A Gigantic Shooting Board!

[Derek Cohen]

The hall table for my niece was completed and delivered, but the wedding was postponed owing to Covid-19. Australia locked down early, and we have suffered less than other countries.


I realised early on that I would have to change the way I ran my psychology practice, and began to research and gear up for Telehealth using video. I found this quite stressful as I intensely dislike using the telephone (and cannot avoid doing so through the day), fearing that video may have the same impersonal feel. It has been reassuring that it has turned out quite a decent experience, and it will usher in changes in the future for consultations. Distance and mobility may become barriers of the past.


Still, the past 6 weeks have been exhausting. Working in front of a screen is intense. I've probably put in 15 hour days owing to the extra admin needed.


What has this got to do with woodworking? Well, I really haven't made it into the workshop until about two weekends ago. It is a refuge from the stresses of the world, and I can chill out just tinkering. I managed to tune up all my machines. Do you know that bicycle lights are the best lights for drill presses and bandsaws? Got a couple of them. Attached a spare Wixey to the bandsaw. Love it! Made a rack for router bits. This is sounding desperate. My energy levels are too low to tackle the painting Lynndy wants me to do. I really just want to push a plane around.


Blame Rod Cosman. He has a daily video on building drawers. If you can ignore the constant sales pitches, Rob is one of the good guys, and there is always something to pick up. I would watch one episode after the last patient was done, with a coffee and my feet up. <sigh>


Well, Rob was using this large shooting board. He likes to shoot with a #5 1/2. The board was nothing special, but it reminded me of a project I had thought about some time back - a shooting board for tuning the long edges of drawer sides. Keep in mind that the drawers I build tend to have sides 6-8mm thick. You cannot plane this accurately in a vise (well, only Warren can). I must say that Rob demonstrated wonderfully precise work, and this rubbed off on me. Hence the interest in creating a shooting board for long edges.


Numbers: the runway to the fence is 750mm. The total length is about 880mm. The total width is 450mm. This is a large shooting board. Yet I can reach down it. It is not cumbersome to use. Its principal use is long side edges, but it can shoot ends as well (not to forget that I have a shooting board and plane dedicated to shooting ends).


https://i.postimg.cc/3xBHtBRg/X1.jpg


Solid wood? Well, sort of. The choices are MDF and ply. MDF is really not a great choice as it had a hard exterior (good) but soft interior which does its best to imitate a sponge when water is nearby (very bad). It is also very heavy. The plywood in Oz is .. well .. cr@p. There really is no other word to describe it. It is light, since full of voids, and generally looks like a pretzel. It is possible to purchase marine ply, but it is very expensive. My local Bunnings had these laminated panels on special, and they were cheaper than the unspeakable ply. The thicker panels are Merbau, which is heavy and hard. The lighter stuff is unknown and softer. The laminations will minimise movement.


The panels were all 300mm wide (12" for those who have not yet entered the modern era). One-and-a half panels made up the base. These were planed down on the jointer and thicknesser, and then joined level with the aid of biscuits (yes, I have one .. damn useful they remain, when most traded theirs in for a Domino. So silly of you .... I have a Domino as well. These machines do different things). I digress. Glued up ...


https://i.postimg.cc/jSKb69sx/X2.jpg


I use mild steel section (covered in tape) for cauls.


As good as the results may be out of the thickness/planer, the surface is not going to be flat. I have not used this Marcou in yonks. Traversing to flatten across the grain ...


https://i.postimg.cc/JhzCvkDS/X3.jpg


Winding sticks are used to check for twist ...


https://i.postimg.cc/1tLx87CZ/X4.jpg


The high spots are marked and planed off ...


https://i.postimg.cc/0jmTDGFK/X5.jpg


For fun, I decided to enter the 21st century. Behold, the new winding sticks ...


https://i.postimg.cc/1tgh51KH/X6.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/5tKWV28y/X7.jpg


Then it was the turn of the runway. What are the chances that it runs parallel to the platform?


Here are two squares on the platform. There is no gap between them as the panel is flat and level ...


https://i.postimg.cc/7P28FDhP/X8.jpg


Now when I take them over to the runway, it can be seen that this is not parallel ...


https://i.postimg.cc/bNfc8MSx/X9.jpg


The next task is to plane the runway, checking along its length ... until you get this ...


https://i.postimg.cc/9FP3fpyv/X10.jpg

[Derek Cohen]

Next step: remove the fence from a Small Plow (plough!) and run a 1/4" groove along the side of the runway/base of the platform ...


https://i.postimg.cc/t49Knx57/X11.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/CK19mp9g/X12.jpg


This is for dust, to keep the corner of the runway clear.


Next step: shoot the rebate for the blade. I use a Veritas LA Jack. It does not matter much as I have three planes I could use, and the other two (seen shortly) have similar dimensions (the blade is about 6mm above the sole) ...


https://i.postimg.cc/kgwkQg1s/X13.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/MGFNLr8j/X14.jpg


This electrified router plane was used to create mortices for T-slots ..


https://i.postimg.cc/C1nXpHFr/X15.jpg


Now the fence could be attached. It is aligned with the blade rebate, and squared to a plane. I use a little glue to set it, then screw it on from above and below ...


https://i.postimg.cc/kGrZJ6GJ/X16.jpg


Here is the side fence being morticed ...


https://i.postimg.cc/C5j2zhnj/X17.jpg


Finally ... ! Here is the shooting board ...


https://i.postimg.cc/XNFm281p/X18.jpg


Shooting the sides of a drawer with a Veritas Custom #7 (the advantage of this plane is that it has a 40 degree frog, so can shoot end grain, plus with the chipbreaker it will plane sides very cleanly) ...


https://i.postimg.cc/L6p7G1Gv/X19.jpg


Remove the side fence, close up the outer runner, and use the LN #51 to shoot ends ...


https://i.postimg.cc/L637SspS/X20.jpg


The underside of the board is covered in rubber underlay ...


https://i.postimg.cc/nhVWhtFD/X21.jpg


This is as the long shooting board with live under the table saw and be used on the outboard ...


https://i.postimg.cc/g2MTwBjB/X22.jpg


I am not sure if this build was just a way of having some fun, or whether it will get serious use. Either way, it was time well spent.


Stay safe.


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Bill Carey]

Great idea Derek - and another nice build. In the third to last photo - what planes are those/

And WTH is a yonk??

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work as usual Derek.

A long shooting board is another of my 'round tuit' projects.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

I know a couple of Dash 8 pilots what could land on that, with a headwind.

[Jim Matthews]

Great idea Derek - and another nice build. In the third to last photo - what planes are those/

And WTH is a yonk??
Years, mONths or weeKs, the unit of time required to locate a round toit.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I know a couple of Dash 8 pilots what could land on that, with a headwind.

Any Navy throttle-bender could handle this landing.

And y’all are corrupting me ...but I think I could earn forgiveness in 5-7 yrs, of course after I repay my sons’ college funds.

[Stephen Rosenthal]

I’ve had one of those for years. Use it with my LV shooter primarily for long edge grain work, but can be used for end grain as well. Baltic Birch for platform and underlay, quartersawn white oak for both the adjustable fence and adjustable channel fence. Almost identical design as Derek’s, but didn’t think about a sawdust channel until after it was built. Since it is screwed and glued I lived with it until seeing how Derek did his. Since I have the LV small plow plane I just added the channel.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Nice job. I have a cruder version of this, and it is useful if you need to make a bunch of boards exactly the same width and can't use or don't have a planer. In those cases it beats using a marking gauge and planing to a line. I had a design where I needed to make 6 pairs of planks with each pair at oddly specific widths like 5 7/64". I could use this jig and set the fence quickly to the dimension with a combination square registered off the rabbet wall created by the plane- very accurate and repeatable. A japanese Kanna is very nice and ergonomic for this kind of setup.

[Jim Matthews]

Any Navy throttle-bender could handle this landing.

And y’all are corrupting me ...but I think I could earn forgiveness in 5-7 yrs, of course after I repay my sons’ college funds.
Seek forgiveness, not permission.

[David Eisenhauer]

I see this shooting board married up to the The Dreadnaught! Now we would be talking shooting for the big dogs - little dogs stay up on the porch and need not apply.

[Derek Cohen]

There were a number of photos and comments I might have added, but thought that I had probably said too much already. One of the photos omitted was with clamps.


I decided against the T-track style clamps here (as some may know, I have used them elsewhere) as they are too directional, which limits their range of cover.


The side fence does not just travel parallel to the runway, but can be angled so, for example, one can hold an out-of-square board or deliberately plane a taper. As the end of the board will not sit flush against the far fence, clamps are helpful to prevent movement (this is unnecessary when the side fence is parallel).


The clamps can be moved along the side fence, as needed. That is the reason for the many holes you see ...


https://i.postimg.cc/nL73JN0y/X23.jpg


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Thomas Wilson]

There were a number of photos and comments I might have added, but thought that I had probably said too much already. One of the photos omitted was with clamps.


I decided against the T-track style clamps here (as some may know, I have used them elsewhere) as they are too directional, which limits their range of cover.


The side fence does not just travel parallel to the runway, but can be angled so, for example, one can hold an out-of-square board or deliberately plane a taper. As the end of the board will not sit flush against the far fence, clamps are helpful to prevent movement (this is unnecessary when the side fence is parallel).


The clamps can be moved along the side fence, as needed. That is the reason for the many holes you see ...


https://i.postimg.cc/nL73JN0y/X23.jpg


Regards from Perth


Derek
As always, your work is carefully thought out and built with highest skill. One question, do you have to be careful not to hit a knuckle on the track fence’s bolt heads when you use a bench plane? It looks like there is not much clearance between the tote and the fence.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Thomas. You are very kind.

The bolt heads are quite far away. The side fence is about 3" wide, and the bolts are near the side of the runway.

https://i.postimg.cc/wTJGddNH/X25.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Christopher Charles]

Hi Derek,

Good to hear your practice can continue and a bummer to have to spend so much time on the computer! Strange times we are in.

Great looking board and have considered the same idea. For bringing multiple boards to the same width, I presume you remove the fence capturing the plane. Or am I missing something?

Best,
Chris

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Derek,

....For bringing multiple boards to the same width, I presume you remove the fence capturing the plane. Or am I missing something?

Best,
Chris

Yes. Then plane until the shavings stop. This works very well.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Christopher Charles]

Perfect! Looking forward to seeing your next project.

Best,
Chris

[William Fretwell]

It seems you want to plane drawer edges square. In the past I have put pairs of drawer sides together to plane the edge so they end up the same and gives you more edge to balance the plane on. That seems to be the easy part! Getting the thickness of drawer sides consistent is more difficult, especially with reversing grain.

[Derek Cohen]

I posted this at WoodCentral, where Steve Voigt was questioning if the Veritas #7 was big enough .. and so he produced a large plane. :)

But I had an even larger plane ... heh heh :D


https://i.postimg.cc/3J58qFMd/X31.jpg


I made this some years ago. 36" long Jarrah body. 3" wide E.A. Berg blade bedded at 50 degrees. Bloody heavy!


Alongside a Veritas Custom #7 ...


https://i.postimg.cc/dQ73p0LS/X27.jpg


On the shooting board, planing edges ..


https://i.postimg.cc/x1QdXygW/X29.jpg


https://i.postimg.cc/nh1hBjPM/X28.jpg


I must tell you that this is AMAZING! It powers through anything and everything ..


Regards from Perth


Derek

[William Fretwell]

Seems to be a large solution looking for a problem, Lee Valley would be proud of you! :).

[Derek Cohen]

William, just a bit of fun .. a giggle.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Prashun Patel]

Derek, I'm wrapping my head around the fence that captures the shooting plane. Christopher got me thinking. Sorry if this is an obvious point... Please confirm:

You EITHER use the adjustable parallel fence (for planing to a particular line) or the plane-body constraining fence (to reduce the thickness a little bit).

Seems you'd use the adjustable fence for initial work, and then the other one for final dialing in/tweaking. No?

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Prashun

It works like this ...

The side fence captures the plane and guides it along the side wall of the run way ...

Here is the Stanley #52 shooting board with trapped Veritas Shooting Plane ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ToolReviews/LVShootingPlane_html_96d40f8.jpg

Here is the Big Board with LN #51 ...

https://i.postimg.cc/wTJGddNH/X25.jpg

This set up is for shooting end grain. The plane is trapped and must shoot along the edge of the platform. The work piece is placed against the fence and then pushed into the plane. This continues until the plane has created a full shaving along the length of the end to the desired line.

The purpose of the adjustable side fence is to (1) trap a range of planes of different widths, and (2) to pull it out of the way when planing long sides.

The side fence is not wanted when planing long sides of boards. In this scenario, the side of the platform acts as a depth stop for planing. Consequently, the side of the work piece will hang over the platform. The platform fence will hold the workpiece in position (just like a sticking board ....

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/AdjustableStickingBoard2_html_m53fffdcf.jpg

But a sticking board is for planing inside the board. Here I am planing a groove for a drawer ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/AdjustableStickingBoard2_html_m6d3441d5.jpg

A slight digression, but the illustration is to expand the understanding.

The question may be asked "how do you set the platform fence?". The answer is one of two ways: either simply mark the work piece and align the marks with the edge of the platform, or use a depth stop rule to do this ...

https://i.postimg.cc/0j6fV3MX/X24.jpg


So now we have the work piece overhanging the edge ...

https://i.postimg.cc/nL73JN0y/X23.jpg

The plane will take that down and stop planing when it is aligned with the side of the platform.

In summary: the trapped plane shoots end grain and the untrapped plane shoots long sides.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks, just as a I thought: <duh moment alert>: you can't use both fences simultaneously.

Where'd you get that ruler depth gauge ?

Got to get me one.

[Derek Cohen]

Prashun, the ruler is made by Shinwa. I purchased mine in Oz: https://www.japanesetools.com.au/collections/measuring-tools/products/set-of-shinwa-ruler-stops

I am sure you can pick them up in lots of places.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks, just as a I thought: <duh moment alert>: you can't use both fences simultaneously.

Where'd you get that ruler depth gauge ?

Got to get me one.

There is more than one way to get a ruler depth stop:

432377

They are not difficult to make.

432378

This one came from ebay

One, or more, can be purchased at Lee Valley > https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/marking-and-measuring/marking-accessories/53825-veritas-ruler-stop

jtk

[Will Blick]

As always, thx Derek for taking the time to share your knowledge / projects so eloquently to the ww community. Both a large shooting board and the long jointer plane have been on my hit list, and your post certainly provided some great insights for my future builds. My builds never measure up to yours, but I keep trying!

BTW, you do such a nice job presenting the process of your build and demonstrating the usefulness of accessories you build. I have learned so much from your posts through the years. I know writing a book is a time sink, but have you ever considering writing one? Your excellent prose and pix would make for such a great neander show n tell, a read n reference book. In this field, it will be enjoyed for many many years as technology wont trump your knowledge. I dont think the accessory build specifics are mandatory, but rather all the neander tools, accessories and tricks you utilize to complete tasks that are unique and therefore not easily solvable for most ww, specially newbs. Of course, specifics on hand planes, sharpening, etc, well, those chapters are mostly done with so many of your written web contributions.
I can certainly understand you wanting to spend more time in the shop....just a thought.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks for the kind words Will. It is a nice compliment.

The fact is that I am not knowledgeable enough for this. Perhaps one day. I often tease Warren and give him a hard time, but he is correct to raise 18th woodworking for technique. My own methods are a bastardisation of these, at times, but generally I think back to them when in doubt.

There are so many modern books on all this stuff, and I rarely look at it ... which is the reason I end up re-inventing the wheel so much of the time. Actually, that is one of the fun bits. But it is not necessarily a good model for others. I screw up and then have to find a fix. I am good at that :)

Perhaps one day a couple of us will team up to write a modern version of Mechanick Exercises.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

I screw up and then have to find a fix. I am good at that

Supposedly a wise person once said, "the difference between an amatuer and a proffissional is how they handle mistakes."

jtk

[Hilton Ralphs]

Thanks, just as a I thought: <duh moment alert>: you can't use both fences simultaneously.

Where'd you get that ruler depth gauge ?



Lee Valley have a couple which are similar. I have a cheap plastic one that doesn't stay put so it may be better to get a better one.

Veritas Ruler Stop (https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/marking-and-measuring/marking-accessories/53825-veritas-ruler-stop)

Czeck (https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/marking-and-measuring/marking-accessories/67290-czeck-edge-ruler-stop)Edge Ruler Stop