Alf
Established Member
... Or Alf teaches a class on sucking eggs.
<Warning> Poor use of MSPaint alert! If anyone with Sketch-up or whatever wants to make me some nicer versions, I won’t say no.
Before we go any further, naming of parts:
The first crucial step is to stop worrying about the details. Making a shooting board is not rocket science. Only one thing is really important at the planning stage - the thickness of the upper board that the sole of the plane runs against must be greater than the thickness of the sides of the plane you intend to use.
Left: you can see the blade extends right down to, and beyond, the surface of the upper board. Right: the dark area is where the blade doesn’t reach right to the side of the mouth, and thus the blade isn’t planing into the guiding edge at all. So it's not exactly "side thickness", but you know what I mean
Huh? I hear you say. Well, if it’s thinner then you’ll just plane a step in the work piece. With luck this terrible graphic might explain that:
And here’s what it looks like in practice using the thick-sided Veritas bevel-up panel plane on a board designed for the thinner-sided Lie-Nielsen bevel-up smoother. Notice how the whole of the end has yet to be planed because the plane has been stopped by the step that’s been formed? That’s exactly the same thing that happens to the guiding edge of the shooting board itself, and what stops it being planed away.
Still don’t get it? Well try making a board with the upper board thinner than the sides of you plane and see what happens. Or you could just take my word for it.
I tend to like to make shooting boards in pairs; it’s not much additional work to make two at once, and having bench appliances in pairs occasionally has some advantages. More on that later. So the first task was to gather my materials; basically whatever I happened to have handy that might be suitable. I came up with a couple of pieces of 18mm Far Eastern ply about 29” x 8 1/8” for the base boards, a sheet of 9mm ply that would lend itself to being cut into three for the upper boards (two, plus a spare), and the remains of the almost-famous Board From H*** to make the stops. I tend to use pretty thin stuff for the upper board if I can get way with it, but if you go for 9mm and above you should be fine. 12mm is popular I think, but I didn’t have any… Sheet goods don’t look lovely, but they’re stable. Dimensions aren’t critical and I just chose the thickest bit of scrap from the off cuts box that was ready squared up. Yeah, so ideally you want it taller than the width of the plane, or at least taller than the thickest stuff you’re liable to want to shoot, but if it’s too tall then it’s harder to hold thinner stuff firmly, and you want the whole board long enough for every eventuality, but not so long it‘ll be unwieldy, and… Believe me, it’s really easy to spend so much time trying to decide the perfect dimensions that you never make the board at all - I know, ’cos I did just that for years. Don’t make your board too heavy, or you’ll never use it because it’s just too much of a pain to get out of it’s storage place, but other than that try what you like. It doesn’t take long to make another. The end product will go together something like this:
The base board pretty much dictated the overall size I’d end up with; a 2 ¼“ ledge for the plane to run on it’s side looked about right, so I cut the upper boards to width accordingly - 5 7/8“ as it turned out. With the length turning out at about 27” it’d work out just about right for shooting the edges of smaller stuff and the ends of practically anything. The second board would take care of mitres. By now the bizarre dimensions I’m using should have hammered home the fact that exact measurements simply aren’t important. A lot of these were based on the well-known rule of “that looks about right”. Rocket science it is not. I straightened up one edge of the upper boards which would end up as the guiding edge for the sole of the plane, then bevelled off the bottom edge. This is to give somewhere for the dust and debris of shooting to go to, rather than muck up the smooth flow of plane against straight edge. Needless to say I wasn’t going to foul up a good plane on the rather nasty pre-used ply:
Just as an experiment I decided not to glue my boards together, but just use screws from the back. Dunno why, just fancied to. It’s not rocket science, remember? :wink:
Starting to look like the real deal. Now we need the stops.
Well making the stops is simply a case of finding a bit of squared off stock and fixing it to the board. In the case of the 90° board it worked out at 2 ¼” wide and 1 1/8” thick. Don’t forget to chisel off the far corner of the 90° stop so it won’t break out untidily.
Length was left oversize to be trimmed back when finally fixed in place. I screwed it on from the back, but it’d be easier to screw down from the top really. Maybe I was feeling posh that day? Bolt it; screw it; glue it; bolt, screw and glue it, whatever takes your fancy. :wink: Traditionally a housing with one tapered side was used, but that’s only really worth doing if you’re making your board in solid wood. In ply and other sheet goods it’s not really feasible. All that’s important is the face side of the stop is 90° to that guiding edge. Using a larger square to judge this is advisable...
The mitre stop is another “that looks about right” job in size. If it helps the straight edge that the plane runs against worked out at around 2” long. The mitres were cut on the SCMS, but use your method of choice. Try to get spot on 45° ‘cos it makes life easier, but as long as they’re not too far off and the two angles add up to 90° you’ve got a workable situation.
To fix the mitre one, assuming your stop angles are correct, you need to make sure you fix your stop with the angled faces at 45° to the guiding edge.
Leave the guiding faces of the stops, the ones in line with that guiding edge of the upper board, a little oversize. The plane will trim them flush when you take your first few “bedding in” passes. Inspired by a certain make of shoulder plane, I thought I’d try a 1¼” forstner bit hole in the mitre stop, to make gripping the work against the stop a bit easier. Maybe. Well I won’t know ‘til I’ve tried, will I?
Remember that bevel on the guiding edge of the upper board? The one for the dust and such to go in so as not to foul the straightness of the guiding edge? Here it is:
The first couple of shavings will remove just a little of the guiding edge ply, and hopefully all the face of your stop. That is until the stop is flush with the guiding edge, and the blade can’t cut any further because it’s stopped by the sole of the plane running against the same guiding edge. Just like happens if your upper board is too thin for the thickness of your plane sides.
You want to try to push the plane like you’re wanting to plane right into the bottom corner; you won’t be able to, but it’ll help you avoid tilting the top half of the plane into the work and thus ruining your careful 90° set up. Sort of angling the pressure in the direction the green arrow is pointing
The last step is to decide how you’re going to hold the completed shooting board on the bench. That’s pretty important; holding the work piece on the board is going to take all your attention, you don’t want to have to worry about the whole shooting board skating about too. At the moment I’m trying them held between bench dogs, simply ‘cos I haven’t tried that way before. A ledge screwed on underneath could just hook over the edge of the bench like a bench hook, or be held in a vice. Maybe at a comfortable angle? Again, try anything that takes your fancy. If it doesn’t work just change it. Here they are, completed:
I slapped on a bit of old Patina I was wanting to use up for a finish, but again it's not important. A scribble of wax candle or similar on the side of the plane will help it run slickly, and some fine abrasive stuck to the face/s of the stops will give some extra grip if you find things slip a little. As long as you don't put abrasive on the plane's runway and wax on the stop you'll be fine... :wink:
So why a pair? Well I got the idea when I made my bench hook/mini shooting board combo. When making them I ensured the combined thickness of the base and upper boards of the shooting board were equal to the thickness of the bench hook‘s base board. Now when sawing longer stuff the mini shooting board acts as a support for the end that isn‘t on the bench hook, and vice versa when the shooting board’s in use. They make a very handy duo, and well worth making IMO.
In time I’ll probably set up the new boards to be held on the bench in a similar way, and so the same useful additional support feature will be available for them too. Will it work? Dunno until I’ve tried it, do I? All together now; it’s not the science of rocketry :wink:
Hope that helps a bit, or if not at the very least it might get the not-sures to take a shot at it if only to say "hey, that's all wrong". This is easily the most basic, simple slab-type of board, but you could get all fancy with sloping boards, adjustable stops, donkey's ear varieties etc etc. The shooting board world is the mollusc of your choice. I now open the floor to anyone who wants to tell me all the important points I've missed. Once you've done that maybe eventually we'll end up with a useful article! :lol:
Cheers, Alf
All written out for the time-being. :shock:
<Warning> Poor use of MSPaint alert! If anyone with Sketch-up or whatever wants to make me some nicer versions, I won’t say no.
Before we go any further, naming of parts:
The first crucial step is to stop worrying about the details. Making a shooting board is not rocket science. Only one thing is really important at the planning stage - the thickness of the upper board that the sole of the plane runs against must be greater than the thickness of the sides of the plane you intend to use.
Left: you can see the blade extends right down to, and beyond, the surface of the upper board. Right: the dark area is where the blade doesn’t reach right to the side of the mouth, and thus the blade isn’t planing into the guiding edge at all. So it's not exactly "side thickness", but you know what I mean
Huh? I hear you say. Well, if it’s thinner then you’ll just plane a step in the work piece. With luck this terrible graphic might explain that:
And here’s what it looks like in practice using the thick-sided Veritas bevel-up panel plane on a board designed for the thinner-sided Lie-Nielsen bevel-up smoother. Notice how the whole of the end has yet to be planed because the plane has been stopped by the step that’s been formed? That’s exactly the same thing that happens to the guiding edge of the shooting board itself, and what stops it being planed away.
Still don’t get it? Well try making a board with the upper board thinner than the sides of you plane and see what happens. Or you could just take my word for it.
I tend to like to make shooting boards in pairs; it’s not much additional work to make two at once, and having bench appliances in pairs occasionally has some advantages. More on that later. So the first task was to gather my materials; basically whatever I happened to have handy that might be suitable. I came up with a couple of pieces of 18mm Far Eastern ply about 29” x 8 1/8” for the base boards, a sheet of 9mm ply that would lend itself to being cut into three for the upper boards (two, plus a spare), and the remains of the almost-famous Board From H*** to make the stops. I tend to use pretty thin stuff for the upper board if I can get way with it, but if you go for 9mm and above you should be fine. 12mm is popular I think, but I didn’t have any… Sheet goods don’t look lovely, but they’re stable. Dimensions aren’t critical and I just chose the thickest bit of scrap from the off cuts box that was ready squared up. Yeah, so ideally you want it taller than the width of the plane, or at least taller than the thickest stuff you’re liable to want to shoot, but if it’s too tall then it’s harder to hold thinner stuff firmly, and you want the whole board long enough for every eventuality, but not so long it‘ll be unwieldy, and… Believe me, it’s really easy to spend so much time trying to decide the perfect dimensions that you never make the board at all - I know, ’cos I did just that for years.
Don’t make your board too heavy, or you’ll never use it because it’s just too much of a pain to get out of it’s storage place, but other than that try what you like. It doesn’t take long to make another. The end product will go together something like this:
The base board pretty much dictated the overall size I’d end up with; a 2 ¼“ ledge for the plane to run on it’s side looked about right, so I cut the upper boards to width accordingly - 5 7/8“ as it turned out. With the length turning out at about 27” it’d work out just about right for shooting the edges of smaller stuff and the ends of practically anything. The second board would take care of mitres. By now the bizarre dimensions I’m using should have hammered home the fact that exact measurements simply aren’t important. A lot of these were based on the well-known rule of “that looks about right”. Rocket science it is not. I straightened up one edge of the upper boards which would end up as the guiding edge for the sole of the plane, then bevelled off the bottom edge. This is to give somewhere for the dust and debris of shooting to go to, rather than muck up the smooth flow of plane against straight edge. Needless to say I wasn’t going to foul up a good plane on the rather nasty pre-used ply:
Just as an experiment I decided not to glue my boards together, but just use screws from the back. Dunno why, just fancied to. It’s not rocket science, remember? :wink:
Starting to look like the real deal. Now we need the stops.
Well making the stops is simply a case of finding a bit of squared off stock and fixing it to the board. In the case of the 90° board it worked out at 2 ¼” wide and 1 1/8” thick. Don’t forget to chisel off the far corner of the 90° stop so it won’t break out untidily.
Length was left oversize to be trimmed back when finally fixed in place. I screwed it on from the back, but it’d be easier to screw down from the top really. Maybe I was feeling posh that day? Bolt it; screw it; glue it; bolt, screw and glue it, whatever takes your fancy. :wink: Traditionally a housing with one tapered side was used, but that’s only really worth doing if you’re making your board in solid wood. In ply and other sheet goods it’s not really feasible. All that’s important is the face side of the stop is 90° to that guiding edge. Using a larger square to judge this is advisable...
The mitre stop is another “that looks about right” job in size. If it helps the straight edge that the plane runs against worked out at around 2” long. The mitres were cut on the SCMS, but use your method of choice. Try to get spot on 45° ‘cos it makes life easier, but as long as they’re not too far off and the two angles add up to 90° you’ve got a workable situation.
To fix the mitre one, assuming your stop angles are correct, you need to make sure you fix your stop with the angled faces at 45° to the guiding edge.
Leave the guiding faces of the stops, the ones in line with that guiding edge of the upper board, a little oversize. The plane will trim them flush when you take your first few “bedding in” passes. Inspired by a certain make of shoulder plane, I thought I’d try a 1¼” forstner bit hole in the mitre stop, to make gripping the work against the stop a bit easier. Maybe. Well I won’t know ‘til I’ve tried, will I?
Remember that bevel on the guiding edge of the upper board? The one for the dust and such to go in so as not to foul the straightness of the guiding edge? Here it is:
The first couple of shavings will remove just a little of the guiding edge ply, and hopefully all the face of your stop. That is until the stop is flush with the guiding edge, and the blade can’t cut any further because it’s stopped by the sole of the plane running against the same guiding edge. Just like happens if your upper board is too thin for the thickness of your plane sides.
You want to try to push the plane like you’re wanting to plane right into the bottom corner; you won’t be able to, but it’ll help you avoid tilting the top half of the plane into the work and thus ruining your careful 90° set up. Sort of angling the pressure in the direction the green arrow is pointing
The last step is to decide how you’re going to hold the completed shooting board on the bench. That’s pretty important; holding the work piece on the board is going to take all your attention, you don’t want to have to worry about the whole shooting board skating about too. At the moment I’m trying them held between bench dogs, simply ‘cos I haven’t tried that way before. A ledge screwed on underneath could just hook over the edge of the bench like a bench hook, or be held in a vice. Maybe at a comfortable angle? Again, try anything that takes your fancy. If it doesn’t work just change it. Here they are, completed:
I slapped on a bit of old Patina I was wanting to use up for a finish, but again it's not important. A scribble of wax candle or similar on the side of the plane will help it run slickly, and some fine abrasive stuck to the face/s of the stops will give some extra grip if you find things slip a little. As long as you don't put abrasive on the plane's runway and wax on the stop you'll be fine... :wink:
So why a pair? Well I got the idea when I made my bench hook/mini shooting board combo. When making them I ensured the combined thickness of the base and upper boards of the shooting board were equal to the thickness of the bench hook‘s base board. Now when sawing longer stuff the mini shooting board acts as a support for the end that isn‘t on the bench hook, and vice versa when the shooting board’s in use. They make a very handy duo, and well worth making IMO.
In time I’ll probably set up the new boards to be held on the bench in a similar way, and so the same useful additional support feature will be available for them too. Will it work? Dunno until I’ve tried it, do I?
All together now; it’s not the science of rocketry :wink:
Hope that helps a bit, or if not at the very least it might get the not-sures to take a shot at it if only to say "hey, that's all wrong".
This is easily the most basic, simple slab-type of board, but you could get all fancy with sloping boards, adjustable stops, donkey's ear varieties etc etc. The shooting board world is the mollusc of your choice. I now open the floor to anyone who wants to tell me all the important points I've missed. Once you've done that maybe eventually we'll end up with a useful article! :lol:Cheers, Alf
All written out for the time-being. :shock:
