Cured Snipe in my thicky

[Garry G]

G'day
I had long coveted a thicknesser for my little backyard shop but found it difficult to fit it in the budget and had got by with occasionally borrowing a cheap Chinese creation from a good neighbour. Then, recently stumbled onto a reasonably priced, 2nd hand Delta 22-560 12.5'' thicknesser that seemed in OK condition and was at the right price. So I took the plunge.

Reading a few reviews and posts here and elsewhere, many users complained/ noted/ tolerated/ worked around the problem of snipe, which seems to be pretty much endemic with this type of machine. Sure enough after cleaning up my new? Delta and feeding some odd offcuts, etc into it for a test, no surprise, snipe on the leading edge of the workpiece.

I thought about this for a while and what was happening to the cutter head as the timber feeds under the rollers. It seemed to me that the force applied by the feed rollers onto the workpiece caused the cutter head to rotate on the transverse axis. In particular, as the workpiece goes under the outfeed roller, this forces the cutter head upward, slightly raising the blades and resulting in the dreaded snipe. So what if I could cut out the movement of the cutter head?

My solution was to insert a collar on each guide post, above the cutter head, that would be tight enough to stop the cutter head being forced up by the pressure of the workpiece engaging the rollers. Off I went to Bunnys in search of suitable materials and came away with a PVC conduit coupling slightly larger than the guide posts on the thicknesser and four stainless, 25mm hose clamps (about $9 worth). I cut the coupling into four lengths (about 18mm each) and then put a slice lengthways in each segment so it could be squeezed up on the guide posts. I roughed up the inside of each of my new collars to give them a bit better purchase on the guide post and then installed one PVC collar and hose clamp on each guide post, above the cutter head, (see the pic.) In total this took about an hour.

Then, after setting the height of the cutter head I slide each collar down until it is against the body of the cutter head and tighten the hose clamp firmly. I then wind the cutter head up slightly so it is tight against the collars and then tighten the thicknesser's cutter head clamp.

And the result? On feeding several pieces of very old, well dried, mountain ash, for my latest project, into the machine .... hey presto, no snipe...at all...none!

I haven't had a chance to feed something more demanding into the machine but first results were stunning.

Can a fix be this easy? Has anyone else tried this sort of thing as a solution with success (or failure)? I'll provide an update when I've given it another, perhaps more challenging chunk of hard stuff to chew on.

Cheers
Garry G

[I_wanna_Shed]

Great idea Garry.

I;ve seen others others on here try the hose clamp directly on the post, but I've never done it myself as I was worried the hose clamp may leave a mark on the post, making movement of the cutterhead more difficult if a bur or something forms.

I like your addition of the plastic pipe to protect against this.

I'll give it a shot soon when I'm in the shed.

Nathan.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I can see that being a pain when you're knocking down a batch of gnarly wood to equal thickness.

You know the drill: "Lower the head a couple of mm, feed thru a heap of timber. Lower the head a couple of mm, feed thru..." repetitio ad nauseum.

Then again, I guess if the snipe isn't too bad - and it really shouldn't be on a healthy machine - then you could simply size down as per normal, using your clamp setup for just the final pass.

[I_wanna_Shed]

Then again, I guess if the snipe isn't too bad - and it really shouldn't be on a healthy machine - then you could simply size down as per normal, using your clamp setup for just the final pass.

That was my thought, just use the clamps on the final one or two passes. using them on every pass would nearly see me learning how to sharpen planes!

[Mr Brush]

There is a huge thread on here somewhere from a couple of years ago (started by Apricotripper?) that went over all this. Several of us came up with similar mods to try and fix the problem - I used those metal hose clips on my cheap Ryobi thicky to stop the cutterhead rising up and get the same effect.

Thankfully I got rid of my Ryobi soon after..........

Basically, if you're looking for one of these cheap 13" thicknessers, try to find one of the few models around that have a proper cutterhead lock designed in (Delta used to do one, as did JET).

[Cliff Rogers]

There is another story about this from 5 years ago here.
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f154/i...knesser-25930/

[Mr Brush]

That's the one ! Doesn't 5 years fly when you're having fun???

[FenceFurniture]

Can a fix be this easy?
Garry G

Garry, often the best solution is the simplest, but it usually takes a lot of experimenting to get there. You have simply taken the direct route to a great answer. If only I could do that a little more often.

I use a similar idea on my drill press to get depth control or height limiting (it's a miserable little 25mm column). Instead of plastic tube & a hose clamp I use a piece of Spotted Gum with a 25mm hole, cut a split and tighten with a cam lever for speed (but the force to hold in position is probably less than a thicknesser). I love these simple and effective workarounds that the manufacturers can't think of (coz they don't actually use the tools, it seems).

Cheers, FF

[jhovel]

I have thought about this identical issue on another machine.
If I may venture an opinion, please:
I suspect the issue is not that the locks for the cutterhead are not right, but rather that the positioning/height setting screws are used to LIFT the cutterhead into position. As a result, the head can move as much as the backlash allows - and will get worse as the screws and nuts wear.
The solutiopn would be to arrange the screws to PUSH the head down into position. That way teh backlash is always taken up before starting a cut.
Options for dsoing this are to remove the element of gravity form the equation: arrange some springs or gas struts or counterweights to lift the cutterhead against the backlash, then use the positioning/height adjusting screws to push the cutterhead agains these springs or weights DOWN to the cutting height.
In my milling machine (massive weight of knee and table), springs were not an option and would change strength along the travel, so I used counterweight - very large ones! Problem solved!
Anyone think this may be possible on these thicknessers? Ideas?

Joe

[munruben]

It's only on short pieces of timber I worry about the snipe. On longer lengths, I just trim the snipe off.