Planer snipe solved

Brian Altop

Member
Messages
274
Location
Tacoma, WA
I just wanted to throw this out in case it could help someone else.

I have an old Belsaw planer that my grandfather gave to me. It has seen a lot of use over it's 30+ years of service for him.

I used it and not too much trouble with it being well used and warn, but recently, especially with the Jatoba cabinets I'm building, I was getting a lot of snipe at the front of the board and the end of the board.

I shimmed the outfeed and infeed tables and if anything it got worse. I then stepped back, put my hammer down,:D, and started to really look at things.

I found that what was happening was the bed was tilting with the weight of the wood(even with secondary supports for the wood). So the bed would tilt down on the infeed raising the front of the board into the cutter head. Then once the 2nd roller caught the board it would push the bed into alignment, but as the wood cleared the infeed roller, the bed would tip down on the outfeed side, again raising the wood into the cutter head.

There are 4 bushings that support the bed rising rods and I shimmed these and problem solved. I now have NO snipe what so ever.

So, if your planer is having troubles, watch the bed and see if there is any movement in it with the wood only under one roller. My planer would only tilt up and down maybe .10 of an inch, but at the cutter head it was huge.

So, hope this helps someone!

And, yep, once this project is over I will be ordering new parts for my planer!


Brian
 
I just wanted to throw this out in case it could help someone else.

I have an old Belsaw planer that my grandfather gave to me. It has seen a lot of use over it's 30+ years of service for him.

I used it and not too much trouble with it being well used and warn, but recently, especially with the Jatoba cabinets I'm building, I was getting a lot of snipe at the front of the board and the end of the board.

I shimmed the outfeed and infeed tables and if anything it got worse. I then stepped back, put my hammer down,:D, and started to really look at things.

I found that what was happening was the bed was tilting with the weight of the wood(even with secondary supports for the wood). So the bed would tilt down on the infeed raising the front of the board into the cutter head. Then once the 2nd roller caught the board it would push the bed into alignment, but as the wood cleared the infeed roller, the bed would tip down on the outfeed side, again raising the wood into the cutter head.

There are 4 bushings that support the bed rising rods and I shimmed these and problem solved. I now have NO snipe what so ever.

So, if your planer is having troubles, watch the bed and see if there is any movement in it with the wood only under one roller. My planer would only tilt up and down maybe .10 of an inch, but at the cutter head it was huge.

So, hope this helps someone!

And, yep, once this project is over I will be ordering new parts for my planer!

Brian
Brian -

I know this post is almost 2 years old, so don't know if you are still around. I'm new to this forum, but your post describes my problem exactly. Except that I can't figure out how your fix applies to my machine.

I have a Belsaw 912 that I bought many years as a floor sample demo, so basically new then. I used it some but then dropped woodworking for many years. Now I am trying to get it working again so I can do some serious woodworking with my son, who has taken it up as a hobby.

The planer has significant infeed snipe. I have gotten rid of all outfeed snipe by adjusting the outfeed table extension and putting upward pressure on the board as it leaves the infeed feed roller. But the infeed snipe is a different issue. I have found that there is significant play in the bed - you can lift it up by pulling up on the infeed table extension and clearly see significant movement. It appears to be due to the front corner screws lifting off of their supports at the bottom of the screw. I don't see the bushings you are talking about that you shimmed. Perhaps you have a different model.

I can almost totally eliminate the infeed snipe by pressing down hard on the infeed table extension - which has a cast frame bolted to the bed - as the stock feeds into the planer, but before the outfeed roller catches it. Thought this works well, it is a pain, so I have thought about devising a locking mechanism that will lock the table down after each adjustment before running the stock through. Somewhat analogous to the cutterhead locking mechanism on some of the "lunchbox" portable planers. But if I could figure out your shimming solution and make it work on my 912, I think that would be superior, assuming I didn't have to tear the whole machine apart to implement it.

Anyway, if you are still out there Brian, please comment. Or anyone else who has a Belsaw 910/912 who has devised a way to fix the infeed snipe please feel free to comment. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Al
 
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