[hawkeye10]

I have been in contact with Shelix about getting snipe for a little over a year now. They tell me that they know they have a problem and are working on it.

You guys that have a DW735 and are getting snipe with a Shelix cutter head please help and call Shelix and maybe we can put a little pressure on them. If you have fixed the problem please please post the fix.

SHLEIX

 

[Barry747]

Huh, that's interesting. I do not have a DW735, I have the DW734 with knives. I'd love to get a helical cutter head but can't afford it. However, my experience with snipe is that it comes from the pressure rollers when the end of the board passes one of them. When I was getting snipe, I ran a second board through where the front edge of that board almost touched the trailing edge of the first board. No snipe on the first board but I did get it on the 2nd board. I made a few adjustments to the in-feed table which just about eliminated it but if I have a concern, I run a piece of scrap behind my work piece and don't have a problem.

Since you called Shleix and they acknowledged that they have a problem it sounds like it isn't what I described. Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[hawkeye10]

Huh, that's interesting. I do not have a DW735, I have the DW734 with knives. I'd love to get a helical cutter head but can't afford it. However, my experience with snipe is that it comes from the pressure rollers when the end of the board passes one of them. When I was getting snipe, I ran a second board through where the front edge of that board almost touched the trailing edge of the first board. No snipe on the first board but I did get it on the 2nd board. I made a few adjustments to the in-feed table which just about eliminated it but if I have a concern, I run a piece of scrap behind my work piece and don't have a problem.

Since you called Shleix and they acknowledged that they have a problem it sounds like it isn't what I described. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Barry, I think you are exactly right about the rollers being the problem. Here is a link that may help you out. It worked for me when I had knives in my DW735.

http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/planer_setup.pdf

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

If you measure the length of the snipe I think you’ll find that it is the same as the distance from the feed roller to the cutter head. The pressure lifts one side slightly until the whole board is under. Some planers come with column locks which are supposed to help but the heads aren’t rigid enough to take all the play out.

 

[Barry747]

Thanks Don. That's essentially what I did to reduce the snipe. That document is an excellent tutorial. I found it online about a year and a half ago and have it saved in my "Tool Setup" folder on my PC but I haven't read it since I found it. In rereading it from your link I realized that I made a mistake the last time I adjusted my tables. I didn't apply pressure on the straight edge. I just laid it across the in-feed and out-feed tables and adjusted it so the outer edges of each table are a little bit higher than the edges closest to the planer. It may have worked through dumb luck. If so, it's the only kind of luck I have. Actually, it's been a while since I checked the setup so it's time to do it again.

I'm currently having back problems, it's just wonderful getting older, so I haven't been in the shop in about three weeks and I'm suffering from acute shop withdrawal. I'm schedule for a third procedure (this time an epidural) on Friday. Hopefully it will provide enough relief so I can get back into the shop. I have a couple of projects coming up where I'll need the planer since I usually buy rough cut lumber.

Thanks again and keep us posted on the Shelix problem resolution.