Planing a long bevel without a tail vise

[Tony Caro]

I need to make up some ramps so my mother can roll her walking frame in and out of rooms that have different floor heights. The typical length is 750 mm long, 90 mm wide and a ramp angle varying between 15 to 20 degrees depending on the room. The beveled edge needs to come to a feathered edge so that the walker can make a smooth transition from room to room. I don't have a tail vise on my bench and it's been a challenge to hold the material for planing. I have tried to hold the board in a long clamp but it becomes difficult to hold as the bevel grows and you lose surface area for the clamp. Any suggestions?

[Jim Koepke]

My first thought is a long shooting board.

Here is an old thread on a long shooting board that gave me the idea:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?43195-I-just-don-t-get-it-All-the-fuss-about-jointing-that-is

Instead of making it for jointing make the bed at an angle. With a pivot pin in the deck at each end it shouldn't be difficult to use shims to accommodate the few degrees of change you need.

This would work if you were only doing the leading edge and not trying to make a long wedge.

Another thought for making a wedge is to make a sticking board like used for molding:

https://blog.lostartpress.com/2016/09/01/the-sticking-board/

In your case the 'molding' is a sloped plane. Use wooden pegs instead of screws. For mine a few inches of thin hardwood is given a steep chamfer and then set in a shallow dado with the sharp end up and toward the work for a stop. The feather edge of the work can be a touch shifted from the stop so the plane doesn't contact the stop.

The fence along the back of the work could be mounted on dowels to allow shims to be used to change the heights to match the doorway heights. Then if all of your stock is the same size you can use the sticking board like a miter jack so the edges guide the plane of the plane.

jtk

[Chris Hachet]

I would use a wooden hand screw type clamp on the high edge of the "ramp" and then hold the side of the ramp between some 3/4 or 1/2 inch scraps held in place with hold fasts or Clamps.

This is why I like a split top workbench FWIW-every time I need to hold something of an odd shape having the split down the middle gives a ton of options.

Brian, the gentleman I share my shop with, builds guitars-there are an infinite number of ways to clamp wood of odd shapes to a bench if one is creative,a nd guitar necks certainly are not a traditional woodworking shape.

FWIW my bench does not have a tail vise either.

[Andy Nichols]

353684353684Have a tail vise, but for what you're talking about, as Jim suggests, use a long grain shooting board, it's fantastic for tapering and angles....here's mine, for size reference, that's a number 51 as the shooter. Excuse the double photo, having technical difficulties....

andy

[Oskar Sedell]

I would clamp a batten on the bench, supporting your board along its full length so that when you lay the board down only a mm or two is protruding over the edge of your bench. Then a dog or similar as planing stop and you don't have to clamp the board at all, just plane away until your bevel is formed.

[Derek Cohen]

I need to make up some ramps so my mother can roll her walking frame in and out of rooms that have different floor heights. The typical length is 750 mm long, 90 mm wide and a ramp angle varying between 15 to 20 degrees depending on the room. The beveled edge needs to come to a feathered edge so that the walker can make a smooth transition from room to room. I don't have a tail vise on my bench and it's been a challenge to hold the material for planing. I have tried to hold the board in a long clamp but it becomes difficult to hold as the bevel grows and you lose surface area for the clamp. Any suggestions?

Mark the taper, and saw away the waste with a panel saw or bandsaw.

Either clamp the pieces together to the side of your bench, or screw them there. Now plane until jointed flat.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[george wilson]

I taught my students to use 2 Jorgenson wooden clamps as vises on their workbenches(which they made,but had no vises yet. Those students NEVER tried drilling holes or defacing their benches in any way!)

Lay a Jorgension flat on the bench,near the edge. Take a vertical held Jorgenson and clamp the laid flat clamp to the bench by one jaw,so the other could still move. Then,you can take the laid flat jaw and use it to clamp vertically held wood in it. Use 2 setups,one for each end of the board. Plane the bevel on the side away from the vertical mounted clamp.

If you had 2 hold fasts,you could clamp the bevel you want to make right down the edge of the bench,provided you drill 2 holes in the appropriate places for the hold fasts to work.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I need to make up some ramps so my mother can roll her walking frame in and out of rooms that have different floor heights. The typical length is 750 mm long, 90 mm wide and a ramp angle varying between 15 to 20 degrees depending on the room. The beveled edge needs to come to a feathered edge so that the walker can make a smooth transition from room to room. I don't have a tail vise on my bench and it's been a challenge to hold the material for planing. I have tried to hold the board in a long clamp but it becomes difficult to hold as the bevel grows and you lose surface area for the clamp. Any suggestions?

Clamp a wide board of suitable thickness and length to the bench, with 90mm or so overhanging the edge. Holdfasts or (hand-screw) clamps with suitable reach are used to clamp at the back edge of the board. Plane the ramp on the front edge. Rip the ramp off, and repeat as needed....?

[Tony Caro]

Thank you so much for your replies. I didn't think that there'd be that many ways to solve the problem, I'm glad I came here and asked.