# Posh planing board and shooting boards



## Anonymous (27 Jan 2009)

Hi all

I am posting this for those of you who have not seen the Fine Woodworking summer special tools edition. There is an article in there about shooting board and planing boards and I was inspired to make some to his design.

I use my shooting board probably a minimum of once per visit to the workshop. Over the past 10 years, I have made 3 using offcuts of scrappy MDF and any old hardwood offcuts. They worked fine but the faces wore out and I decided to go for it with this set and make sure it was as accurate as possible and with removable faces, it would remain so - the rewards are worth the effort, particularly on mitres 

Anybody else made a shooting board lately? or had one made for them by a friend or forum member?


The beauty of this approach is that I have a single shooting board for all tasks instead of three (90 degree and two mitre boards). I used offcuts of 3/4" ply from making my router table years ago - and some old bench legs to make the wedged dowels.


Shooting board with removable face piece (the face piece end is the bit that eventually lead to em making a new board in the past)








Picture frame mitre attachment - I spent some time trimming the face that sits against fence until the mitres were exact. I mean EXACT as seen judged by the engineers mitre below. I have removed and refitted this guide several times now and it is bang on every time  












Another attachment for box side mitres (spot on again after a little planing of the face)












Planing board with end stop. The thing I like is that it is held in place by two bench dog holes (see 2nd picture)

















For thinner stock, use a bit of MDF under the workpiece






The rear holes are for wedged dowels to slot into for a side support to stop small pieces twisting during planing







Small and thin pieces....







Finally, what about edge planing with support along the full length of the wood?


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## Paul Chapman (27 Jan 2009)

Excellent, Tony =D> 

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## Steve Maskery (27 Jan 2009)

Absolutely first rate.
S


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## wizer (27 Jan 2009)

Thanks for posting this Tony. How do you find the Donkey's ear mitre attachment in use? It looks hard to hold the work piece and shoot to me. I was thinking about making this type:


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## OPJ (27 Jan 2009)

Excellent work, Tony.


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## Mr Ed (27 Jan 2009)

Nicely done Tony

Another one on my list of ideas to pinch when time permits.  

Cheers, Ed


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## Steve Maskery (27 Jan 2009)

Tony
Am I right in thinking that you have made pegs in the jig to fit holes in your bench?

Am I also right in thinking that there is no reason why I could not hold the jig in the vice with a batten underneath?

I've actually been thinking of filming a piece on shooting boards, but I think you have the definitive collection there! Do you fancy collaborating on a video venture?

S


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## Anonymous (28 Jan 2009)

Steve Maskery":2u6ui69f said:


> Tony
> Am I right in thinking that you have made pegs in the jig to fit holes in our bench?
> 
> Am I also t=right in thinking that there is no reason why I could not hold the jig in the vice with a batten underneath
> ...



Yes, and yes  

The original article used pegs in the dog holes but i thought this was a bit overkill so i clamped the side piece into the bench vice. In use I kept finding I need the vice AND the planing board in quick succession and kept taking the board out of the vice and lying it on the bench In the way of course!), then putting it back in the vice later, then taking it .....


The bench dog is a much better idea - I used blind wedged dowels and so far it is rock solid :wink:

Video review could be fun :-k


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## Anonymous (28 Jan 2009)

wizer":1fen441e said:


> Thanks for posting this Tony. How do you find the Donkey's ear mitre attachment in use? It looks hard to hold the work piece and shoot to me. I was thinking about making this type:



hi Wizer

I did make one of the jigs you refer to in your post and to be honest, i found it is not as accurate as the current one I have as it is a lot harder to make those small (a thou off here, a thou off there) adjustments to the jig's surfaces. The beauty of the current design is that it is easily trimmed until perfect mitres come out every time. The rear fence piece is only screwed on and can be removed for 'maintenance' should a requirement appear.

I only shoot mitres up to around 125mm for jewellery boxes etc. and this works perfectly at that size with no issues hold the wood as it is rested against the rear fence.

I think larger pieces would be better tackled on the other type of jig - possibly with some form of calibration setup built in such as side dowels at the bottom of the plane guide surface (guiding surface would be a frame), forming a 'hinge' to allow the angle to be adjusted? One could add a couple of horizontal bolts at the top to form fine adjusters for alignment and angle.

Mmmmmm, now I mention that, I do seem to have an idea brewing..........


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## Blister (28 Jan 2009)

Wow , that's neat :shock: 

I Like the selection of planes as well  

How much to make a set for me  

as my carpentry skills are on a scale of 1 to 10 ( one ) :? 

PM me if interested , :wink:


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## wizer (28 Jan 2009)

hehe Blister beat me to it.

Thanks for your reply Tony. I do worry about getting either version exactly spot, as you have. How did you tweak the mitred block? Block plane?


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## Anonymous (28 Jan 2009)

wizer":3vs50yql said:


> hehe Blister beat me to it.
> 
> Thanks for your reply Tony. I do worry about getting either version exactly spot, as you have. How did you tweak the mitred block? Block plane?



Tweaked the donkey using a LN low angle jack plane, which is effectively a big block plane 

http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=62

The picture frame mitre guide was tweaked with an old stanley jack plane (well,it is ply :shock: )


Commisions to make them eh? :-k :lol:


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## woodbloke (29 Jan 2009)

Tony - good stuff. I've done something very similar (some pics on a recent Blog entry) with a couple of Newt additions:
The main fence on the board is adjustable through two or three degrees, the screw near the runway is an interference fit with the one on the far side a loose fit. It's tightened down with a *big* pan head screw and large washer, so it can be set up for a dead 90deg shoot.
Both the attachments are secured on one side with a pin going into the shooting board, and a toggle clamp fixes it securely in place on the runway side. This is so that there's no possibility of the attachment moving on the return stroke of the plane.
The problem of the end of the fence getting munched has been sorted on my shooter my biscuiting on a bit of cherry at 90deg (so long grain in line with the runway) so all I do when it wears is glue on a bit more and plane off the excess.
I don't really see the need to use planing boards very much (I've got another long shooter for thinner stuff)...I just hold timber on the bench top between adjustable dogs - Rob


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## wizer (29 Jan 2009)

If you decide to take commissions Tony (or anyone), my hand is up. I don't feel confident enough to make the 'Donkey's Ear' on my own.


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## Anonymous (29 Jan 2009)

Rob

That adjustment sounds interesting and great idea.

Jigs with adjustment make a whole lot of sense!


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## Anonymous (29 Jan 2009)

wizer":3nxx4zqg said:


> If you decide to take commissions Tony (or anyone), my hand is up. I don't feel confident enough to make the 'Donkey's Ear' on my own.



Wizer

make the shooting board and send me the lumps of wood you want to make the donkey from and I'll cut and fine tune the DE for you to match mine


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## wizer (29 Jan 2009)

Could you make the whole mitre surface hinged some how? So any angle could be shot. For octagons perhaps?


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## woodbloke (30 Jan 2009)

wizer":2vc83ysb said:


> Could you make the whole mitre surface hinged some how? So any angle could be shot. For octagons perhaps?


In theory yes, but it's not something I'd like to build  - Rob


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## wizer (30 Jan 2009)

care to expand?


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## Wanlock Dod (30 Jan 2009)

Wizer,

It might be easier to make several donkeys ears, each one tuned to make a different angled mitre.

By the way, I believe that Newt's shooting board used a number of screws on the bottom of the donkeys ear such that it could be adjusted for any slight inaccuracies (I have a feeling that he said that adjustment was not necessary when he made it, perhaps not so fo us lesser mortals).

Cheers,

Dod


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## woodbloke (5 Feb 2009)

wizer":hacg0e0j said:


> care to expand?


Tom - making and adjustable long mitre shoot to do something like an octagon means that you then have to get 16 angles (and 8 lengths) absolutely bang on, so that even a tiny discrepancy in a shot angle or length then gets multiplied by a factor of 16 (if my thinking's correct :? ) when you try and pull the frame together.
Dod's probably got the right idea when he suggests that there could be some adjustment on the angle by means of a cunning screw arrangement...and yes, Pete's mitre shoot is adjustable in all planes (but not necessary as it's accurate to start with) - Rob


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## wizer (5 Feb 2009)

Sorry Dod, missed your reply.

So I assume these adjustment is via screw on the underside of the DE. What sort of screws are they? Photo?


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## woodbloke (5 Feb 2009)

wizer":3oh1ep2y said:


> Sorry Dod, missed your reply.
> 
> So I assume these adjustment is via screw on the underside of the DE. What sort of screws are they? Photo?



Pete said that they're simply a brass flat headed bolt going into a circular nut arrangement. Pete got a pocketful of them just before he retired...they were being used to hold document folders together and Pete got hold of them before the girl in the Registry binned them! - Rob


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## newt (7 Feb 2009)




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## Steve Maskery (7 Feb 2009)

Pete
That's a good example of adapting a standard shooting board to do wide mitres. But. What's the overall length please? It looks rather short to me for shooting. I'm not having a go at you, I've recently made a new mitre shooting-board myself ( for long ones rather than wide ones) and I think I've made that too short too.

S


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## newt (7 Feb 2009)

Steve , the overall length of the runway is 350mm, the runway length to the fence on the 45 degree piece is 250mm, the length of the 45 degree slope is 215mm and the width of the 45 degree slope is 120 mm. I made this for boxes with sides about 150mm high. I use the veritas LA jack which has a nice long front sole.


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## miles_hot (10 Feb 2009)

fogive the utter ignorance but I've never really understood the whole shooting board idea... why doesn't the surface that the blade is running along get planned the first time (and every time) that it is used? I would ahve thought that this would then lead to progressive errors...

Help!

Thanks

miles


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## Steve Maskery (10 Feb 2009)

Miles
It _does_ get planed the first time you use it  but it stops getting planed when the sole of the plane reaches it. Have a look at your plane. The blade doesn't go right to the edge does it? That few millimetres of body is what stops the blade eating into the base, it can cut only as far as the projection of the blade, no more.

Newt
I forgot to thank you for the info - much appreciated.

Cheers
Steve


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## Harbo (10 Feb 2009)

Wizer - they are not difficult to make and quite easy to tweak to get the required accuracy. Make one before you get rid of your saw - the Jet should cut it accurate enough?

Here's a couple I have made out of odd scraps of stuff:





















The only slight problem with the Newt design is that the thickness of the wood making the jig limits the cutting thickness - great for thin boards though.

Rod


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## newt (17 Feb 2009)

Harbo, I have shot 18mm Oak and to be honest I would not want to try any thicker, the effort was quite considerable.


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## Harbo (17 Feb 2009)

Newt - yes I would think so especially in oak - I might have been tempted to take most of it off with my bandsaw and then trim if off with the plane?

Rod


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## woodbloke (19 Feb 2009)

As Steve M has rightly said, part of the board gets planed away the first time it's used, thereafter it ought not to be cut by the blade..._provided_ that the side of the plane is kept *dead* flat on the runway. There's always the danger of the dreaded 'tip' syndrome when pressure is not directed vertically but at somewhat of an angle. If a dedicated shooting board plane is used (such as the LN No9) then this becomes far less of a problem as there's a much larger bearing surface on the runway. Standard bench planes can be used perfectly well, they just need a little more care in how they're used - Rob


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