the board prevented the snipe.

The tables on the 734 are adjustable to provide this lift.