On Friday, March 29, 2019 at 9:53:55 PM UTC-4, n/a wrote:
"DerbyDad03" wrote in message
...

I'm still trying to learn things about my planer....

I need to plane some poplar down by no more than 1/32". However, the boards
are already cut to length and have tenons on the ends. (Don't ask)

I really want to avoid any snipe on these boards so I'm thinking of using
the Sacrificial Board technique. Here's my idea:

Cut a groove in the sacrificial board, insert the tenons in the groove, and
run it all through the planer. With the setup shown below, I can easily
run
4 boards through at one time. (I'm only showing 2 in this example) My only
concern is that the sacrificial board(s) will be planed cross grain.

https://i.imgur.com/s3bxz1G.jpg

From a safety perspective, is there any reason I shouldn't try this?

Yes, I know I could do the same thing with a sacrificial board running
with the grain, but I'm sure this question will start an interesting
discussion, as usual.

Snipe can occur at both ends.

True. My example set up didn't show the trailing sacrificial board. Didn't have one available
for the picture.

I would just take a sacrificial board (or
two) about 4" longer than the pieces you need to plane down and place one on
each side of the sacrificial board. Each would be about 2" from the ends of
the sacrificial board.

Yes, that is an option, except that some of the boards are up to 5' long. I have boards that
I can grove and send in cross grain, but I don't have any long boards to use as sacrificial
boards.

Can you use short sacrificial boards on the sides of the leading and trailing ends to accomplish
the same goal or will something happen to the cutter head once the leading boards have gone
past and then again when the trailing boards are engaged?

(How I would physically accomplish that is a different question.)

BTW?..one of the reasons for this post is to start a discussion about cross grain planing.
Things have been slow in the wRec...just trying to liven things up. ;-)