True or False: all planers have snipe, regardless if it is lunchbox, floor standing Ish, floor standing, fixed-table, fixed-cutterhead, straight knives, segmented insets. It appears if one asks 30 people, one gets at least 20 different answers.
dbw
Part of that may be because the wood itself plays into whether you get snipe or not. My take on it is that I've never seen one that has the head locked snipe, but I suppose if you had a board bowed just the right way even it would have snipe with the head locked.
Most of the time I don't get sniping. I normally feed the boards with the back end up a little, help to keep the front feeding down against the planers surface. Then I apply a little upward lift/pressure on the outfeed side after passing the outfeed tray. With short boards 12" to 15", it helps to send a longer board alone it's side. Then after I get to the thickness.
Many have different ways to avoid sniping. Some plane a board about 5" longer than needed. Then cut to length needed. Wanting to cut off any snipe, if happened
Many have different ways to avoid sniping. Some plane a board about 5" longer than needed. Then cut to length needed. Wanting to cut off any snipe, if happened
I'd suspect the true answer is, yes. How much and how well the user/machine can mitigate/eliminate it is what likely causes the mixed responses. In addition to the above comments about wood, and a handful of other factors.
I've got a DW 734. Most of the time I don't get any snipe. And if I do, it's very little. One thing that I think helps is the machine has a locking cutter head. Additionally, I experimented quite a bit with setup. Ultimately landed on a recommendation from somewhere across the interwebs. Which was to place a penny/washer at the leading edge of both sides of the planer's bed. Lay a straight edge across those two pennies. Then adjust each table/wing so that it's far edge is making contact with the straight edge.
The idea I guess is to use the wings to provide some slight upward pressure. Similar to those who do this manually as they're feeding stock through the machine. I've found the "penny trick" has pretty much eliminated any need for me to help feed stock through the machine. I also will typically send pieces through at a slight angle.
But if I absolutely want to leave no doubt, I'll trim my boards to length after planing. Just leave them a little bit longer than the finished dimension. Allowing for any trimming if snipe did occur.
I've got a DW 734. Most of the time I don't get any snipe. And if I do, it's very little. One thing that I think helps is the machine has a locking cutter head. Additionally, I experimented quite a bit with setup. Ultimately landed on a recommendation from somewhere across the interwebs. Which was to place a penny/washer at the leading edge of both sides of the planer's bed. Lay a straight edge across those two pennies. Then adjust each table/wing so that it's far edge is making contact with the straight edge.
The idea I guess is to use the wings to provide some slight upward pressure. Similar to those who do this manually as they're feeding stock through the machine. I've found the "penny trick" has pretty much eliminated any need for me to help feed stock through the machine. I also will typically send pieces through at a slight angle.
But if I absolutely want to leave no doubt, I'll trim my boards to length after planing. Just leave them a little bit longer than the finished dimension. Allowing for any trimming if snipe did occur.
The correct answer is : FALSE 
Fixed head, locking head, hold down bars are pretty common to planers that do not snipe.
Neither my 20" Grizzly nor my Laguna 12 portable snipe. The Grizzly has a locking bed, the Laguna a locking head.
It's totally related to the machine. The wood has very little to do with it.
Fixed head, locking head, hold down bars are pretty common to planers that do not snipe.
Neither my 20" Grizzly nor my Laguna 12 portable snipe. The Grizzly has a locking bed, the Laguna a locking head.
NOT TRUE.
It's totally related to the machine. The wood has very little to do with it.
SEE ABOVE.
Absolutely false. All planers can snipe, but the in and outfeed tables are adjustable to eliminate snipe. I have a Ryobi 13” at home and a Powermatic 25” at the MicroJig Shop and have both tuned to cut with Zero snipe.
I can’t see snipe unless you are running short pieces maybe 2‘ that you get sniped. This definitely means it needs adjusting. Long pieces it’s easy to see if not supported..
+1 False.
BUT:
ALL planers can and will create snipe; when improperly set up for the required milling process.
+1 Lumber is not consistent. A machine set up for zero snipe with one species or thickness; may not perform same with another species or thickness of same species.
IME - The mass of lumber .vs. mass of thickness planer is key factor.
With bench top planers, milling heavy planks: proper set up of entire process; is more critical than on machine with larger mass.
A 100lb bench top planer is not able to provide the same holding force on sticks as a larger 400-900lb floor standing planer.
As one example: I get nearly zero snipe on my 20" planer when running < 5ft planks; even when not using external feed rollers. But when I run 10-12' 8/4 planks; the external support rollers have to be setup properly to support the plank and avoid snipe.
BUT:
ALL planers can and will create snipe; when improperly set up for the required milling process.
+1 Lumber is not consistent. A machine set up for zero snipe with one species or thickness; may not perform same with another species or thickness of same species.
IME - The mass of lumber .vs. mass of thickness planer is key factor.
With bench top planers, milling heavy planks: proper set up of entire process; is more critical than on machine with larger mass.
A 100lb bench top planer is not able to provide the same holding force on sticks as a larger 400-900lb floor standing planer.
As one example: I get nearly zero snipe on my 20" planer when running < 5ft planks; even when not using external feed rollers. But when I run 10-12' 8/4 planks; the external support rollers have to be setup properly to support the plank and avoid snipe.
I usually run 8’ boards through my 15” planer. The weight of the boards can easily snipe 1” of the boards.
Most of the boards I get have about 1” checking. I remove the checked amount after surfacing the boards. Whether it snipes or not doesn’t matter to me, that part will be removed anyway.
Most of the boards I get have about 1” checking. I remove the checked amount after surfacing the boards. Whether it snipes or not doesn’t matter to me, that part will be removed anyway.
5’ and shorter boards do not snipe as a rule. If for some reason it does, I have a bench plane and scraper that fixes it.
I believe one of the advantages of a straight knife planer is it can be set to minimize snipe much more then a bryd head.
I currently have a powermatic with a bryd head and sometimes it snipes some not. There just too much flex in the casting and different woods and depth of cut affects the outcome. I’m done trying to chase out something has too many variables.
Im not budging all planers snipe in my world.
I currently have a powermatic with a bryd head and sometimes it snipes some not. There just too much flex in the casting and different woods and depth of cut affects the outcome. I’m done trying to chase out something has too many variables.
Im not budging all planers snipe in my world.
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