Need help setting up shooting board for long thin piece

[Tyler Anderson]

Hey all,

I am just getting into woodworking and could use some help on setting up a shooting board.

I'm working on my first cutting board and need to square up some thin pieces of wood for lines of color in the cutting board. Due to limited tools available and money to buy new fun ones (I'm still a grad student, so my wallet can't keep up with my dreams for tools), it was suggested that I use a shooting board. I've looked around and most boards seem to be for doing a short side on a piece of wood, usually end grain. However, I need to plane an entire side.

The difficulty comes in that my pieces are 14" x 3/8" x 7/8". I need to plane the 14" x 7/8" edge, leaving only the 14" x 3/8" (narrow) edge along the shooting board. I believe this would be difficult to hold nicely against the fence due to the small contact area, and also difficult to clamp down in any way. One of the thin pieces also has a slight twist to it, making it even more difficult.

Does anyone know how to incorporate into the shooting board something to hold the wood while planing it - preferably something adjustable, because I have a few other pieces that are different widths (1/2" instead of 3/8", and a few larger pieces).

I have yet to build the shooting board, so I'm not limited by a previous design.

Thanks a bunch for any suggestions!
--Tyler

[Ken Werner]

Tyler, I think that perhaps you would be better served by having a stop block on your bench, and planing the top [wider[ surface of your piece. It will help if the stop block is adjustable in height. I may be able to post a photo later. As you point out, a shooting board will not likely do as you want for this.
Ken

[Derek Cohen]

Tyler

You may want to look at this shooting board of Terry Gordon:

http://www.hntgordon.com.au/jointinglongboards.htm

Regards from Perth

Derek

[harry strasil]

Sounds to me like you need a thickness planer.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=28659&highlight=inlay

[John Schreiber]

I used something like this a while ago. The darker pieces are smooth flat plywood. In the 2nd view, you can see that there's a 1/4 protrusion at the end of the smaller piece of plywood to keep the work piece (red) from sliding. The short yellow pieces are just scraps screwed down to hold the work piece. The longer yellow piece holds the work piece off the sliding surface so that the blade contacts the entire width of the work piece.

If your plane isn't exactly square, it won't seem to work, but if there is a consistant error you can turn every other piece upside down so that the errors cancel out.


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[Tyler Anderson]

Thank you all for the replies. The idea of something along the lines of a thickness planer is a great idea, but a bit of a pain for only one piece, unless I could make it adjustable. I wasn't able to think up a good design for that, so I decided to go for a shooting board with some modifications. Plus, if I can remove my modifications, I'll still have made a regular shooting board that I can use for other projects.

To do this, I'm trying to incorporate John's designs into more of a complete shooting board and allow for a sideways adjustable "fence" that can lock in place. I'm not sure how to describe it nicely, so I'll just post some pictures when I finish building it (hopefully within a couple days).

--Tyler

[harry strasil]

I guess you didn't look at the thickness planer very close LOL, or the adjustable shoot board either.

[Jerry Palmer]

Love the wedges for adjusting the thickness. Think I need to make me one of those.

[Mike Henderson]

Tyler

You may want to look at this shooting board of Terry Gordon:

http://www.hntgordon.com.au/jointinglongboards.htm

Regards from Perth

Derek
I like this. I'd be neat to build this into a bench - maybe on the side opposite the front vise (if your bench isn't against the wall).

Thanks for posting.

Mike

[Tyler Anderson]

I finished my shooting board today, and it seems to work quite well. I'm creating a new thread for it with pictures.

Harry - Of the thickness planers, I liked the looks of yours best, especially with the ability to adjust it. However, with my extreme limitations on tools (meaning, a borrowed circular saw, a belt sander, a borrowed drill, my hand planes, and a few things like screwdrivers), I thought my design might be easier to make. Perhaps I was wrong. But thank you (and others) for sharing!

--Tyler