Shooting boards

Re: Shooting boards

Alan Bierbaum

>Normally I don't need a shooting board; my cuts are dead square (well adjusted electron eating saws). For the challenge project I used the one pictured here (cheap and dirty).

My latest shooting board

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Tim

Shooting boards are wonderful for squaring up ends and sides, and mitres. Up until very recently I have been using two, one with a 90 degree fence, and the other with a 45 degree mitre fence.

I have just made a new one out of jarrah and pine scraps. This one is ramped, whereas my earlier ones were not. The motivation for it came from using one of Terry Gordon's (of HNT Gordon planes) ramped shooting boards at the recent Perth Woodworking Show. Bugbear also suggested (in discussion on the Old Tools Fourum) that a ramped shooting board would make entry easier than a flat one. After using this new one, I think he is right.

My addition by way of design was to build an add-on mitre fence. In the first picture (below) the shooting board can be seen with a 90 degree fence. The 45 degree mitre fence is in the background.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Part II - with mitre fence

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Here is the shooting board with the clamp-on mitre fence. It is held on with a bolt that extends through the 90 degree fence.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: My latest shooting board - part 2

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Here is the shooting board with the clamp-on mitre fence. It is held on with a bolt that extends through the 90 degree fence.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Success this time!

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Not sure why this picture did not upload before (and before) ....???

Re: Shooting boards AND sawing straight

Matti Kuikka

>I use japanese saws and keep flat the piece to be cut so the saw has a longer line to follow.

Ripping is more difficult.

I made an experiment when our 5 and 6 years old grandchildren were visiting and as always wanted to visit my shop. I let them fasten a 1"x1" piece of black alder scrap in the wise on my bench and both could crosscut the piece through, not quite straight but cleanly; the boy(5) faster and the girl with better concentration.

I plan to continue the exercise next time they visit to see if they can mark with a square and cut to the line. I think it should be possible though the children are not in any way especially talented. I'll just have to act as it is a normal thing for small children to do.

I'm quite certain they wouldn't have succeeded with a western saw so the conclusion must be that a japanese saw is more natural instrument in human hands and in a way easier than a hammer for example.

Matti Kuikka

Re: Shooting boards

Paul in N

>Tim,

On Adam's Challenge I was able to cut pretty straight and square when using my back saws. I have practice with them cutting dovetails and tenons. After glueing a drawer together I clean the the joint with a plane and trim to fit the drawer opening.

I had more trouble using my handsaw to xcut the carcass boards. I drifted a little from the line and and it wasn't square across the thickness. I think it was less practice with this saw and I think I nicked a nail using it for some rough work. I used a block plane to square the wide boards. When it came to ripping, the rip saw tracked nice and straight. I used my jointer plane to clean the edge.

I think it boils down that you should try and practice to cut straight and plumb. Use a shooting board when you absolutely need a clean cut and the precision. I find even when I use machine tools a plane or chisel is used to fettle a joint or clean things up.

Paul Dzioba

Angles

Dean Burke - Yakima, WA

>Derek, is your stop perpendicular to your board base face? Or is it adjusted to be at 90� when ramped (thus not at 90� to the board base)? Or does it matter?

Thanks,

Dean

Re: Japanese saws

Dean Burke - Yakima, WA

>I agree. The first time I used a Japanese saw was a revelation.

Dean

Re: My latest shooting board

Mitch from NYC

>Derek,

This is a beautiful shooting board. A couple of questions: How do you not scrape the side of the shooting board with the plane blade as you are using the shooting board? And, where did you find the design or did you design it yourself?

Thanks,

Mitch

Re: Angles

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Dean

The fence is square to the table. The plane cuts downward (a skew cut) but this is still square to the fence and to the timber. The result is a perfectly square cut, whether on end- or long grain.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: My latest shooting board

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Mitch

A shooting board needs to be "run in" before attaching the fence. Run your plane along the board until you have planed away the area where the blade touches the side of the ramp. You will be left with a little ledge that supports the plane body. Only then is the shooting board set up.

The design was my partly my own. There are a few websites that have similar boards. Here is the shooting board that inspired my thoughts:

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanx

Dean Burke - Yakima, WA

>

Re: My latest shooting board *LINK*

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>I'm not sure why I am having so much difficulty uploading info, especially links.

Trying again:

http://www.michealconnorwoodwork.com.au/gallery/workbenches/index.html

Derek


Micheal Connor Woodwork

Is this it?

Dan Donaldson

>The problem with the picture posted was that you linked to the html page it was on rather than to the image itself. In order to get a picture, you have to link directly to it. If the url does not end in a picture format like gif or jpg, it won't work. Whenever posting a picture or a link, it pays to do a preview first.

Re: Angles

Sgian Dubh

>I don't see how this ramped shooting board works with your 45 degree mitre truing addition Derek.

It looks like you'll be doing a compound cut if you plane mitres. Is this not the case, and if not, could you explain please? Slainte.

That's the one Dan.

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>

Re: Angles

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Sgian

No, it is not a compound cut. I know it is deceiving but it is always a square cut, regardless of whether it is using the 90 degree or 45 degree fence. What is happening is that the blade of the plane is cutting at a skew, but still cutting in the same vertical plane.

Picture skewing a plane when planing the top of a board. You skew the plane but push it forwards (unlike using a scrub plane, where you would cut on the diagonal). Or imagine cutting the end grain of a board with a block plane. It doesn't really matter from which end/side you attack it. The constant is that you are planing the end 90 degrees to the sides.

In summary, the plane always remains in the vertical, while the timber always (here) lies in the horizontal.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Angles

Sgian Dubh

>Hmm, Derek. Thanks for the explanation although I still can't see it.

You said that <"the plane always remains in the vertical, while the timber always (here) lies in the horizontal."> Yet clearly the ramped part forms a rise of some 3� to 5� from the base upon which the side of the plane runs.

I can fully see there is no problem for squaring the ends or the edges of boards. But my mind sees the inside and outside edges of the wood adjacent to the mitred end being trued offered up at something other than perpendicular to the shooting board base. Similarly, the top and bottom face of the mitred part appear to be in a different plane than the base plane.

Something at the back of my mind keeps telling me there's compound cutting going on, ha, ha. Slainte.

Unnecessary crutch

Adam Cherubini, NJ

>Hi Tim,

I think shooting boards are an unnecessary crutch. You've got to learn to saw straight. There is a technique involved, its not just practice.

For the hand tool challenge, you're correct, the participants need to make square boards. But the time constraint punishes those who saw poorly and then fix their edges, for two reasons:

1) You scribed a line and blew it, right? So now you go to the shooting board? Hopefully you left the line/edge full so it can be fixed, otherwise you may have the wrong length. So should you saw everything long then always plane down?

2) When you saw straight, you are left with TWO straight edges. Your piece and the scrap.

Its not always possible to saw straight, but its worth your effort to try.

Adam

Re: Unnecessary crutch

Tim of San Leandro

>Adam,

That is what I surmised....but getting skilled enough to saw a 20 inch long cut straight and square along the entire length is more than I can handle currently.

I think your challenge brings out a lot of reasons why apprenticeships were hard and difficult. Without the skills needed to do simple operations like saw straight and square and quickly, a cabinetmaker would quickly be run out of town.

Re: Angles

Tim of San Leandro

>It is like Derek said, you are simply skewing the wood, rather than skewing the plane.

When face planing, you can skew the plane without changing the flatness of the board face. We simply skew the plane because that is less work/time than rotating the board.

In the ramped shooting board, the sole of the plane and the end of the board still define parallel geometric planes.

Tim

Re: Angles

Sgian Dubh

>Maybe I'm just being dense, Tim. I said earlier that I can understand the skewing action on the ramped holding surface of the shooting board not affecting square cuts either to the end of a board, or to a square edge.

I don't see it at all for truing mitres using the mitre accessory Derek showed. I wonder how it would work for truing the mitres of picture frames and the like?

It puts me in mind of using my normal technique of a sliding table saw with the mitre gauge set at 45� and the blade set at 90� to the table to do the same job. But if I were to then jack up one end or the other of the member being mitred by 3�-- 5� the result would be a compound cut. It would be close to 45�, but not 45, and the cut part would also show something other than 90� from the top face to the bottom face.

I just can't see any essential difference in the set-up here using a ramped shooting board with a mitreing accessory instead of a table saw. Slainte.

Re: Angles

Ted Shuck

>In your sliding table saw example, if your miter gauge were also tilted along with the stock, you would retain a true 45 degree angle. This is the case with the shooting board that was shown. The 45 degree fence is attached to the bedding surface for the board to be mitered. It keeps the true 45 degree angle for the board, not a compound angle. If the fence were at the angle of the plane and the board tilted relative to the fence, then you would get a compound angle.

Ted