Anti-snipe tip


difalkner

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A variation on that theme is to lead the piece you are planing with a cut-off of the same thickness and then follow it with another cut-off. Just make sure that the cut-offs butt against your working piece. The idea is to keep the lead and following feed rollers up at the same level until the workpiece has passed the knives. It would sometimes help to have three hands when doing this, but it works.

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44 minutes ago, Wimayo said:

A variation on that theme is to lead the piece you are planing with a cut-off of the same thickness and then follow it with another cut-off. Just make sure that the cut-offs butt against your working piece. The idea is to keep the lead and following feed rollers up at the same level until the workpiece has passed the knives. It would sometimes help to have three hands when doing this, but it works.

Yep, I do that all the time but realized a while back that I can just make a couple of pieces longer when I do cutting board glue-ups and that relieves me of the 3-hand dance.  Also, if the board is to be cut with a profile on the CNC it gives me a couple of outboard places to anchor the piece without fear of the bit hitting a clamp.

David

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9 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

First time I've heard anyone mention snipe from a drum sander!

I was surprised, as well, the first time I saw it.  The SuperMax 19-38 is an awesome drum sander but it will snipe both the leading and trailing edge if you're not careful.  So the easy thing to do is keep a few boards of different thicknesses at the drum sander to feed before and after my target board.  The manual tells you how to adjust the spring rollers to avoid snipe, though I'm not sure they refer to it as snipe - don't recall, but that adjustment didn't eliminate the snipe.  Even when I added the infeed/outfeed tables the snipe was still there.  When I make large Walnut plaques and shoot them with gloss lacquer the snipe is very evident but the sacrificial boards completely eliminate the problem.

David

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One more tip. If you just slightly raise the trailing end of your work piece when starting the pass and then slightly raise the leading end as the pass is being completed, you will often totally eliminate snipe. It will take a little practice to get it right. This works best on longer pieces. However, shorter pieces usually don't have as much of a problem (in my experience) if your infeed and outfeed tables are properly adjusted.

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I added the infeed/outfeed tables a couple of months ago and they've really helped with material flow.  Now short pieces don't fall off the back side but there's still a tiny bit of snipe on occasion, even on long boards.  It's just enough that I feed a sacrificial board almost every time.

David

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This photo was taken back in April 2017 before I realized what was happening on the drum sander.  These have only been sanded, not run through the planer.  After I did the suggested adjustment it was a lot better but still exists. Now I use a board before and after and get zero snipe. These plaques were laser engraved and had mistakes so the trophy shop asked me to sand through the engraving and refinish. At this point they have one coat of Nitrocellulose sanding sealer and have been hand sanded in preparation for the gloss lacquer top coat. The snipe is so slight that you can't feel it unless you're really paying attention, not at all like planer snipe that is very easy to feel.

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David

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