Just spent a couple hours (or was it a few minutes?) tweaking my new portable planer. Added a digital readout caliper to the unit (I was going to, but the scale it came with looked fine.); (would have) adjusted (none necessary) and waxed the infeed and outfeed tables; checked roller height and head parallelism; added 4′ extensions…. everything.
Guess what? I’m still getting snipe! Ran several 12″x 6″x 22′ (Correction. Make that 3/4″x 8″x 2′) freshly sawn (on second thought, it was dry) white oak beams (better call them boards) through it, pushed, pulled and swore. (At least I was prepared to do so.) When they finally made it through the machine (after two seconds), there it was – barely noticeable to the naked eye but to the sharpened vision of an old pro who can barely see the end of his nose, it jumped out at me like a starved tiger: snipe.
Thoroughly disgusted, I dragged out my calipers. My eyes didn’t lie. Four ten thousandths of an inch. Damn! (Upon further inspection, I discovered that my initila reading was thrown off by a hair that was on the board.)Guess I’ll try again tomorrow. (Then again, the heck with it.)
Jeff
Edited 12/9/2002 8:48:46 AM ET by Jeff K
Replies
For gosh sakes jeff...feed that starved tiger...lol. That is a hellofa piece of stock...its gotta be much heavier than the planer? good luck
I've never seen a piece of wood 12"x 6"x 22'. How many folks helped you feed it through the poor little planer? My hats of to you I don't think I would ask my little Delta to take that.
Good Luck and God Bless
les
Four ten thousandths. Yuk! How absolutely digusting!! How can you stand it!?!
ROFLMAO!!!!!!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
.004' of an inch sounds pretty good to me. Keep in mind that this is wood working, not brain surgery. Also, a beam that size is going to pretty much move when it wants. Try the planer with a "normal" size piece of wood to confirm it is indead the machine and not the natural movement of the wood as it moves through the planer. A larger floor mounted model may be more appropriate for this size of lumber. One last word - just about every planer is going to give some snipe. My advice is to plan for it rather than get disgusted by its presence. Good luck.
I'm thinking he must be joking around. This is a portable planer, after all. Surely he didn't think he was going to get no snipe.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Apparently some people don't get any snipe (or so they say) so it is understandable that some think this is completely avoidable.
In a related matter....I just bought a 15" floor mounted planer and I also have a 12" Dewalt benchtop planer. Do you think there is any point in keeping the Dewalt? Thanks for your advice.
JRowe
I agree with you FG , I get a kick out of the perfectionist or should I say proffessionals that think they can attain perfection but in woodworking there's really no such thing with the changes in humidity wood can move a lot. I have a older "12 Delta Planer and like someone said earlier I just simply allow for the snipe I figured out a long time ago that the stock needs to be slitely raised at the start before the stock gets in the blades and at the end of the planing opperation just before the stock leaves the blades but you never get it perfect. with a peice of material as big as what was described it definately couldn't be used in fine furniture construction so I'd say until your ready to use it in a final project joint and plane it then put it aside then when your ready to use it cut to a little bigger than whats needed then joint and plane to final dimensions. But then again this is just my $0.02 worth you all can take it or leave it I suggest leaving it.Ha Ha Ha
JIM C at the "PUTTERIN YANKEE"woodworking shop
.0004"? four "tenths"? are you sure your stock hadn't just dried out and shrunk that much in the time it took for a 22' beam to pass through your planer? you could double check that by measuring the width of your stock before and after, as well- be sure to make the appropriate corrections in your calculations for the boardsawn vs. quartersawn dimensions. if that's the case, i'd recommend using a faster feed speed or only planing when the relative humidity is higher. otherwise, you're just going to have to learn to live with such dismal performance. brace yourself for the stares and hoots of derision when people see whatever you build with such shoddily prepped stock.
mitch
He said four ten thousands .0004, not four thousands .004. that is less then 1/2 a thousand.
When I read the original, I thought he meant 4 times a ten-thousandth, so it'd be .04 (a ten-thousandth being .01, or .010). I've never seen a dial caliper that can measure to .0004. If that's the error, a woodworker would never notice it. Even when I plane a piece of wood it's not within .001 everywhere.
John
Jamie and I got it... It was a joke.... and a good one too !
Thanks for clearing that up Fred.....like that makes a difference! The whole discussion is inane and you just took it a new level.
Now hold on a darned minnit! I was the one who took it to a new level with my idea of the planer dragging itself along the plank!
Or do you mean Fred exceeded my level? Well, now...that's a different matter....
I have this vision.. LOL.. I'm standing in the middle of the street looking at my wood in the shop and I tell the planner to go crawl on wood and make it flat.. Oh yeah, and keep it within 00000004.000000000 so I can make a set of main bearings for my truck when you're done. Don't screw up.. I have a set of calipers and I will be checking... ROFLOL.....
Cripes, Jeff, that's so bad i can see it from my house!
So you've got a 44' long shop? Or did you elevate the ends of the log and let the planer drag itself along?
So I was bored.
Push down a bit a bit when you start pushing the board in and lift as you are pulling the board out. It helps a bit. I don't sweat a little snipe. Just leave your boards long, plane them and then cut what endcheck or snipe remains off.
Frank
Planing large beams with a portable planer is easy, but you need three men. Two men to support the beam, while you slip the running planer on to the end of the beam. As soon as you can, support the end before the man in the middle leaps out of the way. He should then support the center of the beam while the end man catches the planer. Over a six pack, go over your strategy as timing is important.
Be sure to use a long power cord.
Glendo.
O.K. Jeff, that was good.. You win the planer of the week story award!
Edited 12/9/2002 8:36:53 PM ET by no one
Can you believe some people took him seriously?!? ROFL! I had this spoof spotted right away. Toooo, tooooo funny! Good one, Jeff!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Seriously, I just got a new DeWalt last week, and I love it. I really wanted a 15" stationary unit, but that was a bit more than my budget allowed. My old Ryobi finally bit the dust. While I always thought it did a fine job, there really is no comparrison this new one. Now I just need it to last longer than the Ryobi.
Must get back to work. I'm removing the tar from some old railroad ties. Planning to resaw them into two-by-sixes for decking.
Jeff
>....I'm removing the tar from some old railroad ties.
I've got a bunch I took out of my yard - landscaping media as it were. The oak ones are still in pretty good shape. Send me your address and I'll UPS them to you. The RR ties are free, of course, shipping is on you. (grin)
...........
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Dennis,
When I first read your offer I thought it was a pretty good deal, but then I realized that if these things had been used for landscape timbers, they must have quite a bit of dirt on them. I think I'd better pass. Don't want sand on by band saw blades, but thanks anyway.
Jeff
There's not much sand. It's the rocks and gravel I'd worry about. Ate up about a dozen chain saw blades when I put them in 25 years ago. But they're not hard to pick out.
I could have them shipped by rail if you like. The lightest ones only weigh about 150 lbs.
...........
Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Still trying to get rid of those things, are ya Dennis?? Hah!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
You wouldn't have got ANY snipe at all if you had used a #8 like any decent woodworker. Sheesh. Speaking on behalf of other Jeff's .... we feel sorry for you.
Jeff P.
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