Vivaldi’s Planing Stop (“The Four Seasons” and wood movement)

[chris carter]

Just a little joke for the other music nerds out there.

Anyhoo, my bench is douglas fir (excellent bench material!!) and my planing stop is made from beech. I love it and it is probably tied with my holdfasts for most frequently used work holding tool.
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When I put it in it was moderately tight and it was great. Then a few months later it was so tight I was burning 800 calories trying to move it. I was forced to plane it down, not just so I could move it easier, but also because I wasn’t going to take any chance it could crack my 4” thick benchtop. All was good until the next movement of Vivaldi’s masterpiece. Now it was loose, and getting looser. As I would plane against it, it would very slowly shimmy its way down until the workpiece went flying down the bench! To fix this, I clamped a scrap of wood to the top stretcher (this is a S/T roubo) that was a little thicker than the gap between my planing stop and the stretcher. Then I stuck a thin piece of wood (ironically, I think it was a cut off from one of the legs that was hiding amongst some scraps!!) between the two. It presses the bottom of the planing stop forward which kicks the rear of the top (above the bench) back. It totally worked. I even glued a piece of leather to the wood spring, but I don’t think it really made a difference. I intended to replace the clamp with some screws or something, but because it was out of sight, it was out of mind.
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Alas, Vivaldi keeps playing music! Now the planing stop is perfectly tight again and my little contraption does nothing. I would remove it except that I know Vivaldi will make it loose again and I don’t want to have to search out another set of scraps. So it will stay.

[Scott Winners]

Seasonal movement has been exactly why I haven't put a planing stop like that in my Doug Fir benchtop.

I have been rethinking now that I have a larger leg vise to reach around. I have one of these at the end of my bench that worked great when I had this smaller vise in the leg/ face position.

I suspect your pictured spring clamp is going to be a strong contender for me.

[Warren Mickley]

I have used the same beech stop since 1979. It is usually loose in fall because it loses moisture faster than the bench top, and then tight in the spring because it gains moisture faster than the bench top.

It is nice to make the stop rather long. It is sometimes nice to cut back to a nice crisp front edge on the stop after much use, and making it extra long allows you to do this.

[Frederick Skelly]

Just a little joke for the other music nerds out there.

Anyhoo, my bench is douglas fir (excellent bench material!!) and my planing stop is made from beech. I love it and it is probably tied with my holdfasts for most frequently used work holding tool.
459655

When I put it in it was moderately tight and it was great. Then a few months later it was so tight I was burning 800 calories trying to move it. I was forced to plane it down, not just so I could move it easier, but also because I wasn’t going to take any chance it could crack my 4” thick benchtop. All was good until the next movement of Vivaldi’s masterpiece. Now it was loose, and getting looser. As I would plane against it, it would very slowly shimmy its way down until the workpiece went flying down the bench! To fix this, I clamped a scrap of wood to the top stretcher (this is a S/T roubo) that was a little thicker than the gap between my planing stop and the stretcher. Then I stuck a thin piece of wood (ironically, I think it was a cut off from one of the legs that was hiding amongst some scraps!!) between the two. It presses the bottom of the planing stop forward which kicks the rear of the top (above the bench) back. It totally worked. I even glued a piece of leather to the wood spring, but I don’t think it really made a difference. I intended to replace the clamp with some screws or something, but because it was out of sight, it was out of mind.
459656
Alas, Vivaldi keeps playing music! Now the planing stop is perfectly tight again and my little contraption does nothing. I would remove it except that I know Vivaldi will make it loose again and I don’t want to have to search out another set of scraps. So it will stay.

I wonder if you could insert a small/thin wedge to hold it tightly in the months when it fits loosely?

[chris carter]

I wonder if you could insert a small/thin wedge to hold it tightly in the months when it fits loosely?

You could, and that's a solution I found when I was trying to find a fix googling. The problem is that you have to fit the sliver of wood every time you adjust the stop. I also saw all kinds of wing nuts, added clamps, and all kinds of stuff. All of the solutions I found (other than planing it down when tight and gluing on some veneer when loose) required manual steps every time you adjust the stop. With the wooden spring I used you can't even tell anything was ever amiss in the first place - you wouldn't even know while working unless you look under the bench.

[Jim Matthews]

Not for nothing, but do you always deploy it at the same clearance above the bench surface?

If so, it could be readily "pinned" in place with a dowel the size of one chopstick.

[Aaron Liebling]

Why not make two (or four?), one for each season?

[Izzy Camire]

Chris,
I know this goes off topic a bit but where did you get the metal stop piece of your stop? Did you purchase it? If yes can you share where that was?
Izzy

[Warren Mickley]

Not for nothing, but do you always deploy it at the same clearance above the bench surface?

If so, it could be readily "pinned" in place with a dowel the size of one chopstick.

We raise and lower the stop for different situations. For planing stuff that is 1/8 thick or less the stop has to be very low so we can plane over it, but that will not work for a piece that is thicker and rough sawn. The stuff would jump over the stop. On occasion it is helpful to get the stop flush, out of the way entirely. In general we change the stop every time we change thickness of timber.

A stop needs to be able to be adjusted with a tap of a mallet; otherwise it is not working.

[Frederick Skelly]

Chris,
I know this goes off topic a bit but where did you get the metal stop piece of your stop? Did you purchase it? If yes can you share where that was?
Izzy

Here are a couple Izzy. Not the same ones he is showing though. From TFWW, LINK (https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/BT-PS.XX?searchterm=plane%20stop) and from Benchcrafted, LINK (https://www.benchcrafted.com/planingstop)

[Jim Ritter]

Here is what I did on my bench. If they are not too tight you can still adjust with a hammer.

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Jim

[lowell holmes]

https://blog.lostartpress.com/2020/04/02/install-a-planing-stop/

See this. :)

[Oskar Sedell]

I also have a doug fir top, and a cherry planing stop. It also varies over the year in how easy it is to move, but not so much to cause any troubles (never stuck). Maybe it would be a good idea to make the fit good towards the endgrain in the top, with maybe moves less, and a looser fit on the other two sides which are the long grain doug fir and supposedly moves less?

[chris carter]

Not for nothing, but do you always deploy it at the same clearance above the bench surface?

If so, it could be readily "pinned" in place with a dowel the size of one chopstick.

I raise the stop to different heights depending on what I need. Most of the time it could be at the same height of say 1/4" and work fine. But often I need it lower for thin stock, or higher if it's thick stock that is also short so it doesn't just tip on end. I also use the planing stop for other tasks. Sometimes I'll raise it really high and stop a piece of wood against the wood part of the stop. This is common when I have to cut a bunch of boards on the bench hook. When I make my "knife wall" or whatever you want to call it, I need something to but the board against to chisel that little wall in and with the stop being down at the end of the bench it's rather convenient. I also often press my strop against the side of it when touching up chisels/irons, which is frequent. It's there, so it's very convenient. It can do more than just be a toothed stop!

Regardless, even if it were just one height, a pin would require an extra step every time it's used. The beauty of a toothed planing stop is to just push it up and go, or push it down out of the way and go. If I had to insert a pin every time I'd use it a lot less.

[chris carter]

Why not make two (or four?), one for each season?

I like this. I'm actually going to make a separate bench for each season!! Actually, I should have four different fully outfitted woodshops!

[chris carter]

Chris,
I know this goes off topic a bit but where did you get the metal stop piece of your stop? Did you purchase it? If yes can you share where that was?
Izzy

I made it. It's just a piece of 1/4" mild steel from the home center store. Just cut the shape with a hack saw or whatever kind of saw (refine with a file), file the teeth, and drill the holes. It's basically like the Benchcrafted one except it cost about 5 cents. They use a complicated barrel system to secure it because you don't have much strength screwing into end grain. But you don't need that. Here's a pic with it raised and you can see I drilled a 1" hole and stuck an oak dowel in there for the screws to bite into. That did double my costs from 5 cents to 10 cents though! If you look carefully the metal is tilted up about 1 degree so you don't have the experience of missing the teeth only to have your plane whack the back (which would really suck with a wood plane).
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I did another one with a more traditional stem design on a different bench, but again I have no blacksmithing skills. So I cut the shape with the stem and just put a bend in it. I only have a propane torch, which doesn't get super hot, so it was slow going to make sure I didn't overstress the steel. It's 3/16th thick stock because I couldn't pull it off with 1/4" (couldn't get it hot enough - too thick for a propane torch to make a tight bend). I screwed up making the hole and it was loose so I resorted to epoxying it in.
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Neither of these were terribly time consuming to fabricate, even with my pathetic metal working skills (pretty much zero).

[chris carter]

Here is what I did on my bench. If they are not too tight you can still adjust with a hammer.

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Jim

Jim,
When I was searching for a solution I saw this as a common approach, typically using big wing nuts. Your's is MUCH more aesthetically pleasing!

[Jim Ritter]

Thanks Chris. Not hard to make, easier if you have a drill press. The head of the bolt is mortised and then a thin disc of wood is glued on top to hide the head. The holes to create the knob are drilled before the disc is cut out.

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Jim