Tuning a woodmaster planer to reduce snipe

[WLC]

Took delivery of my 718 with spiral head and propack a couple of days after Christmas.  Finally got a new receptacle wired in at the shop for it and ran some practice boards through it.  I am pleased so far.  Very quiet with the spiral head, super finish on the boards, faster than my little lunchbox planer the 718 is replacing, but like all planers it leaves snipe at the ends.  Anyone that has a woodmaster have any tuning tricks to pass along to reduce snipe?  I've got the infeed and outfeed tables tilted up already as the assembly directions indicate. I know some of the other tricks like running a sacrificial board before and after, etc but was wondering about any other methods I may not know about.  Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[Southside]

Basically you have it covered. Snipe is caused by the knife lifting the wood off of the table surface and stops when the roller forces it down.

If you feed boards with the ends butted together you will only get snipe at the beginning and end of the wgwho run.

[Don P]

wgwho?
A snug chip breaker helps a little but I'll also lift pretty hard entering and exiting if trying to get all of the board, still if you aren't under both rollers you really don't have dimensional control.

[WLC]

So if a machine had two sets of feed rollers on both sides it would more or less eliminate snipe?   I'd pay extra for that within reason.  Just hate throwing away +-6" of each board.  Thanks for letting me know I'm already doing about all I can.  

[Don P]

Not really, I'm sure it would help but you are accurate when you have the board under rollers or hold downs on both sides of the cutterhead. The flatter the wood is the less snipe you have but nevertheless when it is not held firmly down on each side of the cutterhead dimension is not a guarantee.

[Southside]

wgwho

That's what happens when you are looking at the Forum on your phone while blindly pushing a cart around Sams club following your wife through the dreaded salad isle.....;D

As far as the two infeed / outfeed rollers, it would really not make a difference at all.  The cutter head would still be able to lift the board away from the table until something else was holding it down.  If you are only running one board at a time you can cheat to a degree and take something like 1/64" off a pass and not really get any snipe, but that is a long way to get down to size.   The simplest solution is to have some di-hedral to the infeed and outfeed tables and keep the boards butted end to end so it acts like one continuous board, that will eliminate snipe.  If it was only as easy to eliminate the salad isle.....

[low_48]

Industrial planers have a cast iron pressure bar behind the cutter head, a chip breaker in front of the cutter head, and huge springs on the rollers. That really limits the snipe, but it costs many thousands more than hobby machines.

[muggs]

My Powermatic planer has a pressure bar. Does yours?

[Dan_Shade]

Do you have any examples of the industrial planers? 

[low_48]

Do you have any examples of the industrial planers?

I had a Yates American when I was in business, that is old iron. Today you can buy SCM, Martin, Casadei, Cantek, etc...
Here's a cross section of an industrial planer


 

[sawwood]

I have the 18 Woodmaster with spiral head cutter and only get snip when I don't joint one face if the board is not flat. Cup and twist when run
threw the planer will have snipe. are the boards you are planning flat on one face ? How much is the snip leaving ? 

Sawwood