Shop made fence for #7 jointer plane ideas?

[Bill White]

Have any of you party animals built a clamp-on fence for your jointer plane(s). Sure would like to see some ideas.
TIA.
Bill

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I experimented once with clamping (with a couple of small f-clamps) a rabbeted block of wood to my jointer plane to act as a fence. It actually worked quite well, if I remember, but the clamps made holding the thing interesting. I never did implement a proper mechanism for holding the thing in place.

[Jim Koepke]

Many a time has the thought of putting a fence on a jointer crossed my mind.

It has always blown out the door with the next breeze.

For getting a square edge, just working a little slower has got that nailed. The same with making a set angle on a piece.

If one were doing a lot of production of a particular angle, there are ways to set up a plane in a vise with an angled guide that can help with such a chore. Another way is to make what is called a donkey ear shooting board or guide.

For me, the problem comes down to having to remove any attachment from the plane when switching from edge to face planing.

Joshua mentions clamping a piece on the side, this is by far the easiest & fastest. You could make a clamp with some carriage bolts and a couple of other scraps to keep things more compact.

Maybe better answers could be offered to you by explaining what problem you are trying to solve.

jtk

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I think Jim hit the nail on the head - for me, learning to plane square was easier than building a fence, and taking it on and off in the end.

I can usually get "close enough" without much effort, and pretty dead-on with a little care. The only time I generally end up needing perfectly machinist square is when gluing edges, and for me, 90% of the time, the stock is either thin enough (drawer bottom or cabinet back or something) that I can just plane both edges at the same time to cancel out any tiny discrepancy, or the stock is thicker, but short enough (guitar blanks) that I can just plop it on a shooting board.

If using a shooting board for shorter thick edges, and the planned grain orientation is amenable, you can maintain the same plane settings, and flip the second piece in relation to the first to again cancel out any discrepancy from square.

I wonder if the sidewalls are thick enough to accept tapping holes to attach a fence. I know that would probably kill the resale value of a plane, but if you had one you didn't care about originality . . .

Another option would be to look at the method Veritas/Lee Valley use for their aftermarket jointer fence (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=41716&cat=1) - magnets hold it against the sidewall, and a stop help keeps it from sliding back.

For doing angled edges, I find the real key is to approach the rough shaping accurately. For all but smaller chamfers, I find trying to make the angled edge by plan always ends up in me rounding over the edge, rather than having a flat chamfer or edge, at which point trying to finesse it by plane ends up being difficult. Attacking that initial shaping from 90 degrees to 45 (or what-have-you) with a saw or drawknife (or even a chisel) really makes following up with a plane to finesse it into shape much easier. Focus on making the edge the appropriate angle, and let the plane excel at what it does best; making the resulting surface flat and/or smooth along it's length.

[Matthew N. Masail]

I think if you were to make a wooden fence for a metal plane, cupped rare earth magnets, like the one from Lee Valley, would be the best way to go. easy to remove and attach and no modifications to the plane.
I would resaw a 1/16" thick veneer off the face, sink the cupped magnets in he wood and glue the veneer back. I don't think you'd need to experiment with more than 2 sizes. if you make it to fit one particular plane, you can make
the fence "lock" into plane so that it won't be pushed back and you can push forward on it. add a handle and you have something nice. needed or not.

[Lonnie Gallaher]

I thought I would bring this back to the top for a question and and observation.

I was looking on EBay for a #8 jointer. I saw two Stanley #8s by the same seller and from the same collection. Both had 3 small holes along the left hand side of the plane sole about an inch in from the cheek. The seller calls these out as "hanger holes". I got to thinking that they are probably for a shop made fence. The one plane clearly shows wear marks adjacent to the holes in the center area of the sole and no sign of wear along the edge where the holes are.

Has anyone ever seen such a setup. That is, the plane with a fence that would bolt through the bottom of the plane?

[Gary Daniel]

There are still some Stanley 386s out there that were made for that exact purpose without having to drill holes in your plane. It just clamps to the side and has its own grip. I've used mine quite a few times for various angles and it works pretty well.268377

[Chris Fournier]

I made a fence as Joshua describes. I needed it because the two pieces I was jointing were too unweildy and wide for a single plane pass over both of them. It took me 10 minutes to make the fence, I used small machinists clamps and I have used it rarely since that project. It was well worth the effort for that project.

[Frank Drew]

I shop-made one for my jack plane: two pieces of roughly 3/8" scrap a bit longer than the plane, glued together offset to create a rabbet with the upper piece band-saw profiled to match the plane's side wing, and secured to the plane's side wing with two small c-clamps. Easy to put on and take off and works fine.

[Terry Beadle]

Chris Schwartz blog post shows a little piece of scrap shaped to be clamped to the side of a plane.
I made one and tested on my Record #7 and it worked great.

Here's the url: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/an-awesome-edge-jointing-jig

It don't cost nothin' !
268494

[Jim Koepke]

My intention was to mention the Chris Schwarz blog solution, but Terry beat me to it.

Guess my coffee should be brewed a little earlier.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

A side fence for jointing does not need to be long. In fact, short is OK, as depicted by Chris Schwarz. The important dimension is the vertical - ensure the plane maintains this and the result will be square planing. Keep the fence shortish, and this allows you to skew the plane, should you so wish.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Stew Hagerty]

Another option would be to look at the method Veritas/Lee Valley use for their aftermarket jointer fence (http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=41716&cat=1) - magnets hold it against the sidewall, and a stop help keeps it from sliding back.

I have this fence from Lee Valley and love it. Yes learning to plane edges square is something that one needs to learn how to do, but... Until then, this thingy works perfectly well. It snaps on and off in nothing flat thanks to the magnets. It stays put thanks to the pin. And you can use it for bevels and well as 90 degree edges simply by attaching a piece of beveled at the correct angle.

[Judson Green]

I made this about four weeks ago. Thought about using C clamps but thought that the arm might be in my way and that the metal of the clamp might mess up the japanning. Sometimes I feel that I should cut it down it stands about 3½" tall so jointing boards less than say 4" wide will not work this fixture as is.

268520
268521
268522

[Mark Dorman]

I made one from scrap and clamped on one of my 7s. Worked great for a couple projects. Then I had some parts that were to short ( height not length) and I had to free hand it. I struggled to get back up to speed and came away thinking using a crutch crippled me temporally. Now I have an old factory made fence ( not a Stanley) and I use it very sparingly.

[Lonnie Gallaher]

Judson,

Curious about your bench dog holes. What is the specifications and such. They look to have copper or brass tubing inserts. Can you tell us about them? Do you use dogs in them or some other fixture?

[Judson Green]

Judson,

Curious about your bench dog holes. What is the specifications and such. They look to have copper or brass tubing inserts. Can you tell us about them? Do you use dogs in them or some other fixture?

Short answer, mistake recovery. Long answer, this is the first hand tool woodworking bench I've made (I'm a long time woodworker, but relatively new to the Neanderthal ways). So I thought it would be easier and just as good to use a solid core door for the top. I had thought a solid core door was MDF or particle board inside apparently Its something more like a compressed straw with glue. So I figured I need to line the dog holes with something and that something was gonna be ¾" copper pipe. In the end this took much longer (I think) than making the top out of real lumber. And the bench is not as flat (result of belt sanding the copper pipes and the 8/4 hard maple apron flush with the door) as I'd like it to be. I've been toying with the idea of another top on top of that top but I've got a few other things to do first. Someday I'd build my dream bench

268602
268603

[Bob Glenn]

I made one too, after reading Chris' blog. Instead of trying to cut a perfectly square notch out of a board for the fence, I glued two pieces of wood together. It works if the board you are planing has enough height when clamped to clear the fence block.

[Terry Beadle]

Mr. Glenn, your idea of gluing two squared pieced together is a very good one. It took me a bit of time even with careful marking and sawing to get mine right. It's way easier to square two separate pieces as you recommended than using a paring chisel etc.

Also, I wonder if you clamped the work piece to a moxen vise set up or even to a wider board to the bench, you could get around the narrowness issue of the work piece.

[Bob Glenn]

Mr. Glenn, your idea of gluing two squared pieced together is a very good one. It took me a bit of time even with careful marking and sawing to get mine right. It's way easier to square two separate pieces as you recommended than using a paring chisel etc.

Also, I wonder if you clamped the work piece to a moxen vise set up or even to a wider board to the bench, you could get around the narrowness issue of the work piece.

Terry, I didn't even square up two pieces. I squared up one long one, then cut off a section and glued it to the other. It took about ten minutes. Bob

[Scott Vanzo]

I have the LV fence also. Works well enough but is taller than it needs to be. If I am trying to square a thin rail that I have clamped in the face vise, I am often out of luck since the fence bottoms out.

Lately I've been using my Jack plane camber to correct an edge that is out of square. A little more practice and I think I will sell the LV fence.