# Shooting board help



## Si Morris (10 Dec 2018)

Hi,

I am new to working with wood and I am concentrating on hand tool work. I have just made myself a shooting board, having watched several good online videos, however, it’s performance is terrible and I am hoping an experienced woodworker could tell me what I am doing wrong please. I have tried using a sharp record number 6 on long grain and a veritas low angle block plane on the end grain. I am either taking nothing off or it is digging in. I guess it is my technique? Here are some pictures of the setup.

Any help gratefully received 

Si


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## LancsRick (10 Dec 2018)

You say you are new to woodwork so let me check the basics, apologies if this is teaching you to suck eggs.

- I can see a square in your picture so I assume you've checked all of that.
- The shaving you have is a nice continuous piece - is it full width?
- If both of those are ok then I think it's your plane setup. Put your shooting board to one side for a minute and just plane some random piece of stock. Does it take a heavy cut like that? If so then you just need to bring the blade back until it's not cutting at all, then slowly advice it until you take a nice translucent shaving.

If that is the problem, then do some reading on hand planes .


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## MusicMan (10 Dec 2018)

I agree. That looks much too heavy a cut for shooting, and it's the action for which you need the sharpest blade.

Remember that when you are shooting, the plane stays running against the shoulder. As you feed the work in, it feeds by the width of the plane projection and the only time it moves is after the plane blade has retracted beyond the start of the work. So, pull the plane back, advance the work till it touches the plane sole - without pushing the plane sole away from the shoulder - hold it firmly then push the plane forward for the next stroke. The feed steps are probably smaller than you expect.

This becomes obvious when you use a track constraining the plane sideways, because there isn't anything else you can do, but it's the same motion if you don't have a track.

The shooting board looks fine though.


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## Steve Maskery (11 Dec 2018)

I agree, that's not a shaving, it's a plank! 
The shavings that come off should be just about transparent.


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## John15 (11 Dec 2018)

Agreed with all above, but it does take a lot of practice to achieve a good result, at least it did me, so don't despair.

John


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## Phil Pascoe (11 Dec 2018)

Forget the shooting board, watch some good videos on fettling and setting up the plane.


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## custard (11 Dec 2018)

I don't use a block plane for shooting, even for end grain shooting on quite small pieces I still use a bench plane. I just prefer the heft of a decent sized bench plane for shooting. I know plenty of professional cabinet makers and I'm in the great majority with this approach. Nothing to stop you doing otherwise, just realise you're working counter to common practise amongst people who do this day in and day out!

End grain shooting is best done with fairly small pieces, anything with a cross section larger than say 25mm x 75mm and I'd probably hold the workpiece in a vice and plane the end down to a scribe line. This isn't a hard and fast rule, just a guideline, but shooting end grain becomes trickier and trickier as the size of the component increases. So start small and work up.

Good to see you doing long grain shooting! I covered this in some detail in a sticky thread about edge jointing, you might find that a useful read.

When using a bench plane on a shooting board be aware that there's often a small camber on the edge of the iron (most people aim for some degree of amber and it's actually quite hard to sharpen _without_ introducing at least a touch of camber), so use the lateral adjustment on your plane to ensure the centre of this camber lines up with the centre of the workpiece. This is a common problem I see with beginners shooting, they're often miles out with the lateral adjustment and therefore get atrocious dig ins.

Even if the fence on your shooting board is dead square today it will drift over time. Following the old adage that "if you can't make things right then make them adjustable" be ready to tweak the fence with scraps of masking tape at one end or the other!


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## Jacob (11 Dec 2018)

Si Morris":36yjbulo said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am new to working with wood and I am concentrating on hand tool work. I have just made myself a shooting board, having watched several good online videos, however, it’s performance is terrible and I am hoping an experienced woodworker could tell me what I am doing wrong please. I have tried using a sharp record number 6 on long grain and a veritas low angle block plane on the end grain. I am either taking nothing off or it is digging in. I guess it is my technique? Here are some pictures of the setup.
> 
> ...


It's perfectly possible to manage without a shooting board altogether.
If you are a beginner I wouldn't bother at all but instead get some basic practice in making simple things rather than accessories which you may never use.


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## Si Morris (11 Dec 2018)

Wow what excellent response. Thank you all very much. The shaving I show was done with my bench plane with the wood ina vice I know it is very thick but was proving point that the plane is flippin sharp lol. 

I was intending to just use the bench plane because of its heft but when that wasn’t working I switched to the veritas block plane because it is new and very sharp.

Maybe I should slow the operation down. I had watched Paul Sellers shooting board video and he has quite a fast rythm that I tried to mimick.

It’s frustrating as I know nobody else that does woodworking where I live so YouTube is my only source so far.

I will slow down and raise the blade for a lighter shaving

It’s great to have had so many replies. Thank you all


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## MikeG. (11 Dec 2018)

Si Morris":3arr1lh8 said:


> Wow what excellent response. Thank you all very much. The shaving I show was done with my bench plane with the wood ina vice I know it is very thick but was proving point that the plane is flippin sharp lol.
> 
> I was intending to just use the bench plane because of its heft but when that wasn’t working I switched to the veritas block plane because it is new and very sharp............



OK, I'll gently add myself to those suggesting that this is about plane set up and sharpening, and nothing to do with the shooting board. A new plane shouldn't be any sharper than an old one, and, frankly, a thick shaving isn't any proof that a plane is sharp, but is usually a sign that an iron is dull.


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## skeetstar (23 Dec 2018)

Si, I cant add much other than to say that I was in exactly the same boat as you with my first shooting board. I'd run the plane up, get a huge thud and everything stopped.

Fixes are:
Make sure the iron is really sharp.
Make sure the iron is at right angles to the work. This is an accuracy thing rather than a ease of use thing.
Take really thin shavings, more thin shavings are better than having the plane dig in cos the iron is extended too far.

When you have those sorted, you can push the work gently into the plane, I find once it starts to cut that you don't need much pressure at all.

Persevere, I did, and it is a real joy when it comes good.


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## Tasky (24 Dec 2018)

Si Morris":262y8832 said:


> I had watched Paul Sellers shooting board video and he has quite a fast rythm that I tried to mimick.


He also has 50 years professional experience in sharpening and setting up a plane - I'd suggest you watch his videos on those elements too, as his (or indeed anyone else's) video on 'How To Make A Shooting Board' will assume you _already know _how to sharpen, set up and use a chisel, plane, handsaw, square, router, pencil, etc... indeed, they kinda rely upon it.

Rob Cosman™ has another such making video, but with the option of buying one off him if yours doesn't turn out nice (only $140, last time I looked!)


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## Jacob (24 Dec 2018)

skeetstar":3ojsqjbm said:


> .........When you have those sorted, you can push the work gently into the plane, I find once it starts to cut that you don't need much pressure at all...........


Hope you mean 'push the plane gently into the work'!
Basically if you can't work out how to use a shooting board then you shouldn't waste your time on it - you need to practice some more basic planing skills until there's nothing you can't do perfectly well without a shooting board.
SB looks like a basic bit of kit but it isn't. 
It might help if you are regularly doing repetitive small jobs with thinnish stuff, e.g. small boxes, but never an absolutely essential item.


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## woodbloke66 (4 Jan 2019)

MikeG.":2yb13tgu said:


> Si Morris":2yb13tgu said:
> 
> 
> > Wow what excellent response. Thank you all very much. The shaving I show was done with my bench plane with the wood ina vice I know it is very thick but was proving point that the plane is flippin sharp lol.
> ...



Mike is spot on here; the plane iron looks to be dull and incorrectly set. As others have said, the shaving should be almost transparent if the iron is sharp. I've used loads of different shooters over the years and the best design by far (which I now use) is this one from FWW. It's ludicrously simple and just works. It'll take you half an hour to make one and once you've used it, you'll wonder why you bothered with any of the other more complicated designs - Rob


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## sunnybob (4 Jan 2019)

You list yourself in merthyr, there are several here who are close to you, put out a separate posting asking for help and possibly a visit to help you. You may well get lucky.


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## custard (4 Jan 2019)

woodbloke66":2b5x01k7 said:


> I've used loads of different shooters over the years and the best design by far (which I now use) is this one from FWW. It's ludicrously simple and just works.



+1

Here's my version,










One of the many advantages of this style of shooting board is that by running _along_ the bench, instead of _across_ the bench, it can be that bit longer, which makes it much more suitable for long grain shooting as well as end grain shooting.

No disrespect to the chap in the linked video, but I've seen this style of shooting board used in professional UK cabinet making workshops for nearly forty years! No surprise really, every professional workshop needs a way of shooting saw cut veneers, and it's not a huge leap from that particular solution to building a more normal shooting board that builds on the "along the bench" principle.


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## woodbloke66 (5 Jan 2019)

custard":1h4j8i33 said:


> [
> One of the many advantages of this style of shooting board is that by running _along_ the bench, instead of _across_ the bench, it can be that bit longer, which makes it much more suitable for long grain shooting as well as end grain shooting.
> 
> No disrespect to the chap in the linked video, but I've seen this style of shooting board used in professional UK cabinet making workshops for nearly forty years! No surprise really, every professional workshop needs a way of shooting saw cut veneers, and it's not a huge leap from that particular solution to building a more normal shooting board that builds on the "along the bench" principle.



Mine is almost exactly the same; I've just added an oddment of proper 'old skool' Formica for my plane (LN51) to run on - Rob


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## Just4Fun (5 Jan 2019)

My shooting board currently runs across the bench rather than along it, mainly because that is the only type I have ever seen. I have been hitting some of the limitations of that orientation and had independently come up with the idea of turning things through 90 degrees and running the plane along the bench, but not yet got around to actually doing it yet. My thinking has been different though in that I was planning to run the plane along between me and the work piece rather than having the plane running down the middle of the bench on the far side of the work. My feeling was that this would allow me to shoot wider work pieces (not that I have ever needed to) and also it would be easier to push the plane against the work rather than holding it back against the work. Has anyone tried it this way, and why would it be a bad idea?


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## Phil Pascoe (5 Jan 2019)

Curious. I was reading the thread thinking I'd never seen one run across the top ......


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