Surface/Thickness Planer

Dave Hoskins

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Parker County, Texas
Back in the day when I built furniture I had one of those 20" Grizzly planers with the spiral head cutters, 220v single phase. But, when I went to just turning and moved up to where I am now I sold it as well as some of the other heavy tools that I saw no real need for. And, I really didn't want to move them. Lately I have been piddling with some small projects for myself and decided I needed a small planer so did a little looking and bought this Porter Cable PC 305TP. It's kinda small as it only does 12" but that good enough for me. The cost was fine ($269) and Lowe's had 3 or so in stock. Now some may remember that one of the things you looked for in a planer was whether it said it was self feeding. The lower cost ones usually were not. I actually was not expecting this one to be self feeding as nothing in the description or specs online said it was. Well, it is and that is even nicer. It's not overly heavy weighing I think it said 65 lbs. so easily moved around. So, if someone is looking for a small one, I recommend this little gem. It has done some pecan and red oak for me very nicely.
 
I think pretty much all of them on the market these days are self-feeding. I don't remember ever seeing any of them, anyway.

I have the same Delta planer. My only real complaint about mine is that it tends to snipe the board at both ends, no matter how I adjust it or change how I feed and retrieve the board as it's running though. I just plan on trimming off about 3" on either end of the board to remove the thinner sections. I know other people have gotten good results out of theirs, though.
 
Yeah, they probably are all self feeding now. This is the first one I have bought in about 12 years. I remember seeing several by both PC and Delta that were manual feed. Times change. Mine snipes a little bit on the back end now and then. Not on the front end, yet. But also the longest board I have planed is maybe 40" right now. If I ever need to do much longer than that I will build a table for it like I had for the Grizz. I had a table that had a recessed area for the planer and 6' long feed areas on both ends. Worked like a charm.
 
I have the Grizzly G0505, a 12 1/2" max. planer. It is a self-feed and I am very happy with it's performance. Yes, it does have a little snipe. I believe this is caused by the feeder/out feed rollers being a little higher than the table so the wood drops as it passes by the roller. I'm debating removing the rollers.:huh: Only feature that bothers me is the cost for replacement blades, about $45.00. I have a pair but in several years of use I have not had a need to use. Local professional tool sharpening guy says they are not resharpenable [is that a real word? ;-) ]
 
I have the Grizzly G0505, a 12 1/2" max. planer. ... Local professional tool sharpening guy says they are not resharpenable [is that a real word? ;-) ]

Frank, according to the G0505 manual page 22, your blades can be resharpened. My first planer was a Delta 12.5" and I sharpened the blades a couple of times.

On the other hand, my current planer, a DeWalt DW735, says not to resharpen the blades. The difference must because the DW735 blades are self-aligning so any slight variation in grinding them would be an issue.
 
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I have a friend who has the DW735 and buys the replacement blades when needed. Says you can't resharpen them also. I'm not sure I would want to tackle that job. I'd probably mess it up and have to go buy new blades anyway. :rofl: But, hey. If you can do it, go for it.
 
I've also have the Delta model that is similar, got it from my FIL 3 years ago. It's been a great little planner, I got the dust collector hood for it and built an auxiliary bed (https://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?34218-Auxiliary-Planer-Bed&p=417773#post417773) which helped with longer/larger boards pushing through. I can also shim twisted boards on the bed using masking tape to hold the shims and flatten one side, the melamine is slick enough that the board and shims ride right on through. I rarely have an issue with snipe on it, but usually lift the board going in and coming out if it isn't longer than I really need.
 
I have a friend who has the DW735 and buys the replacement blades when needed. Says you can't resharpen them also. I'm not sure I would want to tackle that job. I'd probably mess it up and have to go buy new blades anyway. :rofl: But, hey. If you can do it, go for it.

As I said, you aren't supposed to resharpen the DW735 blades. They are 2-sided, at least, so when they get dull, you flip them over. When I bought my DW735 from Amazon, they had a package with two extra sets of blades and the infeed and outfeed tables. All of that for $100 less than the plain package at Lowe's!
 
I looked at the Grizz GO505 like Frank has, but I really didn't want to spend much more than I had to. This is to me a minimum use tool; just a convenience for once in a while use. I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon and looks like you got a good deal, Bill. I usually buy stuff from Lowe's (if they have it) that I need as I get a discount there. If they don't have it, then I get it where I have to. No big deal.
 
... I rarely have an issue with snipe on it, but usually lift the board going in and coming out if it isn't longer than I really need.

I believe Darren has the keys to the kingdom. Back when I had a bench-top 12 inch planer, the manual said to tip the infeed and outfeed guides up slightly. I couldn't believe I should intentionally put something out of alignment, but I had snipe. Finally I followed the instructions, and the snipe went away. With my wide drum sander and my 16 inch 5 hp planer, I lift the ends slightly on in and out and the snipe goes away.

Think of the physics... when both infeed and outfeed rollers are holding the board down, no snipe, but as soon as the infeed roller is out of play, and the work is only held by the outfeed roller, the leverage of a long board can tip the end up slightly into the cutters, creating snipe. Similar on infeed snipe before the outfeed roller comes into play.
 
I believe Darren has the keys to the kingdom. Back when I had a bench-top 12 inch planer, the manual said to tip the infeed and outfeed guides up slightly. I couldn't believe I should intentionally put something out of alignment, but I had snipe. Finally I followed the instructions, and the snipe went away. With my wide drum sander and my 16 inch 5 hp planer, I lift the ends slightly on in and out and the snipe goes away.

Think of the physics... when both infeed and outfeed rollers are holding the board down, no snipe, but as soon as the infeed roller is out of play, and the work is only held by the outfeed roller, the leverage of a long board can tip the end up slightly into the cutters, creating snipe. Similar on infeed snipe before the outfeed roller comes into play.

I've adjusted my infeed and outfeed tables to varying degrees, and tried lifting the board in different amounts, and despite all my efforts, the only constant has been snipe. :bang:
 
Interesting. I'll have to rethunk my idea of removing the rollers. I'm not fully understanding Charlie's explanation. :huh:

I think I understand the tempatation to remove the rollers; that way you would only be dealing with the cutterhead itself, kinda like a huge router bit with the table acting as your fence. However, I can think of a few "downers" to this approach.

First would be the lack of self-feeding functionality. You would have to provide ALL of the feeding force to get your board past the cutter. Which leads to the other downers...

Second would be SAFETY. How do you get that board all the way through the planer without either putting your hand "too far in" --or-- letting go entirely so you can move to the outfeed end and pull the board the rest of the way out? ("Letting go" could result in an impressive kickback.) I suppose you could get an assistant to help, but that's inconvenient ... and problematic with shorter boards.

Third would be quality of cut. Even IF the board didn't kick back on you, the lack of a consistent feed rate could lead to burning, etc.

I found a decent page (with a useful video) that shows one-off results for 6 different snipe-reducing methods: http://fixthisbuildthat.com/6-ways-to-reduce-planer-snipe/

The author included a link to a short Highland Woodworking article on the subject. Inexplicably, he didn't model the full recommendation from that article, which I would have added as method #7:

As you start a pass through the planer, lift the trailing end of the board with a few pounds more force than its weight while pressing the leading end firmly onto the planer bed. Force the wood to stay flat and firm on the bed until the second feed roller takes over the hold-down job, and then continue to support the board's weight until it's close to balanced. Move to the outfeed side and repeat the process to complete the pass: apply just a little positive lift under the lead end and press the trailing end flat as it rolls out from under the infeed roller.
 
I still have the Dewalt 733. Almost antique now.

I do the old adjust the tables and the lift thing - no sniping.

I just replace the blades with new when I need to. I work in a machine shop with talented grinders that CAN resharpen much better that most resharpening houses. It's just easier to replace as needed - for me at least.
 
http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/planer_setup.pdf

I did this with my little 12" Grizzly planer worked great.

Good info. Thanks. I wasn't even aware my Griz had adjustments. I printed out the explanation and will have to get out my owners manual for the planer then do what it says. Actually, my snipe situation is not bad, probably in normal ranges. But anything that can be done to reduce or eliminate it will be good. Did he say to unplug before sticking yer fingers under there? :eek: Yes, he did, and I always am careful about things like that.
 
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