Shooting Board
- Thread starter PerranOak
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
Paul Chapman
Established Member
PerranOak":1iiwa4wz said:
Some people say they are OK but, personally, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. I've never used one that is accurate or even consistently inaccurate. I have two that I use for various measuring tasks but I never use them as squares.
Cheers :wink:
Paul
Paul Chapman":j3yhywsz said:
Generally i'd agree - all the ones I have used in the past have been way out.
But I struck lucky and got a comination head (Mitutoyo or something similair) which I use with both a 12" and 24" Moore & Wright rule. It is spot on accurate.
Cheers
Karl
My M and W is accurate, that is to say as accurate as you are likely to get with such a short stock!
The square that I use most frequently is a roofing square. Made in one piece, if it is made accurate it should stay accurate, unlike many that are made from a number of pieces.
Roy.
The square that I use most frequently is a roofing square. Made in one piece, if it is made accurate it should stay accurate, unlike many that are made from a number of pieces.
Roy.
Night Train
Established Member
My shooting board is much wider then normal, about 4' long, to support the length of a long plank. It makes the fence very long and thus makes small adjustments easier.
It is also reversable so when I flip it over I get a 45deg shooting board for mitres. It then becomes a left handed board though.
It looks like a 4' wide bench hook with fence on the under side hooked on the edge of the bench.
To adjust the fence for shooting I have a screw at the planing end as a pivot for the fence and then along its length there are several screws in slotted holes. I loosen them all, set the fence square, or to whatever adjusted angle I need, and then tighten the screws along its length making sure the fence is straight on a straight edge.
I also have a shooting board for cutting mitres the other way around. The bed of the board lifts up on a quadrant to the desired angle for making corners of triangular boxes.
It is also reversable so when I flip it over I get a 45deg shooting board for mitres. It then becomes a left handed board though.
It looks like a 4' wide bench hook with fence on the under side hooked on the edge of the bench.
To adjust the fence for shooting I have a screw at the planing end as a pivot for the fence and then along its length there are several screws in slotted holes. I loosen them all, set the fence square, or to whatever adjusted angle I need, and then tighten the screws along its length making sure the fence is straight on a straight edge.
I also have a shooting board for cutting mitres the other way around. The bed of the board lifts up on a quadrant to the desired angle for making corners of triangular boxes.
PerranOak
Established Member
Oops! Good point!Davon":ciz7e9v0 said:
Still, are you sure you actually want to SEE my paultry effort!?
I have to figure out how to photo it without showing my shim-shame(!)
PerranOak
Established Member
Davon":b4je9b17 said:
Well, this is it ... such as it is!
I realise now that I am a wimp and a wuss! It really takes it out of me to use it! I have to rest for hours!!!
Believe it or not, I've made a shooting board too !
I'm also having difficulties using it. I've tried it with a Record #7, a Stanley #5 plane and a block plane, but none of them cut the wood smoothly. Their throats seem to clog and to get any sort of cut I have to make the blade protrude a long way.
Scroll saws I can manage, but hand tools bite me. Where have I gone wrong?
Gill
!I'm also having difficulties using it. I've tried it with a Record #7, a Stanley #5 plane and a block plane, but none of them cut the wood smoothly. Their throats seem to clog and to get any sort of cut I have to make the blade protrude a long way.
Scroll saws I can manage, but hand tools bite me. Where have I gone wrong?
Gill
For good shooting you do need a well set up plane, very sharp blade and a flat sole. Gill if you have to have the blade protruding a long way to get a cut that could mean the sole is not flat or the blade is dull or both. You also have to consider the type of wood and it thickness. Anything over 3/4" I may not bother to shoot if it is hard, I would just use a shallow angle plane in the conventional manner. Shooting end grain is a lot easier with a low angle plane LV LA jack is an example, you can also have a wide mouth set on the plane when working end grain. Try some shooting on some thinner wood say 5mm and see how you get on.
newt":1f00iu07 said:
My planes have been tuned in accordance with the advice given in Garrett Hack's book and the blades have been intimate with a Tormek, so I've no doubt about how they are set up. Indeed, I checked them with an engineer's square before use. Although the block plane is the only one with an adjustable throat, even that got clogged on its widest setting. The wood I mangled was 3mm oak, which shouldn't have posed a problem.
I'm not keen to spend money on an expensive new plane, but thanks for the suggestions anyway. Perhaps I should get down to the gym and build up my arm muscles instead :lol: .
Gill
PerranOak
Established Member
Gill":1673ii9o said:
Blimey! That's EXACTLY what is happening to me! I have had some good results but it's cost me one dodgy shoulder and everything on the shelves that wasn't nailed down - my "workshop" is a ricketty old shed - still, it has worked on occasion.
The plane often stops half way (because the blade it protrudes so far) unles I give it a massive, shelf trembling, welly of a stroke! We are talking 10 - 12mm softwoods here.
Also, I get tiny breakout - probably because I'm slamming it in?
PerranOak
Established Member
newt":1u58m834 said:
Cheers mate, I tried and it is pretty square - now - that's good, for me!!!
I think my problem is the plane/me/technique or, being honest, just me!
It's a shame though because when all was working well, the shavings were purring out of the plane and I swear it was singing to me as it shot through! Nothing nicer than end-grain being shaved-off square and unbroken with a "shwoop"!
Maybe like Gill I need more muscle!
Gill, 3mm oak should have been really easy, almost no effort at all. I have some concern why things are jamming up even with the widest mouth, I can only think you are taking to deep a cut for the size of the mouth opening. However you say the blade is sharp, can it easily shave hair they should just pop of as soon as the blade touches them, I know of no other way to assess sharpness without being there. I typically get 1 1/2 thou shavings end grain, of course as you try to take thicker shavings up goes the effort. One other thing it is necessary to get the blade square to the sole and to maintain a constant downward and sideways pressure through out the stroke. Sometimes it can be like hitting a brick wall if the plane rotates about its long axis during the stroke.
Paul Chapman
Established Member
Gill":7w13u1yx said:
You should get excellent results with a #7 on a shooting board. As Pete suggests, you probably need to sharpen the blade better - razor sharp and finely set and I would close up the mouth. Go for very thin shavings.
The David Charlesworth DVD on using shooting boards is excellent for showing you the technique if you are having problems.
Cheers :wink:
Paul
woodbloke
Established Member
PerranOak":eu0t9c72 said:
Some good advice from Pete and Paul. Sounds to me like your blade isn't quite as sharp as it should be. With a really sharp edge there should be very little effort needed to push across end grain on a shooter, even on 12mm softwood. The plane setting for use on a shute is as you would have it normally set up for bench planing, it's not that different 'cept that the plane's on it's side - Rob
Reading these posts my first impression was that the piece being shot is protruding too far onto the runway, which in my experience produces these sort of problems.
My method is thus, set the iron and mouth very fine, place the plane on the runway and bring the workpiece up to the plane then shoot the end.
With a rhythm going you should get a series of clicks as the plane is pulled back to the start as the iron passes over it automatically setting the piece ready for the next pass.
The break out on a new board suggests that the work piece is too far onto the runway so losing the support of the stop and making hard work of the shooting. Hope that makes sense.
Roy.
My method is thus, set the iron and mouth very fine, place the plane on the runway and bring the workpiece up to the plane then shoot the end.
With a rhythm going you should get a series of clicks as the plane is pulled back to the start as the iron passes over it automatically setting the piece ready for the next pass.
The break out on a new board suggests that the work piece is too far onto the runway so losing the support of the stop and making hard work of the shooting. Hope that makes sense.
Roy.
PerranOak
Established Member
Digit":21wkavvd said:
I wonder, when you've used a plane on a shooting board with the blade sticking out a long way then pull it back, doesn't it leave a gap that would cause break-out?
