Shooting board

[Greg Parrish]

Are the Veritas shooting board with cast iron miter gauge and their corresponding shooting plane a good set? It looks like Lie Nielsen sells a shooting plane (more $) but not a board and Rob Cosman sells a board that appears to use a bench plane.

I’d like to get a setup but wasn’t sure if there are better options. Thx.

[Tom M King]

The Veritas shooting plane is a wonderful tool. It's one of the few new planes I own, and the main reason I bought it, when needing one for a particular job, was because it was cheaper than the old Stanley's sell for. I'm sure that board is a nice piece too, even though I've never been in the presence of one. I made the boards I use, and they're easy to make.

The is a big difference between using one that rides in a contained track, and one that you have to keep pressed against the work piece, or at least, if you're going to use it to amount to anything.

[Curt Putnam]

I have both plane and board and love both. I have not experience with other stuff with the exception that I built an experimental board with Veritas track before buying the Veritas board.

[Jim Koepke]

How much shooting will you be doing and how varied will it be?

The Veritas set up is a fine but costly way to start out. If you do professional framing it might be a drop in the bucket.

For my projects shooting the end grain is done all of the time. My shooting boards are shop made and work fine.

Here are a few posts about them:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?130114

This was my second shooting board using a bench plane and later a low angle jack plane.

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?244777

This is about rebuilding the above shooting board to be ambidextrous. It also gets into shooting some angles.

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?157217

This one covers a donkey ear shooting board.

Derek Cohen also has some good information on making shooting boards on his website > http://www.inthewoodshop.com

jtk

[Prashun Patel]

I have the Veritas shooting plane and love it. The ergonomics of it make it a joy to use - not that it produces any better results than a bench plane. I like that it is purpose-built, and that the blade can be easily removed, and reset, and is skewed. The handle is comfortable and the mass and skew make it easy to push.

I do not own the Veritas board, but I do own the track, which I also like. I made my own board and fence though, as well as fixed accessories for shooting 45 deg angles (frames) and 45 deg bevels (boxes).

I will say that having used several shop made shooting boards, the fence is probably the most critical of all the parts. If it's not at 90, then the smoothest track and the massiest, comfortablest plane won't save the frustration of a poor fit. So, if the Veritas fence takes that pain out of the equation, it may be worth the price.

[Greg Parrish]

Well rather than investing in a kapex with stand and wings to try to get precision trim (which I don’t have room for anyway), and rather than always having to turn to my folder slider for these cuts I’m thinking of combining hand saw and cheap single bevel miter saw for quick cuts close to size and then the shooting board to bring it to the line. I do projects all over the board so not everything would require it but I’d like to incorporate the approach for Improved accuracy In projects that would benefit from it. I like the Veritas approach to their board.

[Tom M King]

Here is one I built from scrap Corian, and Oak scraps. Since that one, several more were made from plywood, and Poplar.

[Mike Henderson]

Shooting boards are pretty easy to make. A plane with some weight and a very sharp blade go well with the shooting board. A plane with a skewed blade is really nice but can be expensive.

Some people make shooting boards with ramps for the plane but that's not the same as using a plane with a skewed blade.

Mike

[Tom M King]

The boards are pretty easy to make. I always want two fixed ones-one at dead on 90 degrees, and one dead on 45 degrees. I don't want to be chasing after those angles.

[Thomas Wilson]

I made a shooting board for the LN shooting plane. Striking a blow against pure-blooded elitism, I used the Veritas track with it. I will post a separate thread tomorrow when I am back in Atlanta and can take a picture of it. Needless to say both track and plane work well but there was a trap laid by the fine people at Veritas for cross breeders like me.

I will say shooting boards are a great aid to compensate for hand saw inaccuracy which I very much need.

[Chet R Parks]

I have the Tico Voigt ramped shooting board working with the LV shooting plane. A joy to use and IMO you can't go wrong with LV tools. However, more often than not I made and use one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwYJhfChDdM for the shooting board and use the LV miter Plane. The position of the horn and the weight of the miter plane along with the fast setup of the shooting board produces the same results. It's not a "better" option just a different option that produces square corners and straight edges.
Chet

[Greg Parrish]

I have the Tico Voigt ramped shooting board working with the LV shooting plane. A joy to use and IMO you can't go wrong with LV tools. However, more often than not I made and use one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwYJhfChDdM for the shooting board and use the LV miter Plane. The position of the horn and the weight of the miter plane along with the fast setup of the shooting board produces the same results. It's not a "better" option just a different option that produces square corners and straight edges.
Chet

thanks and holy cow those tico boards are pricey!

[Derek Cohen]

Are the Veritas shooting board with cast iron miter gauge and their corresponding shooting plane a good set? It looks like Lie Nielsen sells a shooting plane (more $) but not a board and Rob Cosman sells a board that appears to use a bench plane.

I’d like to get a setup but wasn’t sure if there are better options. Thx.

Greg, if you plan to get either the Veritas or LN #51-type shooting planes, then the best design for these is a flat shooting board and not a ramped board. These shooting planes have a 20 degree skew blade, and no further skew is needed for a sliced cut. The ramped boards are designed to aid shooting planes with straight blades.

Straight bladed shooting plane with ramped board ...

https://i.postimg.cc/cHp1TTry/Buildinga-Strike-Block-Plane-html-6e20bb98.jpg

Skew-bladed shooting plane on a flat board ...

https://i.postimg.cc/7PSKmwwK/LVShooting-Plane-html-mb21477a.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Monte Milanuk]

Derek,

I thought I'd seen the more even wearing of the blade cited as a primary virtue of a ramped shooting board (assuming most people are cutting mostly cabinet parts of a fairly narrow range of thickness), more so than a skewed cutting angle? Wouldn't a miter plane on a ramped board have both - a skewed cut *and* use more of the edge?

Never used either, so I'm just asking.

Thanks,

Monte

[Jim Koepke]

I thought I'd seen the more even wearing of the blade cited as a primary virtue of a ramped shooting board (assuming most people are cutting mostly cabinet parts of a fairly narrow range of thickness), more so than a skewed cutting angle?

A skewed cut is helpful in getting a cleaner cut with a slight reduction in physical effort. The spreading of the wear on the blade would not be very great unless the board was made to enable the plane to move up or down enough to use the whole width of the blade on the piece being cut.


These shooting planes have a 20 degree skew blade, and no further skew is needed for a sliced cut.

My understanding is the Veritas and the Lie-Nielsen planes have different blade bedding angles. This has been making me lean toward purchasing the Veritas over the Lie-Nielsen. There hasn't been an opportunity for me to try the Veritas Shooting Plane. At the last LN Tool event in Portland the LN #51 was set up for attendees to test drive. It surprised me how much easier it was to shoot end grain with it compared to my LN #62. My biggest point of contention is whether to invest in the right hand or left hand version. My tender right shoulder is edging the decision toward the LH version being a better choice.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Maybe go out looking for the Stanley No. 51/52? For those that need such things.....

[Chet R Parks]

Jim,
Derek, of course is correct, for best results use a skewed blade with flat boards and a straight blade with ramped boards. With your shoulder condition you might want to take a second look at the LV miter plane. With a 12* bed angle, hand and horn just behind the blade, vary low center of gravity, a weight of 5 pounds and can be used left or right handed make it an excellent shooting plane especially with a ramped board. The LV shooting plane is also excellent but in your situation you are faced with a right or left hand decision. I hope at some point you get a chance to test both side by side. Like you always say maybe someone living close by to you will let you try theirs, good luck.

[James Spillman]

I'm not meaning to hijack the thread. I have a question about the LV shooting board being used with a LV low angle jack plane. I'm thinking of buying the LV shooting board. I would be using the LV low angle jack with the shooting board. I'm wondering if this plane fits the track of the shooting board properly. At a later time I intend to purchase the LV shooting plane, but for now I'm wondering if the LV low angle jack will work nicely with the LV shooting board.

[Jim Koepke]

Maybe go out looking for the Stanley No. 51/52? For those that need such things.....

Anyone interested? There is a #51/52 currently listed on ebay. It can be yours for only $1900 plus shipping, such a deal.

jtk

[David Bassett]

Anyone interested? There is a #51/52 currently listed on ebay. It can be yours for only $1900 plus shipping, such a deal.

jtk

If you want a "user", Patrick Leach has one for $265 on his December list. No tote, a crack with a "perfect weld", and in his photo you can see something that sorta' looks like a plane under the rust. For a better copy, Jim Bode has one that looks pretty good for $495 right now. (And several for $1K+ with #52 Chute.)

Or maybe $350 for the Veritas model (almost) ready to use out of the box isn't such a bad deal...?

[Tom M King]

That's exactly how I justified buying the Veritas, and I ended up being pleased that the old Stanleys were overpriced.