Snipe happens. Get over it...


lewisc

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5 hours ago, lewisc said:

I had a sobering/solemn whatever you want to call it realisation today. I've spent a bit of time trying to find ways to get rid of snipe. Then I came across this at 1.25.

 

Who's the guy in the video?  I like his style.  

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My 12" Parks Paner has zero snipe. Wish I could say it was some magical ability of my own calibration technique that did it. But truth is it used to have snipe and then over time things kinda got pushed out of the way or self-adjusted as wear occurred and snipe went away. My jointer still has a lot of snipe when jointing pieces longer then one wing, I happen to know this is caused by my terrible technique because as I adjust how I hold the board it tends to go away. Though not always and I usually allow enough room to run my boards through my tablesaw twice to give myself a clean snipe-less edge after being run through the jointer. Planer though... thats golden, at least until I have to sharpen my knives, then who knows what will happen.

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I've spent a bit of time trying to find ways to get rid of snipe. Then I came across this at 1.25.

So you've found someone who states something that coincides with your experience; that's great.  I believe Michael Fortune and Alex Snodgrass both made comments in one form of media or the other that bandsaw wheels do not need to be co-planer.  If statements like these add credence to your way of thinking or make your shop life more comfortable, rock on.  One is not required to do anything advised on this forum.  Information is freely given, it is your choice what to use, ignore or store for later. For many of us, this craft is supposed to be fun so above all, enjoy yourself.

In my world bandsaws don't drift (I still chuckle whenever I think about the 'DriftMaster' fence).  Tablesaws don't burn and planers & jointers don't snipe.  Well, OK, on rare occasions any of that can happen but, wood is a natural medium.  Its not like we all use particle board and other composites for everything.  I'm just saying these errors are not the norm nor acceptable to me :).

Contrarily, just because I have a method that works for me does not necessarily mean it will work for you.  I will still watch other methods and take them into account.  That's how I learn and find better ways of doing things.  Oddly enough, I don't know every darn thing :D.  One of the great strengths of forums is the shared knowledge and experience; even from folks who swear that bandsaw wheels don't need to be co-planer and that chip breaker position isn't all that important :o.

My DW734 had no snipe problems once setup.  Dad's DW735 doesn't either.  My 15" floor machine will occasionally leave a mark if I am careless / in a hurry.  This just came off my 15" machine:

No-snipe.jpg.061d32cb2b3f9abe27dc7bec769d0f26.jpg

The "in a hurry" thing always bites me in the butt because it takes much longer to fix things than to do them right.  Take a Saturday morning and setup your machine.  It takes less time than fixing a misalignment issue over and over again.

P.s.  Don't kill yourself trying to align a machine that cannot be corrected.  There are / were some lunchbox planers (it seems Tom King has overcome the Delta SnipeMaster version; kudos to you sir!), tablesaws, etc. made and sold that will never do what a higher quality machine will do.  My base-model Toyota pick-up / lumber hauler will never do what a nice full sized pick-up truck will do either.  A nice full sized pick-up truck doesn't fit in my current situation so, I just rock on :).

 

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12 minutes ago, gee-dub said:

In my world bandsaws don't drift

Just curious...I hear people say this and I don't know what they mean.  Do you never have to adjust your fence so that's it's parallel to the blade when you do a blade change?  Because that's "drift."  If you don't have to adjust your fence after a blade change I'd love to know how you accomplished that.

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My powermatic planer snipes.I did spend a fair amount of my time here on earth trying to tune it out.What I discovered is the bed flexs down and back up so there's nothing that can be done to change that.

I did have a 735 that didn't snipe if I passed wood thru it that was flat on the reference side.

My bandsaws cut very straight but I still adjust the fence for drift.

Aj here just keeping it real.

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1 hour ago, Eric. said:

Just curious...I hear people say this and I don't know what they mean.  Do you never have to adjust your fence so that's it's parallel to the blade when you do a blade change?  Because that's "drift."  If you don't have to adjust your fence after a blade change I'd love to know how you accomplished that.

I started to get way too chatty and so started a thread over here.

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3 hours ago, Jim DaddyO said:

I get a bit of snipe on my Makita.  It's within sanding distance, it's small stuff, so I don't sweat it.  Planing is not the final step any ways.

It was about this. I've had that realisation that it's the small stuff and it doesn't need to be perfect. There are other steps to be done to either sand it down or cut it off.

There is also the option of trying to adjust a machine that might not ever be fixed of the problem. Who knows? I'll still be trying to fix it, but I won't be sweating about it.  

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5 hours ago, gee-dub said:

So you've found someone who states something that coincides with your experience; that's great.

100%

People act like they like the straight forward manner in which this was stated, but they really like that someone is preaching to the choir.

Snipe is completely avoidable. (and so is drift) 

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1 hour ago, Llama said:

Snipe is completely avoidable

You should come to St. Louis and tell that to my Grizturd.

It's moot now because I drum sand everything...but I've never been able to eliminate it completely.  But it is out of my life.

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Guest Randy

While I suppose that some slight snipe still exists on the end of my boards after being run through my Dewalt 735 planer, I avoid any noticeable snipe by ensuring that the outer edges of the infeed and outfeed extension tables are slightly higher than the planer bed. When snipe starts to occur, I know it's time to readjust the extension tables as they do seem to move slightly over time due to vibration no matter how tight I get the mounting screws.

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