Planing stop. Where on the bench?

[Kees Heiden]

Last week I made a traditional planing stop.
http://seekelot.blogspot.nl/2015/10/and-little-bit-of-blacksmithing.html

It is the type which is normally hamered into the endgrain of a wooden stop, which fits in a mortise at the end of the bench. Like pictured in this image from Roubo.

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Now my question is, where to cut a hole in the bench? More exactly, how far from the front edge is a nice position? What do you find usefull?

[Matthew N. Masail]

I can't open your link right now but looking forward to seeing it when I get home! For position It depends in how long your bench is. On a short bench I put it as far left as possible usually left of the face vise. On a longer bench could put it to the right of the vise. The only thing for me is to make sure it's not so far left of the vise that the vise gets in your way, that depends which vise you have but all in all I haven't had any issues

P.s forgot to mention depth, I put mine about 3" in, which is in line with my dog holes. A dog hole which ends up in line with the front if the stop takes care if wider boards as does a batted somewhere

[Steve Voigt]

Hey Kees,
Here is a thread with some responses:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?231764-Planing-stop-location
and here is Schwarz:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?231764-Planing-stop-location

[Kees Heiden]

Those links are the same Steve! I guess you mean this one?

http://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/08/13/french-oak-workbench-the-planing-stop/

So, all in all, about 3 to 4 inches from the front of the bench. That'll do.

My interpretation is pretty crude. The taper isn't great, the head sits off center on the spike, and I still don't get the bend very square because my upsetting skills are pretty lousy. But I guess it is still functional depite the shortcomings. Next month I enter a blacksmithing beginners course and hope to get a little better.

[Robert Engel]

There is no rule for things like this it is strictly personal preference.
It depends on where you like to stand when planing.
Toward end or in middle doesn't matter.

I would recommend 2 because with a wider board the wood will want to skew away while planing unless you keep changing where the holder is. Clamp has to be in line with direction of planing, in other words.

I would just use an existing doghole and try it out.

[Warren Mickley]

Andre Roubo says three inches from the edge and about a foot from the end. I have used three and a quarter inches since 1979. Roubo's stop is three inches wide so the center of his stop is 4 1/2 from the edge; mine stop is two inches wide so the center is 4 1/4 from the edge. My stop is 7 1/2 from the end; you don't want it too close because of the danger of splitting.

[Kees Heiden]

I think that my dogholes are about 4" from the edge. So I will probably enlarge the last one for this purpose.

[Kees Heiden]

And ther it is, 4" from the frontedge. The block of oak is a very tight fit. I added a bit of relief into the benchtop so the teeth can sink below the surface when not in use.

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I tried it a bit and it works, but think it would be better if it was even a little wider. The teeth are now about 1" wide. But I don't know the size of similar planing stops.

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[Pat Barry]

Andre Roubo says three inches from the edge and about a foot from the end. I have used three and a quarter inches since 1979. Roubo's stop is three inches wide so the center of his stop is 4 1/2 from the edge; mine stop is two inches wide so the center is 4 1/4 from the edge. My stop is 7 1/2 from the end; you don't want it too close because of the danger of splitting.
Just curious Warren, was Roubo a woodworker or a book writer?

[Warren Mickley]

Yes, Roubo was a cabinetmaker. His family owned a business that catered to very wealthy clients. He wrote a three volume work on woodworking: Architectural woodworking. furniture making, carriage making, garden furniture, and veneer and marquetry. Even the garden furniture is very complex work. Besides knowing the trade he produced measured drawings with scales and detailed information in the text. The current question, the distance from the stop to the edge, is the kind of small thing Roubo thought important enough to document.

[Pat Barry]

Yes, Roubo was a cabinetmaker. His family owned a business that catered to very wealthy clients. He wrote a three volume work on woodworking: Architectural woodworking. furniture making, carriage making, garden furniture, and veneer and marquetry. Even the garden furniture is very complex work. Besides knowing the trade he produced measured drawings with scales and detailed information in the text. The current question, the distance from the stop to the edge, is the kind of small thing Roubo thought important enough to document.
Thanks Warren, Very interesting story!

[Kees Heiden]

Now I have this thing I wonder about how it should be setup. Mr. Roubo mentions that the teeth should only protrude 6-8 "lines" beyond the edge of the oak block. The reason he gives is that the teeth would otherwise be exposed to breaking (which I find highly unlickely because these are sturdy devices).

A line is about a mm if I remember correctly. Now I was thinking, the block of wood is wider then the toothed hook. What if the pieces of wood to be planned were supported by both the teeth AND the front edge of the block of wood? That would increase the stability under plane forces that are not directly in line with the planing stop.

[Warren Mickley]

In English, a line is 1/12 of an inch. In French, a ligne is 1/12 of a pouce. We routinely translate pouce as inch, but in fact it is slightly larger than an inch, about 27 mm. So Roubo's ligne is about 2.25 mm and the teeth on his bench stop protrude 13.5 to 18 mm (1/2 to 3/4 or so).

One thing you will have to get used to is planing in line with the stop. For wider boards, we move the board on the fly as we work across its width. Years ago we had a couple to dinner and then the fellow, a woodworker, wanted to try one of my planes. He laid his plate of pie on the bench across from the stop and on the first pass, board, plate and pie went flying. The fork survived.

[Kees Heiden]

:)
That's funny about the pie. I can relate to that, pieces have suddenly pivotted on me too when using a simple planing stop.

So, a line is close to 2 mm. That makes the teeth protruding indeed too far to support my little theory.

[Steve Voigt]

I often plane against a single round dog, which can rotate rather easily. So a square planing stop would actually be an improvement for me. :)

[Dan Duperron]

Kees,

I'm curious why you started out with a round bar instead of square? Perhaps you didn't have any square around? It seems it would be easier to create a square tapered section starting with a square, but I'm no blacksmith so maybe there is more to it.

Peter Ross makes this stuff look easy, but I know it isn't. I'd like to try blacksmithing someday.

-Dan

[Kees Heiden]

Indeed, I didn't have any square stock lying around. The trick is to turn the stock exactly 90 degrees back and forth on each one or two hammer strokes. I don't have a problem creating a nice short taper, about the width of my hammer, but extending it over the a longer piece is somehow very tricky.