04-11-2016, 04:10 PM
This is a follow up to my earlier post about using my "new" Bedrock 606 with a shooting board. Here is a photo of a shooting board I built this afternoon, loosely modeled after the one I saw at Lee Nielson.
It's about 23 x 14" overall. What I liked about that design was the "shelf" for the side of the plane to ride on, rather than the plane riding on the workbench. I don't know, it just seemed like a better idea to me, so that's how I built it. The 45° piece flips left or right and is held with a couple of Kreg screws. I took pains to try to get the 45° angle dialed in as close as possible, but recognize that a paper shim or two allows the final angle to be tweaked when needed.
With the 45° piece removed you can shoot 90° angles, which I found the hardest to do as one might expect. With the plane blade super sharp it's still hard to take real shavings. It's more like dusty wisps and to shave off more than a few thousandths is a true exercise in patience and perseverance. But what I really wanted the shooting board for was trimming angled parts and I'm very happy with how the plane and shooting board work for this operation.
Here's a photo trimming a 45° in a piece of cherry about 4" wide. You can see the blade is taking off what looks more like a shaving than dust. It's actually quite a satisfying feel when it's cutting right. And with the work clamped in place, I was able to use both hands on the plane in pretty much the normal manner; not awkward at all.
On the left is the piece after I trimmed it on the shooting board. On the right is a piece I took no care cutting on my miter saw.
After I trimmed the right piece on the shooting board the two pieces looked like this.
And fit together pretty darned well.
More to learn, for sure, but I'm sure this is going to make precise fitting of mitered joints a lot easier in the future. Any comments, etc. most welcome.
John
It's about 23 x 14" overall. What I liked about that design was the "shelf" for the side of the plane to ride on, rather than the plane riding on the workbench. I don't know, it just seemed like a better idea to me, so that's how I built it. The 45° piece flips left or right and is held with a couple of Kreg screws. I took pains to try to get the 45° angle dialed in as close as possible, but recognize that a paper shim or two allows the final angle to be tweaked when needed.
With the 45° piece removed you can shoot 90° angles, which I found the hardest to do as one might expect. With the plane blade super sharp it's still hard to take real shavings. It's more like dusty wisps and to shave off more than a few thousandths is a true exercise in patience and perseverance. But what I really wanted the shooting board for was trimming angled parts and I'm very happy with how the plane and shooting board work for this operation.
Here's a photo trimming a 45° in a piece of cherry about 4" wide. You can see the blade is taking off what looks more like a shaving than dust. It's actually quite a satisfying feel when it's cutting right. And with the work clamped in place, I was able to use both hands on the plane in pretty much the normal manner; not awkward at all.
On the left is the piece after I trimmed it on the shooting board. On the right is a piece I took no care cutting on my miter saw.
After I trimmed the right piece on the shooting board the two pieces looked like this.
And fit together pretty darned well.
More to learn, for sure, but I'm sure this is going to make precise fitting of mitered joints a lot easier in the future. Any comments, etc. most welcome.
John
