Posh planing board and shooting boards

[Anonymous]

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?

 

[Paul Chapman]

Excellent, Tony =D>

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Steve Maskery]

Absolutely first rate.
S

 

[wizer]

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:

 

[OPJ]

Excellent work, Tony.

 

[Mr Ed]

Nicely done Tony

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

Cheers, Ed

 

[Steve Maskery]

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

 

[Anonymous]

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

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 n a video venture?

S

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

 

[Anonymous]

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..........

 

[Blister]

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:

 

[wizer]

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?

 

[Anonymous]

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:

 

[woodbloke]

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

 

[wizer]

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.

 

[Anonymous]

Rob

That adjustment sounds interesting and great idea.

Jigs with adjustment make a whole lot of sense!

 

[Anonymous]

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

 

[wizer]

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

 

[woodbloke]

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

 

[wizer]

care to expand?

 

[Wanlock Dod]

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