How to fit a planing stick to a bench with a well.

[Cabinetman]

Finally got around to trying this on my bench which is fastened to the wall and has a plywood well behind a big heavy lump of beech.
The stick I am fitting is about a metre long just over an inch thick and will end up being the same height as the depth of the well, I am using 3 inch coach screws with washers, The shank of the Coach screws is 10 mm in diameter. It’s fairly self-explanatory from the photos I hope, but care should be taken not to cut the slots upside down and inside out, It’s slightly counterintuitive especially when you can’t look at it from the back as I can’t so I’m looking at it upside down to start with.
The slots are laid out so that the stick will rise about half an inch above the surface of the bench. It’s important to get the first pilot holes drilled using a pillar drill so that they are at right angles to the surface, these pilot holes are then drilled through into the edge of the bench top and then widened out and lengthened for the coach screws, I held the stick in place with a sash cramp whilst I drilled into the edge of the bench. Once it is fitted it can be planed flush with the surface of the bench. Ian

 

[Cabinetman]

 

[Cabinetman]

I forgot to mention, the vertical distance between the two pin points on the second photograph dictates how high above the bench the stick rises.
Everybody seems to call it a stick, but I’m sure there must be a better word for it. Ian

 

[Dynamite]

That looks great Ian, thanks for sharing. I will definitely consider this one.

Rob