shooting board??

[No skills]

Hi folks,

I've got some small pieces of poplar (at least I think it is poplar) that I need to put a good edge on so I can glue them together for a panel. I need to remove a fairly small amount of material and I need all the pieces to be the same dimentions. I'm thinking that maybe a quick purpose made shooting board is required (got some scrap mdf somewhere), how much longer should the shooting board be in relation to the length of the work piece?
The work piece is approx 350mm and I'll have to use my venerable #4 1/2.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You need a longer plane, ideally. The length at the front isn't too important, but the whole (or as much as possible) of your plane should be on the board before the iron contacts the wood. IMO

 

[No skills]

Ahh, that could be a problem then Maybe a re-think in order.

 

[SurreyHills]

Take a look at Alf's site for some ideas on what is required: http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/shootingboards.html

It'll give you some choices to consider.

 

[carlb40]

This was brought up by another member when he made a shooting board for some sycamore he was using. Shooting boards are usually used for mitres etc not for long grain edges.

To get edges ready to join up to form panels, you can clamp 2 together side by side. Plane both edges as one. Then if you are slightly off with your planing technique, it won't matter as they will match up. As you have planed them both together out of square

 

[AndyT]

If what you want to do is plane the edges of several narrowish pieces so you can edge-join them together, I don't think a shooting board will help you. You just need to get a straight edge on each one, mark the width of the narrowest point with a marking gauge on each one and plane down to that mark. You can clamp two or three side by side in the vice and plane them as one block. After you've glued up the panel saw the ends of square and clean up with a sharp plane working inwards from each side. A 4 1/2 is big enough for pieces 350 mm long but keep looking at the edge and testing it - planes don't work automatically!

 

[No skills]

Its not quite as easy as joining two bits edge to edge, if it was I'd clamp and plane them together as suggested. The two bits of 'poplar' will have a thin strip of contrasting wood glued between them and the resulting small panels will be used to make a box, I'd like the stripe to be the same all the way round the box.

New plan is to use the table saw to establish the first straight edges (leave the work pieces a bit long, screw to some straight mdf strip with just a couple of mm protruding and run through), then just flip it over and cut again (with no mdf) to get a parallel piece. Then I'll try to clean the edges a touch with the plane (without cocking them up, a first) and glue up.

Well thats the idea anyways..


Cheers all.

 

[denboy]

Without wishing to denigrate the previous advice, all of which is useful, I suggest that you maybe look again at the shooting board idea. The late lamented Tage Frid in "Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking Book 1 :Joinery " shows you how to make and use a shooting board for just this purpose. I made one 8 feet long and it worked a treat, though indeed a long plane in this case is important ( I use a wooden try plane, which cost a few quid as no-one seems to value them these days ). For 300 mm then a jack plane set extremely fine would be ideal. Clamp the work to the board, wax the sole and the cheeks of the plane and shoot away. And think about buying Frid's book- secondhand on Amazon marketplace.

 

[bugbear]

This was brought up by another member when he made a shooting board for some sycamore he was using. Shooting boards are usually used for mitres etc not for long grain edges.

Long grain shooting boards are also used, especially for long or narrow pieces. The commonest write ups for this on the web are luthiers making book matched guitar backs.

Interestingly, in a mitre/end grain board the plane sole runs against the board, to keep it on line, wheres in the long grain version, the plane sole runs against the workpiece, with the board simply keeping the cut "square". Straight comes fro the plane.

BugBear

 

[Cheshirechappie]

This is just a suggestion. If you can, keep the poplar stock as long as both box sides plus ends plus a bit for cutting allowance in two long lengths. Plane the edge carefully, with the plane set very fine, and checking very frequently with straightedge and try-square. Do the same with the infill strip (hold it upright on the bench top with a wooden clamp or by pinching it between a couple of blocks of scrap), again very carefully, and taking care to ensure that it's parallel. Then glue up the three pieces, and when the glue has set, cut to length for sides and ends.

A bit 'zen', this approach - needs care and patience to get the three matching pieces spot on, but a good test of planing skill.

If the pieces are too long to handle comfortably whilst full-length, try two batches at a length of one side plus one end. The penalty to this approach is that you have to get two infill strips exactly the same width, or they won't match up on the finished box. Clamping and planing them together may help with this.