Explain shooting board to me like I'm 5 years old!

[Thomas Colson]

I'm recovering from a hernia op, which has me somewhat limited to what I can do in the shop, and to prevent further injury, DR (also a WW) has approved "plane tuning" as an activity. On my list of skills to acquire is a shooting board. I understand the basic concept: Make the end of a piece "square". But as usual, I over think things before I do them.


The making square part seems to be a no brainer, assuming your fence is square, blade is sharp, and plane body is square, etc. If it's not coming out square, there are well-documented solutions and videos
The dimension part is what trips me up. So let's say I have 4 pieces of cherry, all 12" long, 3" wide, 3/4" thick that came off the table saw. I now want to square up the ends because let's say my x-cut sled isn't square (or what ever reason my milling process isn't producing square ends). So to the shooting board they go, but now, after shaving down the ends of these 4 pieces, which is removing material, I now have 4 pieces that are 12-x long, where for each piece, x is a different # depending on how many passes it took to square it


Do you see my dilemma? So what's the trick? Mill them all to 12 1/8" inches and sneak up on a perfect 12 on the shooting board? Shoot each piece and dry fit "till it fits"?

[Luke Dupont]

You are thinking like a machinist and not a hand-tool woodworker.

I don't have a clue exactly how long any of the pieces I use are most of the time. I don't measure, beyond initially cutting to rough length. I don't rely on measuring to get any sequential pieces to the correct length.

All you need is for them to be the same length.

I crosscut using a handsaw and leave a few millimeters extra in length, or if I have a knife wall, I cut just shy of that knife wall. I then shoot one piece, until its square. Then I shoot the other pieces to match the length of the first piece. If one turns out shorter, I trim the longer ones to match the shortest piece. If I need a specific length for it to fit somewhere, I use a knife wall all the way around the board and cut carefully almost right up to that wall with a hand saw, and there's almost no shooting necessary.

This is the same principle no matter what you do. What do you do when you cut dovetails? Leave a little extra on the saw and then trim it down until it fits. Same thing with basically every process.

Take your measurements from the pieces themselves. Leave a little extra on the saw -- not too much, but just enough, because you don't want to be shooting endgrain forever. Then, trim it down to where it needs to be, until it "fits."

[Jim Koepke]

Hi Thomas, if exact dimensioning is important, then yes you have to cut long and then trim (shoot) to your exact dimension.

Your status is "Member" which means you can not view images posted through SMC unless they are linked from a site off of SMC. All the images of my projects showing how a shooting board is used to make pieces exactly the same length are not available to you with out paying $6 to upgrade your status to "Contributor."

To simplify it into words all the pieces that are to be the same length are compared to find the shortest piece. This one after the ends are perfected on the shooting board is the "master," for comparison. Then all the rest of the pieces have their ends cleaned up on the shooting board to match the "master." If one of the pieces for some reason ends up shorter than the master, it then becomes the master as long as it isn't so short as to require a new piece to be cut.

If both ends are being cut on the errant cross cut sled, then the extra length only needs to be a hair or two more than two times the error for perfect length cutting.

Comparing lengths is easy by standing the pieces on end on a flat level surface. This comparison method can also be used to evaluate how well the shooting board squared up the ends.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

It appears Luke answered while my answer was being typed.

Our answers are pretty much the same, though he did mention not depending on a tape measure.

My wood working had its greatest improvement by setting the tape measure aside.

A story stick works much better for me when making multiple pieces of the same size.

jtk

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I use the term broadly and perhaps incorrectly for using a known straight edge to obtain a straight edge on the work piece.

[James Pallas]

I try not to depend on a shooting board for sizing. I try to saw to the line carefully. If using a pencil line I try to stay right on the edge and not go into the line. If my sawing is good I don’t go to the board at all. If I’m a little off it should be long so then the board is used. Standing the pieces on end to check works great. I do use a shooting board for angles more than straight work or when i know that the end grain will be exposed. As Jim mentioned I like story poles (sticks) and not tapes or rules. As Luke said I don’t get machinist about woodworking. I do some of that also but don’t mix the tools or the tolerances for the work.
Jim

[mike stenson]

My wood working had its greatest improvement by setting the tape measure aside.


Yes, Jim is correct. Measuring induces error.

[Scott Clausen]

Think of a shooting board as a way to true up the end of stock by thousands of an inch. The overall length shouldn't change much unless you are way off in the first place. Shooting is not a real easy task if you are trying to remove bulk, it can be a lot of work then. All the comments above about the exact measurement is not critical just that they are the same is spot on. Paul sellers has a nice scrap wood shooting board that is nice and you will want a nice plane to ride on it. Be careful in you recovery, shooting with a plane is much more work than tuning a plane if I read your post correctly. Best of luck!

[Thomas McCurnin]

I watched Rob Cossman fit a box lid with a shooting board, starting at about 39:58 That little 5 minute section explains the benefits of a shooting board more than words can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87vbqCQUigE

[Andrew Hughes]

What I do to precisely measure parts I want the same length is lay them next to each other and use my finger tips. I can feel when they are the same length.
Good Luck

[steven c newman]

If'n I wanted a stack of parts to be all the same length....I gang them up, and cut them all at once...

There IS Chuting Board in the shop.....somewhere....haven't used it in a few years...don't even remember when that was...

Maybe about the time I learned how to actually saw a part....I no longer needed that thing.

I either saw to the line, or I might even split the line....miter cuts are done as they should be....on the Stanley No. 356 Mitre Box....at whatever angle is needed, at that.....otherwise, it will give me 100% square, 90 degree cuts.....

[Charles Guest]

Ends to be shot, in a vice or on a board doesn't matter, are chamfered on the exit side to prevent blowout on the exit cut. The board is then ripped to final width which takes out the chamfers and any damage that might have occurred during shooting. If for some reason you don't have enough width to work with, a screw-up basically, you clamp on a waste piece of wood to take the exit damage and shoot it in the vice. You can plane in from each corner. This is tedious and slow and shouldn't be your regular approach. When shooting (vice or board) only the second end is knifed - the one that brings the board to final length. Again, this saves time. The knifing is not so much to produce a clean arris as it definitively marks the EXACT length the board needs to be. If your plane is not producing clean end grain work, the plane needs attention. This is not the same as knifing tenon shoulders. We're shooting to length, remember. Narrow workpieces, for one hopes are obviousl reasons, are best shot on a board, if they need shooting at all - whatever miter saw facility is available (manual or power) should be able to produce a dead square end on a narrow workpiece. A narrow workpiece, say for a cabinet door stile, is typically not shot at all but inevitably cleaned up when the door is fitted to the case.

If you're producing workpieces that will go up without being fitted elsewhere (like a picture frame), a guillotine trimmer is a welcome addition.

One has to understand order of work, where the component will be in the project, etc. in order to work efficiently and save time.

This is apprenticeship week 2 sort of stuff. Basic in the extreme.

[Prashun Patel]

Luke’s statement to think like a hand tool worker is rich.

The shooting board helps you sneak up on the length. It’s not for the guy using a table saw to make 30 pieces of identical length. In this case you should tune your sled to cut true.

But when building some things by hand, thicknesses and lengths can vary, so it is sometimes easy to cut the piece proud, and shoot it to fit.

The shooting board is at the end of the day a crutch. Like the cross cut sled, if your hand sawing is tuned, you may not need an shooting board often.

The shooting board however can also be used with an angled or beveled fence, so sneaking up on miters is possible. So it’s not just for making things square; it’s for making things fit.

[James Pallas]

Ends to be shot, in a vice or on a board doesn't matter, are chamfered on the exit side to prevent blowout on the exit cut. The board is then ripped to final width which takes out the chamfers and any damage that might have occurred during shooting. If for some reason you don't have enough width to work with, a screw-up basically, you clamp on a waste piece of wood to take the exit damage and shoot it in the vice. You can plane in from each corner. This is tedious and slow and shouldn't be your regular approach. When shooting (vice or board) only the second end is knifed - the one that brings the board to final length. Again, this saves time. The knifing is not so much to produce a clean arris as it definitively marks the EXACT length the board needs to be. If your plane is not producing clean end grain work, the plane needs attention. This is not the same as knifing tenon shoulders. We're shooting to length, remember. Narrow workpieces, for one hopes are obviousl reasons, are best shot on a board, if they need shooting at all - whatever miter saw facility is available (manual or power) should be able to produce a dead square end on a narrow workpiece. A narrow workpiece, say for a cabinet door stile, is typically not shot at all but inevitably cleaned up when the door is fitted to the case.

If you're producing workpieces that will go up without being fitted elsewhere (like a picture frame), a guillotine trimmer is a welcome addition.

One has to understand order of work, where the component will be in the project, etc. in order to work efficiently and save time.

This is apprenticeship week 2 sort of stuff. Basic in the extreme.

Well said Charles. Whether shooting board, miter jack or trimmer all are an extra step to make correction to the first task.
Jim

[Luke Dupont]

I would second the advise to fix the table saw, and/or also practice crosscutting with a handsaw!

If your table saw is off 1/8" in a 12" wide piece, I think you can pretty quickly learn to achieve better results by hand.

[Rafael Herrera]

Just a few thoughts to add to the discussion, each act of measurement includes an error. It can be above or below the desired value, so repeated measurements as a method to check on your work will be detrimental to achieving well fitted parts. It's more efficient and accurate to use reference pieces or story sticks. Also, that's the objective, to fit the parts square and straight, not that they be an exact length to the thousandth of an inch. That's the realm of machine assembly line processes.

Finally, pieces with a design that exposes end grain is not attractive, besides, it allows moisture into the wood. If one strives to hide the end grain, it is not necessary to fuzz over it a great deal.

[Robert Hazelwood]

Normally you use shooting boards to trim tiny amounts to make something fit. The amounts are smaller than what can be meaningfully measured with standard tools, so we are subjectively determining the amount to be removed based on experience and intuition (i.e. guessing). A part is a little too long to fit between two other pieces- give it five strokes and then see if it fits. That sort of thing.

But, you can also use it like you are thinking, to make a batch of parts a consistent length. If you start with a pile of parts that are oversized by an amount small enough to be reasonably planed off, then you can affix a stop block to the shooting board fence and then simply plane the part until the plane stops cutting, grab next part and repeat. I have never used a shooting board this way, but if you were not particularly good with a handsaw and had no good power tool for cross cutting, and you *really needed* a bunch of parts to be exactly the same length, it could be useful. Especially if the parts are really small.

I have used a long grain shooting board in this way, for sizing a bunch of boards that will go in a tongue and groove panel. The widths need to be precise and there are a lot of them to do. Cut them a 1/32 or 1/16 oversize on the bandsaw, then shoot to width. No need to use a marking gauge on each board, just set the fence on the shooting board with a combo square and then plane until it stops cutting. You can also do a similar concept to repeatedly plane small strips to thickness, by gluing down two strips of wood onto a flat board that are the thickness you want to produce, with a gap between them to accept your stock. Band or handsaw the stock a bit oversize, then set it on the thicknessing board between the strips and plane until it stops cutting. I use this for producing splines and such that are too thin to run through a planer.

[Jim Koepke]

Normally you use shooting boards to trim tiny amounts to make something fit.

[edited]

If you start with a pile of parts that are oversized by an amount small enough to be reasonably planed off, then you can affix a stop block to the shooting board fence and then simply plane the part until the plane stops cutting, grab next part and repeat.

You can also do a similar concept to repeatedly plane small strips to thickness, by gluing down two strips of wood onto a flat board that are the thickness you want to produce, with a gap between them to accept your stock.

The mention of planing small strips to thickness reminded me of this:

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?289180

There are some block planes that have had a slot milled in the base for making fly rods. (why should they have all the fun?)

If my workpiece is much over 1/16" long, it is trimmed with a saw. Consider 1/16" is 0.0625" and your plane is removing 0.005" on each stroke, that is about 12 strokes. Of course 0.005" is pretty hefty for shooting end grain if you want to avoid spelching.

Before using a stop block, make sure the end against the stop has been cleaned up as much as needed. It wouldn't be good gauging to a splinter or non-square end.

jtk