Introduction
If you've ever used a thickness planer, you’ve likely run into planer snipe—that annoying deeper cut at the beginning or end of a board. This small but frustrating issue can ruin the precision of your work, requiring extra sanding or trimming to fix.
In this post, we’ll dive into what causes planer snipe, why it happens even on short boards, and why common fixes don’t always work.
What Is Planer Snipe?
Planer snipe is a depth variation that occurs at the start or end of a workpiece when passing it through a thickness planer. It results in a slight depression or overcut, leaving the board thinner in those areas.
Why Does Planer Snipe Happen?
There are two main causes of planer snipe:
1. Uneven Pressure from the Feed Rollers
- Planers use in-feed and out-feed rollers to guide the board through the cutterhead.
- Before the out-feed roller engages (or after the in-feed roller disengages), the board lacks support, allowing the cutterhead to remove slightly more material.
- The depth of the snipe often matches the distance between the cutterhead and the rollers, proving this pressure imbalance is a key cause.
2. Flex in the Planer Mechanism
- A lesser-known but significant cause is flex within the planer itself.
- When both rollers are engaged, they press the board down evenly, keeping it stable.
- However, when only one roller is in contact (at the start or end), the downward force is uneven, causing the cutterhead to shift slightly, leading to a deeper cut.
- This is why even short boards that never overhang the planer table can still experience snipe.
Why is snipe even more pronounced with the smaller, undersized Shelix cutter head?
Planer snipe is caused by pressure from the infeed and outfeed rollers, and this issue is even more pronounced with an undersized Dewalt 735 Shelix cutter head. Because the rollers are designed for the OEM cutter head size, they exert greater downward force on the board when using a smaller Shelix head. Even with light cuts, the rollers engage at least the difference in radius between the OEM and the undersized cutter head, leading to deeper and more noticeable snipe.
Our Height Adjustment Kit compensates for this size difference, ensuring proper roller engagement and reducing snipe for smoother, more precise planing results.
Why Lifting the Board Doesn’t Always Work
Many woodworkers try to reduce snipe by lifting the board’s leading or trailing edge. While this can sometimes help, it doesn’t address the root cause—the flex in the planer mechanism and roller pressure imbalance.
A Proven Way to Eliminate Snipe
One of the most effective ways to prevent snipe entirely is using sacrificial boards. By feeding an extra board before and after your main workpiece, the rollers maintain consistent pressure, preventing sudden shifts in cutter depth.
But that’s just one solution—there are multiple techniques to minimize snipe, which we’ll explore in the next post.