Shooting board

[D_W]

though I'm a shooting board badmouther, one or two people here will think "i remember - vaguely - an infill skew shooting plane?"

Yes, attached. It will outdo the LV Plane in raw smoothness and power through wood, and the iron is better for shooting (a high hardness O1 iron - sharpens twice as fast as V11 and lasts at least 90% as long, and chips less) - a full 1/4th thick at the business end and tapered with a hollow length-wise added to the taper.

But I left the dust on it to show how hard it is to find uses for it - and despite the desire to build mostly tools, I burned through about 600 board feet of wood making cabinets and furniture /shelving/beds last year. Every time I needed something square, it was a shoulder or to be trimmed after assembly. The squareness comes not from reference on a shoot board, but from marking with a square and creating a neat knife line to work to. If the tip of the tenon is out of square by sawing error, it makes no difference - it's buried in a mortise.

I'd go so far as to argue that on something like through tenons, the bit of life added by cleaning up the tenon ends after the fact with tiny variations would be better than stale machine-imitating perfection.

 

[tradesman]

ok so now to master setting up a plane for super thin cuts- ok technical question.

the depth of the board - eg the difference between what the edge of the plane sits on and where the material is - is it important??

the gap between the blade and the edge of plane is about 3mm - is this the depth or doesnt it m
atter

 

[Chris Hawkins]

View attachment 102725

Hi Doug, thank you for this post. I have the same plane and a Veritas shooting board, which I use with a shop-made donkeys ear for long end grain work. I've never been 100% happy with the results, but it does work. I've tried and failed to produce a 45 degree board like yours. Grateful if you would post more photos or say a little bit more about its construction. It's difficult for me to explain, but my main issue is how the plane rests at 45 degrees with the blade protruding. I hope that's clear Thanks Chris.

 

[paulrbarnard]

ok so now to master setting up a plane for super thin cuts- ok technical question.

the depth of the board - eg the difference between what the edge of the plane sits on and where the material is - is it important??

the gap between the blade and the edge of plane is about 3mm - is this the depth or doesnt it m
atter

As long as the blade is below the edge of the board your good to go. I would make it a bit more than 3 mm maybe 10 or 12 depending on the material you have to hand. A 3mm base would be a bit flexible

 

[pidgeonpost]

After decades of managing well enough without a shooting board (but occasionally cussing cos I didn't have one) I watched Paul Sellers video on making one over Christmas. Lack of concentration caused me to cut the 45° wedge housings arse about face, thus making them utterly useless as stops. The 90° bit works, but I'll be knocking up another board when I can.

 

[Doug B]

Hi Doug, thank you for this post. I have the same plane and a Veritas shooting board, which I use with a shop-made donkeys ear for long end grain work. I've never been 100% happy with the results, but it does work. I've tried and failed to produce a 45 degree board like yours. Grateful if you would post more photos or say a little bit more about its construction. It's difficult for me to explain, but my main issue is how the plane rests at 45 degrees with the blade protruding. I hope that's clear Thanks Chris.

Hi Chris, I did a thread of workshop stuff I did last year during the first lockdown, the making of that shooting board was included. This is the thread, L/D workshop dining table

 

[GLFaria]

Hi
As ALF (Alice Frampton), late of this forum, once wrote on an article on making of a shooting board that "it isn't rocket science".
I still have some extracts from the text; unfortunatly the link http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/ seems to no longer work.

I really miss her no-nonsense approach and her good-humor - on almost any matter. If memory serves she turned to pen-turning and calligraphy, which I believe were her primary interests.

Her blog was discontinued in Nov2014, bur the link http://cornishworkshop.blogspot.pt/ still works. The blog is worth reading and learning from IMO.

Derek Cohen also wrote an article in his site on making a shooting board; http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Setting%20Up%20and%20Using%20a%20Shooting%20Board4.html

So, as ALF said, no rocket science, just be careful about the details
Cheers

 

[Chris Hawkins]

Hi Chris, I did a thread of workshop stuff I did last year during the first lockdown, the making of that shooting board was included. This is the thread, L/D workshop dining table

Hi Doug, thank you for the link - that's an inspirational post! Cheers Chris

 

[JAW911]

Paul Sellers or Rob Cosman both have great designs (Cosman’s is more involved with convex plane bed). I have my own simple design offering only 90 degree cuts and will be making Sellers’ 45 and 90 version. Enjoyable to make these things anyway!