Rabbet Block Plane or Shoulder Plane

Re: Rabbet Block Plane or Shoulder Plane

Jerome

I don’t like this saw bench design, with tilted legs than gets into the way of the saw and a narrow top that prevents the use of hold downs. I really prefer wider top (30cm) with straight legs. This design looks like bulkier saw horse, which to me have a very different use case.

Anyway, I would recommend you use a chisel with the help of a guiding block, cut at the desired angle, attached to your piece, to provide a reference plane to lay your paring chisel on. This is a common practice and really helps in some difficult cuts at weird angles.

Re: Rabbet Block Plane or Shoulder Plane

David Weaver

I'm agreement with your sentiments, but a lot of people like the look of that type of sawbench more as shop furniture.

I built my first sawbench out of a 2x12 and 2x4 years ago - it's flat, it took an hour to make with through tenons (made very sloppily, too). I've still managed to cut it but never managed to care.

That said, I get the idea that a lot of people like to make nice shop fixtures for their shop and would be goofy to make chisels neatly out of files and talk practicality.

But I do like a saw bench made in an hour.

Re: Rabbet Block Plane or Shoulder Plane

David Weaver

I thought there was a post from derek about chisels, but I would say neither of those planes. Especially not the rabbet block.

Chisels are where I'd go from the start, though - mark out the tenons and either cut them dead on the mark or cut them shy and mallet or pare off at the lines. I get the sense that a lot of people buy shoulder or rabbet planes and then create errors that need more glue to make disappear.

a chisel and a slight undercut will be much faster. If I find adjustment needs for angles, I use a float - its slow and doesn't remove endgrain fast (really fast on peeling side grain off), or undercut where the removal needs to occur and use a wooden block with coarse PSA paper glued to it (undercutting inside the shoulder just to make the sanding faster).

cutting notch on one end

David Weaver

It's nice to have a long end on one end of a bench like that for a notch.

Not something I'd go to the trouble of redoing, but would include from the start if starting fresh.

You can use the notch to get a little bit of lateral support on thinner items, or to sit on the floor and cope something (including metal stuff you might not want on your bench) - it's surprisingly handy.

I ballast it with a disc sander that I wouldn't have any other use for so that my son can use it for a bench, but the same sander comes in handy as such if sitting and coping.

I've never fretted for a second about an overcut or when my son rasps into it or overcuts and will make the same thing again when I kill it. It's long enough to sit on and rip wood, too - most of us aren't fit enough to maintain the position that the magazine photo shows for 30 or 50 linear feet of cutting in a shop session.

Re: Rabbet Block Plane or Shoulder Plane

Jerome

I like my woodworking like my cuisine.

I buy raw, organic and local and I put all the fancy in the making. As a French, I also make sure I have decent wine to go with!

Neither

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

I lack a shoulder plane. Attempting to build the Chris Schwarz saw bench, with the funky 10* angle cuts, and it became quite apparent that my paring skills suck. All of the legs came out wonky. Apparently, it's time to invest in a shoulder plane. But I seem to recall a post sometime back where someone recommended a rabbet block plane as a more useful tool than the medium shoulder plane. Any advice?

Gerald, I occasionally use a shoulder plane to tune tenon shoulders, but mainly use a chisel here. I find shoulder planes more useful for fine tuning - sometimes making - rebates, especially small rebates (such as with slipped drawer bottoms).

To create an accurate tenon shoulder, I saw a smidgeon off the scribed line, and then use a chisel in the line. A shoulder plane is used when there is too little to use a chisel (where there is too little reference area).

Cheeks rely on being square and parallel. A plane (of any type, including a rabbet block plane, and especially a shoulder plane) is vulnerable to planing away square. If you need to ensure square, use a large router plane. I do so, and have never needed an outrigger to maintain flat.

Mostly I fine tune cheeks with either a wide chisel or a rasp. I would consider these for more confident workers, and you need an eye to keep all surfaces parallel.

My LN rabbet block plane comes out when I need to level and true up the insides of drawer cases. A wide shoulder plane might not have enough clearance (that is, it is too high).

Regards from Perth

Derek