I am going to disagree to some extent. I can easily prevent it by slightly lifting the board as it enters and exits the planer. My snipe, when I do not do anything to prevent it, is always on two different planers and at the very end of the boards. Not in between the distance between the in feed/out feed rollers and the knives. My snipe is seldom, again on two different planers, more than 3/4".
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FWIW I have never ever experienced snipe as badly or in the quantity/length as Jack indicated.
If the cutter head pivots, and the cheaper the unit the worse the pivot, you get snipe. As the wood goes under the in feed roller the cutter head pivots higher in the front lower in the back, and NOT EVENLY. This results in the the cutter cutting deeper. I lift the work as it goes in to keep the end of the board low until the cutter begins to cut. Then on the opposite end I lift slightly again as the board is near the end of the cutting operation.
Many manufacturers include a cutter head lock to help.
So on my Delta 15" stationary planer I have rollers on the bed of the planer too. One on each side of the cut.
The in feed pulls the work into the planer and then the work rides up on the roller. This essentially angles the work higher on the in feed end in relation to the other end of the board. Then the cutter cuts deeper, snipe, until the work travels far enough be pushed down on to the lower rollers and under the out feed roller.
On the opposite end the reverse happens, but left alone through the whole process I only get/got snipe on the very ends of the boards and never over about 3/4" in length.
What would help? A long in feed and out feed table that is higher on the outer ends than at the planer end.
And just another observation, the lighter weight and shorter the material the less of a problem I have with snipe. On longer and or heavier boards the weight of the board has more leverage than the in feed rollers and or out feed rollers can over come.
The snipe on my Wen bench top is closer to what Jack describes. Somewhere in the 2" range, both ends. Many (most?) youtube videos also use that 2" length when they discuss snipe. e.g. "If you are OK with wasting wood, plane boards that are about 4" longer than you need and cut off the snipe when you are done."
I suspect that neither of your planers are the low-end planers that are often the culprits. They don't typically have rollers in the bed or heads that lock. Lucky you. ;-)
The first planer was a bench top. It was literally the first of its kind, a Ryobi AP-10. It was a well made bench top planer.
Still both would or will snipe my boards unless I lift the opposite end from the planer when initial feeding or ending the cut. Then I pretty much see nothing. You do not have to lift much, just an inch or so. Enough to make the opposite end of the board higher than the cutter.
And if making multiple passes, I mostly only do this on the last passes.
And FWIW it is mostly a technique you learn over time.
An inch? Where are you measuring that inch? If I try to feed a board that is lifted an inch above the end of the infeed table, it wouldn't even go into the planer.
What?
You lift the trailing end one inch higher than the forward end when starting the pass. As the work is about to be complete you lift the opposite end about an inch higher, or a little more, than the end still being cut.
If the board is long and bows, you need to lift a little higher.
If the end area, either end going in or coming out, of the board does not remain parallel to the planer bed, you get snipe.
If the board bows at all, the ends are not likely to be parallel to the planer bed.
Got it.
The snipe on my Delta lunchbox is consistant, so board are rough cut accordingly.
As far as the original post. I would use boards of the same thickness for a start and end point, overlapping the pieces to be finished. That is how I avoid snipe when waste in not available. No cross grain problems.
Fuck you! I thought you stopped reading my posts? You just get dummer and dummer!
I simply replied to Leon's post as to why snipe typically happens. Leon is one of the very few here that has a clue, and when I disagree with something he says, I usually post a response, so I can either learn something, or teach something.
You on the other hand, are a moron.
A tad edgy this morning, eh?
This is new to me. I didn't know the cutter head pivoted. To me, the cutter head should be rock solid, no pivot whatsoever? Otherwise, how do you get a level cut if the cutter is moving around on uneven surface? Not saying you're wrong, just that it is a new one to me.
Yes, that is what everyone seems to do.
Yes that makes sense. Those rollers should be set to not lift the work up enough, if at all, to cause snipe, no?
3/4" snipe would not bother me at all, unless I was planing a board already cut to length, which I try to avoid like the plague. I routinely cut off more than that w/o snipe, just to clean up the edge, square etc.
I agree. I think it is a feature on some planers that are probably intended for lots of work with out much worry of snipe. Probably intended for a high production setting where a lot of heavy boards are being processed.
So yes! If I am going to plane a board I try to do it before squaring the ends. I don't have to pay attention to lifting the boards so closely. ;~)
I tend to get grouchier as I age...
On 3/29/2019 5:05 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote: > I'm still trying to learn things about my planer.... > > I need to plane some poplar down by no more than 1/32". However, the boards > are already cut to length and have tenons on the ends. (Don't ask) > > I really want to avoid any snipe on these boards so I'm thinking of using > the Sacrificial Board technique. Here's my idea: > > Cut a groove in the sacrificial board, insert the tenons in the groove, and > run it all through the planer. With the setup shown below, I can easily run > 4 boards through at one time. (I'm only showing 2 in this example) My only > concern is that the sacrificial board(s) will be planed cross grain. > >
If you are getting bad snipe you might want to watch a couple youtube videos on just that subject.
Just FYI...
This is an unbiased review of the Wen planer that I have. If you start at 3:15, he talks about the snipe and at about 3:40 there's a picture of a sniped board. That picture is consistent with what I get. As you can see, it sure is a lot more than 3/4". 3/4" would be nice. ;-)
Lifting helps somewhat, but it doesn't eliminate it all. With shortish boards, a diagonal feed helps a lot - really a lot. I need to play around some more with sacrificial runners, leading and trailing boards, etc.
I think you'll find that the amount of snipe is generally correlated with the distance between the infeed roller and the cutterhead.
Actually probably between the cutter head and the out feed roller.
The reason that I try to lift/pivot up the trailing end of the board so that the leading edge is pointed down/forced down against the bed of the planer until the out feed can hold the board down.
The "short" in feed and out feed tables do little to nothing to prevent snipe on bench top planers. They hold the end of the boards up.
If a planer does not have the ability to lock down the cutter head the whole cutter head assembly can rock and that is simply just one more way to introduce snipe, depending on how much slop there is in the design.
So the guy reviewing the planer indicated that they put a scrap in the front and back of the work. That will work IF the person feeding the stock keeps the opposite ends of the boards lifted. The scrap pieces do nothing to prevent the work from pivoting the ends of the boards up off of the planer bed. They just help to keep the cutter head from pivoting when the actual work passes under the cutter head.
Ideally boards being fed should be supported their entire length on both sides of the planer so that they do not bow under their own weight. When the boards bow the ends lift until both the in feed and out feed rollers are in contact with the work.
Because I don't have supports that long on both sides I do the next best thing, I lift the ends of the boards to counter act the bow and to insure that the leading and trailing ends are flat against the planer bed as each end is only being held down by one or the other feed roller.
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