Acceptable Snipe?

[Pat O'malley]

How much if any is acceptable? This weekend I got my Ridgid jointer and Dewalt planer up and running. For practice I ran some poplar through. Two inches from the ends I can see a slight ridge and just feel it with my finger, I think it would sand out. Is that small amount O.K.??? Thanks Pat

[Leo Graywacz]

Jointer, not acceptable. Planer is acceptable.

[Myk Rian]

Do you have outfeed tables on the planer? They help with eliminating snipe. The ends of the tables need to be adjusted a penny width above the platen.

[glenn bradley]

I try for none on both machines. Long tables or good infeed / outfeed support help on the jointer but mostly it is the infeed table too high that causes snipe there for me. On my DW734 planer I raise the tips of the infeed and outfeed table about 1/16" higher than the platen and get no snipe. My dad's DW735 tables had to be raised nearly 1/8" to eliminate the snipe.

[Dan Mitchell]

Not sure which Dewalt you have, I have a 734, which (unlike the 735, I think) comes with infeed/outfeed tables. I've used the planer a fair amount & find running pieces through at an angle minimizes & often completely eliminates snipe.

Dan

[Stephen Edwards]

On my DW734 planer I raise the tips of the infeed and outfeed table about 1/16" higher than the platen and get no snipe. My dad's DW735 tables had to be raised nearly 1/8" to eliminate the snipe.

I know that this is true but I don't understand why it's true. What's the logic behind the tips of the tables needing to be higher than the platen?

[Pat O'malley]

I should clarify, it happens on the dewalt 734, it's so minor I have to tilt the board and reflect light onto it to see the snipe. I'll try to adjust the tables slightly. Thanks...

[Dave Wagner]

I think when you raise it 1/8", the pressure from the rollers/board presses down and makes it lay perfectly flat coming out to prevent the snipe on the end.

It's all in the adjustment(s). Took me a while to figure out my Delta Jointer and planer and I get very little to no snipe if everything is adjusted correctly and aligned. Make sure you have a good straight edge and check the alignment on the in/out feed(s). Check your blade height(s) too.

I built some longer in/out feed tables for my planer and that helped a lot getting things aligned.

[Joe Scharle]

As the tail end comes out from under the near pressure roll, the work will follow the laws of gravity and fall down. This raises the tail end higher into the cutters. Outfeed support tries to overcome this and is usually successful on shorter lenghts. I don't accept any snipe, as it is preventable.
Good luck

[johnny means]

If you're getting snipe on your jointer, your outfeed table is to low. Most likely you are also not getting a truly planer surface. Lifting up on the end of the work piece will elimate snipe unless its caused by table or cutter head movement. This type of snipe can be minimized by making the final pass 1/32 or less thus putting less stress on your pressure rollers.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Acceptable snipe

Isn't that an oxymoron sort of like Moderate Taliban?

[Leo Graywacz]

Getting rid of snipe on a lunchbox planer is a pretty simple thing to do usually. Infeed and outfeed should be tilted up slightly. On a more industrial planer it can become much more complicated. The hold down pressures are much greater, and need to be. This can cause the board to bend slightly and cause the snipe. An industrial planer usually has a roller or two in the bed so rough lumber can be milled more easily. On some of the mid size machines this isn't adjustable and will usually be set to accommodate both rough and finish milling. On a larger machine they can usually be raised and lowered when required. Getting rid of snipe can be difficult and sometimes impossible depending on the machine you are working with.

[Bill Huber]

I know that this is true but I don't understand why it's true. What's the logic behind the tips of the tables needing to be higher than the platen?

Here is a really bad drawing of a planer.

At the top the board is under both rollers and it is being cut.

Middle as the board come out from under the first roller it wants to raise up and this is what causes the snipe. I have heard 2 different reasons that the board comes up, one is the blades want to pull it up and the other is just that it pops out from under the roller.

The bottom show that if the out feed is higher it will put presure on the board between the out feed and the last roller which will hold it down on the table.

Drawing1.jpg

[Dan McCallum]

I agree with Cliff's tongue in cheek comment. Leaving snipe on boards might be fine for playground equipment for kindergartners or other rough applications, but most other situations, it is probably not desirable.

If you can arrange to always keep your boards a bit too long when you plane them, then I guess you can just cut off the last couple inches with the snipe on them. Probably fine for cleaning up a 2 x 4, but might be a problem with koa, rosewood, and such expensive woods.

Alternatively you could get rid of the snipe with a sharp handplane, or via sanding.

Sometimes I take the piece back over the jointer carefully for a couple of shallow passes to take the snipe out. Be careful not to take the piece out of parallel!

I've never had much luck adjusting the snipe on the lunchbox planers. I had a Dewalt 733 that never sniped at all, until it started to. I was never able to get rid of the snipe after that. So I bought a DW735. It sniped worse right out of the box.

Since there is really no way to make any other adjustments with lunchbox planers, if increasing the tilt/height of the infeed and outfeed tables doesn't do it, then you are out of luck. I firmly believe that we are at the mercy of the quality control folks over in China on this. Some are well adjusted out of the factory, others are not and cannot be made so. I agree that higher quality planers can be difficult to adjust, but at least they are adjustable!

My suggestion is that if you can't get rid of the snipe by adjusting the infeed and outfeed tables, take it back and get a different one and hope for the best. Otherwise you will need to figure out what the best way is for you to remove the snipe afterward.

Good luck!

Dan

[russell lusthaus]

I affixed a melamine board the width of my planer platen and about 6 feet long to both my infeed and outfeed tables. no more snipe as there is continuous support on the workpiece as long as you are not planing boards longer than the 6-8 feet that my 6 foot board seems to work for.