Shooting Like a Cooper

[Jim Koepke]

Earlier one of my quests had me making a donkey ear shooting board to make octagon boxes.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?157217-Eight-Eared-Donkey

My thoughts turned to how to cut the angles on the triangles that will make the top.

Free handing was getting close. All the formula on the internet were for setting table saws or were a bit weird to do the calculations.

Finally when getting close, an idea came to me. Why not do like coopers do and use a plane upside down.

A #5 is set in the vise. The vise screw is set between the tote and the frog.

190897

Make sure your blade is set before setting this in the vise. It can be a pain trying to make adjustments once it is set up.

The angle/shooting fence is attached to a piece at 90º to sit next to the plane.

190896

Pay attention to your finger tips if you try this. You don't want to get blood all over a nice blade. It can be corrosive.

There are two cutouts for the blade since this will be used on one side and then flipped for the other.

Currently it is close enough to do an epoxy glue up, but why not go for the gold?

190895

A little careful free hand cutting of the fence should do the trick. It will be easy to adjust it just a little.

jtk

[Roy Lindberry]

One other tip for putting the plane in the vise: Make sure it is low enough that the sole is between the jaws of the vise. I tried to do that once with a piece that was wider than the plane, so I had to hold it up above the jaws. The result? A number 4 with only one side. The other cracked almost right off.

Here's hoping others will learn from my mistake.

[Jim Koepke]

One other tip for putting the plane in the vise: Make sure it is low enough that the sole is between the jaws of the vise. I tried to do that once with a piece that was wider than the plane, so I had to hold it up above the jaws. The result? A number 4 with only one side. The other cracked almost right off.

Here's hoping others will learn from my mistake.

That is one thing to be careful about. I put mine down almost as low as it would go with the sole just a little above the chop.

I also did not crank it tighter than needed. In this case, the sole could be even or below the chop without a problem.

jtk

[David Keller NC]

Personally, this is one case where I would use a Lie-Nielsen or a Lee Valley plane because the base metal is malleable instead of brittle like the old Stanley castings. But even better is a wooden plane - I use an old, clapped-out Ohio tool 20" fore plane for this purpose, since one usually isn't too concerned about a tight mouth when joiting pieces. The wooden body is substantial and thick enough to prevent warping when clamped into the vise, and I don't feel too bad about permanently attaching a fence by drilling into the sole, though I haven't gotten this far yet - it seems most coopers didn't need a fence; I've never seen one of those monster-sized antique cooper's jointers with any way to attach a fence.

Jim - excellent idea. Even though I've got a PhD in engineering and so have a deep background in math, just thinking about the 3-D geometry necessary to calculate the angles to construct that top makes my head hurt....

[george wilson]

I made a coopered lid for dutch oven patterns similar to the picture,but not as highly arched,of course. The idea is to make the pie slices of matched wood so the pattern won't warp. Probably overkill on my part,as the first thing the foundry did was cast my patterns into permanent aluminum patterns on match plates. They did like the patterns,though,and used to use wooden patterns over and over again.

[Johnny Kleso]

I'd add this is one reason to buy a smooth soled plane NOT a corrugated sole..


With a corrugated sole the corners drop into the grooves so you must skew the parts at a angle and is a pain..

[john brenton]

rainbow suspenders?