First time using a planer on old barn wood, didnt expect that much tearout

I salvaged some oak beams from a torn down barn out near Abbotstown last weekend. Ran them through my Dewalt 735 for the first time and the tearout was way worse than I expected, like deep gouges on almost every board. Figured out I was taking too much off at once and the grain direction was all over the place. Anyone else have tricks for dealing with really old, gnarly wood that wants to fight back?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenixk6410d ago

Nah, helical head wouldve saved you the headache. Worth every penny.

morganmartinez10d ago

Whoa wait, you actually had someone return a whole jointer over snipe issues? That's wild to me, @phoenixk64. I've seen people complain about it online but never someone who full-on sent one back. That had to be frustrating for everyone involved.

evan_davis9d ago

Three years ago I had a guy drive two hours to our shop to return a 6 inch jointer because the fence was out of square by three degrees. I tried to show him how to fix it in two minutes with a hex key and he said he didn't buy tools to be a mechanic. Some people just want everything perfect right out of the box and won't accept any adjustment period. I get it for really expensive stuff but a budget jointer from the big box store is going to need some fine tuning. Snipe is honestly one of those things you can minimize with feed technique and board support but try telling that to someone who watched a YouTube video and thinks their tool is defective.