woodbloke
Established Member
I've been following with interest the thread on the other forum about shooting board and thought I would go and have another look at mine. Also Paul C had loaned my Robert Wearing's excellent book on workshop jigs and there is a little bit about shooting boards at the back of it. I was a bit concerned with the performance of mine 'cos they were a bit 'hit and miss' regarding the accuracy. When I got into the 'shop last night and had a closer look at them:
.....I found that the Formica wear strip that I had so much blind faith in for so long was in fact bowed :shock: The Formica is about 50mm wide and was bowed by about .5mm each side so that the plane in use was never dead flat, hence the edge of the boards and the tapered bocks were getting progressively munched away as the plane tipped towards them, and I couldn't understand why this was happening :?
In the book, the shooting boards are shown with an acrylic wear strip that rests on the sole of the plane just below the cutter and this is what I decided to incorporate on the modified boards, so it was out with the Marples Blue Chip house chisel and off with the Formica. Some of the surfaces had to be cleaned up with with the router in a jig and then sanded:
I machined a groove in the boards with the saw by removing the riving knife :shock: (don't tell Scrit, but it's the only way I could do it) which by a coincidence happened to be a snug fit for as strip of acrylic plastic, simply fixed in place with a tiny dab of superglue at each end. I put a small chamfer on the underside so that they are easy to replace if needed. The actual bearing surface is again acrylic, screwed into place and then the waste was bearing cut with the router:
What a difference in the performance! I have been accused by another esteemed forum member :wink: west of the Tamar of not showing any shavings but on this occasion I think my modified shooters warrant it:
If you have shooting boards like mine, or have just made one :wink: or are thinking of making one, this is a great mod to do. Acrylic plastic is easy to get hold of (from firms that make signs) and the bits on the boards can be replaced without any bother if they get damaged or wear - Rob
.....I found that the Formica wear strip that I had so much blind faith in for so long was in fact bowed :shock: The Formica is about 50mm wide and was bowed by about .5mm each side so that the plane in use was never dead flat, hence the edge of the boards and the tapered bocks were getting progressively munched away as the plane tipped towards them, and I couldn't understand why this was happening :?
In the book, the shooting boards are shown with an acrylic wear strip that rests on the sole of the plane just below the cutter and this is what I decided to incorporate on the modified boards, so it was out with the Marples Blue Chip house chisel and off with the Formica. Some of the surfaces had to be cleaned up with with the router in a jig and then sanded:
I machined a groove in the boards with the saw by removing the riving knife :shock: (don't tell Scrit, but it's the only way I could do it) which by a coincidence happened to be a snug fit for as strip of acrylic plastic, simply fixed in place with a tiny dab of superglue at each end. I put a small chamfer on the underside so that they are easy to replace if needed. The actual bearing surface is again acrylic, screwed into place and then the waste was bearing cut with the router:
What a difference in the performance! I have been accused by another esteemed forum member :wink: west of the Tamar of not showing any shavings but on this occasion I think my modified shooters warrant it:
If you have shooting boards like mine, or have just made one :wink: or are thinking of making one, this is a great mod to do. Acrylic plastic is easy to get hold of (from firms that make signs) and the bits on the boards can be replaced without any bother if they get damaged or wear - Rob
