Planer

[sussertown]

I don't understand how I continue to see teaching videos where the woodworker runs a board through a dewalt planer without using sacrificial wood for snipes.

[Jim-W]

I have a Jet 20 inch 5HP planer with a helical cutter head. I get very little snipe, if I get any snipe at all. In my personal opinion, I think a lot of the reasons for wood snipe has to do with how the planer is adjusted. I make quite a few large cutting boards and give them away as gifts at Christmas time, and for birthdays and wedding gifts. I know several people who use them as hot plates when they place hot dishes of food on the table. Anyway, after I glue up the wood I plane it and I get no wood snipe. or the wood snipe is so minor you don't even see it. At least that is my experience with it. I also have a Foley-Belsaw 12 inch planer with a 5HP motor. I have never been able to adjust that planer so I get no wood snipe. I stopped using it as a planer and I now use it strictly to make moldings. Works wonderful for that and I have made custom moldings for a lot of contractors who do remodeling jobs on older homes in larger cities. Many larger cities have what I would call "the older section" of the city and because of that the city council wants to keep those older homes looking like they did when they were built. The contractors can't buy the wide old style moldings and I am able to duplicate these old style moldings. There is a company that has the capability to make molding knives for my Foley-Belsaw planer and once I have them make the molding knives I need, I can make all the moldings the contractors need to finish the job they are doing.

[mic-d]

What type of machine do you mean by a planer? Because you say feed through I think you are referring to a thicknesser? Or do you mean a jointer? I don’t really understand how you can get snipe on a good thicknesser if your outfeed table is well adjusted and you support the work or have a long bed. If your blades are set too high on a jointer you’ll get snipe, but you can adjust the blades correctly. I love the helical gear I fitted to my old Luna for a few reasons, not least being once the outfeed is adjusted perfectly there’s no need to revisit this. Can you describe how the sacrificial timber works?

[Jim-W]

Here is a picture of the planer. It is what we call a surface planer, some people call it a thickness planer.

[Mountain Ash]

Hi ST. If the DeWalt planer you are seeing on YouTube videos is the same as mine (DW735) then the answer is that this planer (thicknesser) actually leaves very little snipe. I read this in reviews before I bought it and this has also been my experience too.