Bench Hook(s)

[woodbloke66]

Much as I like Workshop Heaven, this might be a jig too far :shock: - Rob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've never understood why anyone buys them. :?

 

[Orraloon]

I am sure the guys that bought the winding sticks would want one of those too
We dont need to have the how we spend our money discussion again but seeing that you have to wonder what some woodworkers do in the shed.
Regards
John

 

[Chris152]

You're probably right, but I guess they're aimed at the 'present for someone special' market rather than something you'd buy for yourself? I know I'd rather those than socks and pants at Christmas.

 

[ED65]

Like Phil I've never understood why anyone who has aspirations to be a woodworker would buy one of these. Maybe it's because they haven't seen a how-to on how to make one :twisted:

Jokes aside, bench hooks have actually been available as commercial products for a long, long time so it's not a recent phenomenon.

 

[Stanleymonkey]

£75.00 - bloody hell!

You might think £20 for a pair and it would make it worthwhile for someone to have a couple of pairs ready to use when their current bench hooks pack up. But you can hardly justify saving the time it takes to make one by spending that much.

 

[woodbloke66]

£75.00 - bloody hell!

My thoughts exactly; these things are 'shop made jigs from offcuts loafing around and they get pretty severely chewed up after a few months. £75 is having a larf :lol: - Rob

 

[El Barto]

Much as I like Workshop Heaven, this might be a jig too far :shock: - Rob

Yeah... I was thinking the exact same thing. Crazy.

 

[Doug B]

Looking at the link reminded me of my school Woodworking lessons & the Emir branded bench hooks we used to use, a quick google reveals they are still available
http://www.knighton-tools.co.uk/acatalo ... TOOLS.html

You could buy 5 of those & still have some change compared to the Workshop Heaven one :shock:

 

[transatlantic]

There are for people who put sacrificial sheet materiel down to protect their workbench top.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

Thank you for starting the thread
I use the opportunity to ask some stupid question.

I have made my own shooting board for both 90 & 45 degrees. After struggling for few days I realised the angles were not accurate.
Therefore without having a reasonably accurate reference it is a challenge to make jigs for an accurate cut.

I would love to learn some tricks please.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you can't make something accurate, make it adjustable. Someone will point you to the best YouTube instructions.

 

[transatlantic]

Thank you for starting the thread
I use the opportunity to ask some stupid question.

I have made my own shooting board for both 90 & 45 degrees. After struggling for few days I realised the angles were not accurate.
Therefore without having a reasonably accurate reference it is a challenge to make jigs for an accurate cut.

I would love to learn some tricks please.

I too tend to go the adjustable route, I think it's easier. No farting about with glue and screws. Basically, you just attach the stop with a nut and bolt, where the hole for the bolt is a mm or so larger than it needs to be. Giving you a bit of play.

Here is an example, but I would just have it be secured with sunken bolts, so it doesn't get in the way. You're very rarely going to adjust it.

 

[thetyreman]

you should be able to make a bench hook very easily, a shooting board does require very high standards of accuracy though, that starts with an accurate square. This is the one I use:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ypbvcxb-8M

 

[SMALMALEKI]

I have made the same one. My square was not square enough first time. That was the main cause of it being out of square.
Then I used my old school memories to draw accurate angles.

 

[SMALMALEKI]

Thank you for starting the thread
I use the opportunity to ask some stupid question.

I have made my own shooting board for both 90 & 45 degrees. After struggling for few days I realised the angles were not accurate.
Therefore without having a reasonably accurate reference it is a challenge to make jigs for an accurate cut.

I would love to learn some tricks please.

I too tend to go the adjustable route, I think it's easier. No farting about with glue and screws. Basically, you just attach the stop with a nut and bolt, where the hole for the bolt is a mm or so larger than it needs to be. Giving you a bit of play.

Here is an example, but I would just have it be secured with sunken bolts, so it doesn't get in the way. You're very rarely going to adjust it.

I like the shooting board but the plane is even more interesting.

 

[woodbloke66]

Thank you for starting the thread
I use the opportunity to ask some stupid question.

I have made my own shooting board for both 90 & 45 degrees. After struggling for few days I realised the angles were not accurate.
Therefore without having a reasonably accurate reference it is a challenge to make jigs for an accurate cut.

I would love to learn some tricks please.

I've made loads of shooting boards over the years and this is the best one I've ever seen. It's simple, adjustable, easy, cheap to make and it works. Change the block or fence at the end and you can quite easily shoot 40mm square oak as I did recently - Rob

 

[SMALMALEKI]

I will give it a go soon.

 

[Steve Maskery]

+1 for the Tim Rousseau board. Mine is constructed like that, but not as long, I still shoot across my bench rather than along it. Plus my plane runs on an UHMW strip built into the board. But the block sits on a low key like that and is easy to set and adjust. I also find it a good idea to have the RH end of the block cut back by a couple of degrees, rather than being exactly 90. The workpiece is still supported properly, but the plane doesn't have to fight with the block as well as the workpiece, it just makes it all a bit easier.

 

[rafezetter]

Thank you for starting the thread
I use the opportunity to ask some stupid question.

I have made my own shooting board for both 90 & 45 degrees. After struggling for few days I realised the angles were not accurate.
Therefore without having a reasonably accurate reference it is a challenge to make jigs for an accurate cut.

I would love to learn some tricks please.

I too tend to go the adjustable route, I think it's easier. No farting about with glue and screws. Basically, you just attach the stop with a nut and bolt, where the hole for the bolt is a mm or so larger than it needs to be. Giving you a bit of play.

Here is an example, but I would just have it be secured with sunken bolts, so it doesn't get in the way. You're very rarely going to adjust it.

Still prone to movement, especially if you are prone to letting the plane blade go past it's useful edge and applying more pressure than needed to shoot - I prefer the method of securing one end with a screw so it pivots, use a square to "sort of" set it, clamp the other end, grab a bit of thin ply a few inches wide (at least, wider the better)and use the shooting board checking the angle against a machined square (lots of places to find a machine set 90 deg if you're not 100% sure of your actual tool square), and refine the stop angle until it's bang on 90 deg, screw in the other clamped end and enjoy.

My shooting plane is a wooden badger plane (skewed blade) with a section of UHMW sheet screwed to the sliding face to raise the side and give a slippy surface...