Those of You Who Use a Bench Plane for Shooting

[Bibliophile 13]

I have a question for you.  How close do you set the chipbreaker on your shooting plane? 

I shoot with a #6, and the mouth is pretty tight.  I'm in the habit of setting the chipbreaker close to the edge on most of my bench planes, but now that I'm thinking about it, I can't see a closely-set chipbreaker doing much for end-grain.  Plus, the mouth being tight means that a closely-set chipbreaker will tend to choke the plane. 

I haven't had time to set up any tests on scrap, so until I do, I'm curious about what the rest of you guys have experienced.  Do you set the chipbreaker close to the edge, as you would with a smoother?  Or do you set it further back, as you would with a jack plane?  Or does it seem to matter?

[enjuneer]

I set the chip breaker on my Record T-5 about 1/16" back from the edge of the iron, mainly to minimize chatter when slicing end grain. Setting it closer might increase resistance during cutting since it would present more of a blunt nose to the shaving as it comes off of the wood. If you're doing things right, the shavings should be very thin, so choking should not be an issue.

[AHill]

I use a bevel up jack for my shooting.  No chipbreaker to worry about.  Works fine.  When shooting end grain, a lower angle works better.  I use a 25 deg bevel blade.  With the 12 deg bed, I'm shooting at 37 deg.  Some of the newer purpose built jointers have skewed blades, having a similar effect of lowering the cutting angle.  I don't see any issues with you moving the chipbreaker back on your No. 6.

[Mark Allen]

If you're only shooting end grain ... no breaker is necessary in my experience.

If your shooting with the grain, sometimes the geometry of the board makes you go plane against the grain. You may consider setting up your chipbreaker to minimize tear out in those cases. The other option is to make a 'opposite hand' shooting board to avoid that situation.

[rwe2156]

I agree with Mark ^.  Endgrain behaves totally different.  The biggest factor is a really sharp blade.

I use both a LA jack and a #6.  My opinion is the extra mass of the #6 helps a lot.

[Steve N]

Chipbreaker?? Wassat?
 



I love that thing




But from the old days, yeah, sharp is what end grain is all about. I use power equipment for the edges, and faces.