first thread

[g reed]

Hello,
I supervise a woodshop that is open to the general public for either an hourly or monthly membership fee. As such the tools receive much abuse and therefore require constant maintainence. During the past several years as a shop rat I have found that many woodworkers breakdown into 2 categories: those who love tweaking their machines and those who would opt for dental work if given the choice. I belong to the first group, however my time is often comprised not only by the needs of the shop members, but those of clients I pick-up on the side. I just finished paralleling our 20 year old DJ-20 8 in. jointer which took some time but was well worth the headaches, aching knees and the grief testy clients gave me for postponing their projects. Now I'd like to solve the sniping problem on our 15HH Powermatc Planer. I considered asking Powermatic techs. about this only to learn from another shop super who already made similiar inquiries that Powermatic believes this sniping is within industry tolerances. In fact, according to the other super, their tech called the 15HH "snipey". Granted, bigger planers often snipe but typically this occurs only on the outfeed and not on the infeed as well. This is all a bit distressing espcially for a company of Powermatic's standing. So, before I attempt the standard fixes for this problem I thought I'd ask if anyone has found some ingenious alternative solution other than using our lunchbox DeWalt for the final pass. (We love that little DeWalt, but our ears thank us for the 15HH).

[Boardman]

I don't know anything about Powermatic planers, but I've found that the usual suspect when it comes to planer snipe is not having the lumber properly supported, especially on the outfeed end. The snipe there comes from the leading end of the board drooping down as the other end comes under the knives. That kicks the end up into the knives and results in snipe. A slight cant downward on the end of the outfeed surface will do that.

Don't know if that's the deal with the Powermatic though.

[JON BELL]

I'm not all that experienced at machine setup but for what it's worth I talked to a Delta rep. who told me to put a dime on the planner bed and then level the in&outfeed tables with the straight edge on the dime.

[Toms94]

I'm not sure about the model you are talking about, but you may want to check how high the bottom rollers are set above the table. If the rollers are set too high, snipe can occur on the infeed side. I would also agree that by supporting the board (especially if it long) as it is fed in and out can help to reduce snipe.

I have a Powermatic Q225 (24" wide x 8" thick) and I get snipe with it on the outfeed side with long boards if I don't support it properly. The bottom feed rolls are set to .010 above the table for most cutting operations.

Hope this helps.

[johnep]

Explanation of 'snipe' please for someone still learning the lingo.
johnep

[Toms94]

Snipe is where the end of the board has a distinct line where the end of the board gets "sniped" as it comes off the feed rollers and is cut thinner than the rest of the board. Can happen on the beginning of the board but more likely on the back end where it comes off.

[joasis]

Snipe can occur even with exact outfeed support....some machines are more prone then others. The "lunchbox" machines do well because the feed rollers are very close to the head, as opposed to some large machines having a wider spacing, and it only takes a 1/64 of an inch or bounce, or a shaving on the bed, to cause snipe. I have noticed that dust collectors help a lot, and waxing the planer bed, believe it or not, helps as well.

[woodman42]

Welcome to the site!

[g reed]

it seems our bottom rollers were a bit high which is what we suspected....our attempt however, to address this issue was delayed by a new problem: our DJ-20's fence has frozen in the lock position and thus no angle adjustment is possible. It seems that the threaded clamp in the adjustment handle's assembly no longer engages the wedge that presses the shaft (on which fence rotates) against the sliding portion of the fence assembly. Anyone out there having faced a similiar problem? I'd rather ask you guys first before asking Delta. I love old Delta tools but over the past 3 years, any new Delta has been returned or is headed for the trash heap. The only Delta we have kept is the old 10 inch Unisaw, 14 inch bandsaw and DJ-20 all of which have, aside from typical maintainence, survived 15 years of public shop abuse. I just don't trust the Delta of today anymore. Just thought I might avoid losing a day on the phone with some tech. by asking if anyone has encountered a similiar problem.

[Bruce B]

And welcome to our forum glad to have you.

Bruce.

[g reed]

merry christmas and thanks for having me.