Melamine OK for Shooting Board?

[Steve H Graham]

I made myself a bench hook last night, and today I made a shooting board. I followed the example of a guy named Graham Haydon. He has a Youtube channel. He used a piece of particle board coated with melamine for the base. I thought that sounded like a good idea. I'm sure Home Depot melamine was popular with woodworkers before the Industrial Revolution. I grabbed something similar from Home Depot.

It works okay, but I don't know if the surface is going to stand up to the abuse. Am I better off with plywood? I suppose I could put a strip of hard veneer over the melamine.

I have never used one of these things before. I put a #5 plane on it and went to town. I figured I needed to plane the board itself before doing any work on it. Is that correct? The end of the fence caught the plane blade and made some shavings, and the blade also caught on the guide board's edge, so I assume I was planing off crap that would cause problems if I put a workpiece on the board.

It works fine on end grain. I haven't tried it for edge jointing yet.

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[Jim Koepke]

Steve,

Your attachment isn't visible for me.

One of the great things about building a shooting board is if over time it falls apart, you have experience knowing what not to use.

Just because plywood isn't my cup of tea doesn't mean it isn't good.


The end of the fence caught the plane blade and made some shavings, and the blade also caught on the guide board's edge, so I assume I was planing off crap that would cause problems if I put a workpiece on the board.

The edge of your #5 next to the mouth rides on the guide board's edge. The material removed by the blade is of no consequence.

Both or my current shooting boards are made with 3/4" stock for the beds. Next time one is made the differential between the ramp for the plane and the bed for the work will be less so as to allow more working width from the blade.

jtk

[Steve H Graham]

You're not missing a whole lot by not being able to see the attachment. Basically, it serves as evidence that the shooting board exists.

[Robert Engel]

Wish I could see it.

I think it would be a good base for the plane to slide on, but I'd be wondering if it was too slick to hold the wood.
I'd be tempted to glue on a piece of 1/4" ply to place the wood on.

It is tougher than you would think as long as it doesn't get wet.

[Steve H Graham]

I fiddled with the photo to see if I could make it visible to other people.

The melamine part is the base. The upper board is marine plywood.

[Richard Line]

Several years back I built mine close to the same way you've built yours. I've been happy with. The only issue I've had is not being able to easily make a support of the same height off the bench to supporting long boards. I get by with, and I'm still think it was a good choice to use the scrap piece of melamine particle board as the bottom.

[Jim Koepke]

Now that the image is up, it looks like you should have good results from your shooting board for years to come.

Wax the sole and side of your plane and you will be shooting with joy.

My shooting board has a similar problem as Richard's with supporting long boards. I have planed a piece of scrap to stack on another to be the same height, but they keep getting misplaced. Not too difficult to find a few pieces that will do the job, now that a lot of them have been made.

jtk

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I used melamine with Rockler t-track hold downs for the board being dressed and it works like a dream.

[Pat Barry]

Melamine should work nicely for the base, at least the top of the base. The bottom being melamine could be a nuisance. - if so, you could easily improve that

[Hilton Ralphs]

I made myself a shooting board. I followed the example of a guy named Graham Haydon. He has a Youtube channel. He used a piece of particle board coated with melamine for the base.

It works okay, but I don't know if the surface is going to stand up to the abuse. Am I better off with plywood?


It all depends on the quality and thickness of the Melamine coating. The cheap white stuff used for kitchen carcasses is pretty thin and certainly not durable enough to withstand friction from a metal hand plane. It's fine with a plate or glass gently resting on it. The upside of Melamine is that it's more slippery than most other boards so this makes it ideal for shooting.

When it wears through, you could just glue down a piece of Formica as this is used for working surfaces so it will hold up.

[Graham Haydon]

Hi Steve

Melamine will wear over time, as would the face of anything else. We use melamine faced MDF in our workshop so we often have too many offcuts. Using them to make jigs etc seems to work pretty well for us and gets rid off some offcuts. I'm yet to wear through the melamine on my board. As Hilton says formica would be ultra tough but if my shooting board lasts a good few years and then becomes worn I'll just make another. It's so quick to make that I don't let it worry me.

[Rob Luter]

That's exactly the approach I used. Then I applied 3M HDPE tape on the Melamine "runway" the plane rides on. It's slicker than snot and the plane just glides like it's on rollers.

[Phil Mueller]

Steve, thanks for posting the question and photo. I've been pondering a shooting board design for sometime...this looks like the way to go.
Phil

[Curt Putnam]

I cheated and used the Lee Valley track. Works a treat!

[Tom M King]

I built one out of Corian, but later wondered why I bothered. It does work well though.

I'll be building two mirror image ones out of plywood with not only variable angle fences, but variable angle for the tilt of the planes, to use up on a roof for Cypress shingle fantail hip shingles. I could do it with the block plane in my belt, but there are several hundred of them, and I'd like for them to fit well to start with anyway. Makes a good excuse to deduct the cost of the left handed one too. The original Cypress shingles on that roof lasted for 131 years, and still show no signs of leakage. A tree fell on one end, and a prior owner put Terne tin on top of the shingles. We'll be replacing all the shingles with new ones out of old growth Heart Cypress. The beveled tops of the hip rafters under the remaining fantail hip shingles show no signs of water damage.

I like how these forums save pictures to be used when the occasion arises again.

[Jim Koepke]

I'll be building two mirror image ones out of plywood with not only variable angle fences, but variable angle for the tilt of the planes, to use up on a roof for Cypress shingle fantail hip shingles.

Instead of varying the tilt of the planes, varying the tilt of the work support might be easier.

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

For some quick work I have made platforms that sit on my large shooting board for cutting a lot of 45º miters. Sometimes a piece is just held at an angle by hand to give a quick chamfer.

jtk

[Tom M King]

Hinged some kind of way. It will need to have some variation of angle to it. I doubt there is a single plane on even one side of any part of that roof. I haven't had time to think about the details yet. It will probably be early this Fall until we get to the roof covering, so still a ways out.

[Daniel Rode]

If the melamine is flat it ought to work well enough. Mine is made from what I found lying around the shop. Some 1/2 baltic ply, 1/2 MDF and a couple of oak scraps. I'll probably use the same materials next time as it's held up nicely.

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[Steve H Graham]

The first thing I tried to use it on was too thick. Tools are so annoying! You get one ready to use, and you feel like you're ready to take on anything. Then you try to use it and immediately run into a limitation.