Shooting board use

[James Pallas]

Do to another thread and some of the replies questions came to mind. When do you use a shooting board? Do you use one routinely on every piece? Do you use one for minor corrections only? For myself I check the cut with a square. If it is good I don’t shoot the cut. I use it to correct for length at times when one piece is a little long. I made my board. It is ambidextrous has a 45* mitre block and a donkey ear. I use it more frequently on small work like molding. I use it at times to fix an errant cut on straight work. I have found that if I have to correct straight work the piece will end up on the short side. So in my case the shooting board is an error correcter and not a routine use tool.
Jim

[Frederick Skelly]

I shoot the material for all my dovetails before cutting them. I got into the habit when I was trying to learn to make them by hand. Shooting them increased my confidence because the length and "squareness" could be dialed-in very finely. I found it was one of several things that made a difference for me.

I could probably forego doing it now, but my LV Shooter is such a pleasure to use that I do it anyway. :)

[Jim Koepke]

My shooting board is used on almost every project. To me a smooth end grain looks better than a saw cut end grain.

It is great for matching the length of multiple pieces. This helps to get perfectly squared boxes when dovetailing.

Also, it you want a bit of rounding on a corner it is easy with a shooting board to repetitively and continually, slightly lift the far end of the piece while moving the plane across the work.

jtk

[Derek Cohen]

A shooting board is not just for squaring ends and squaring sides; it aids in achieving high levels of accuracy, working to microns, if needed. It aids in maintaining square sides when shaping irregular angles, when adding narrow tapers and mitres, and sizing drawer sides. Above all, a shooting board aids in fitting drawer fronts and backs to drawer cases - and can do this when the entry, itself, is not perfectly square … unlike a crosscut tablesaw.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Pallas]

I Agee with all that is said. For most of the things mentioned I have used a shooting board on occasion. I just find it interesting to see how others use their tools. Sometimes you hear or see things you don’t practice that can be very helpful. I do sometimes use a shooting board for odd angles other than 30, 60, 45, and 90. I have found machinist’s angles are very useful in those cases. They are not expensive. Drafting angles are good for a lot of angles but not to one degree usually.
Jim