Shooting board question

[Joe McMahon]

I've asked elsewhere, thought I'd give the Creek a try.

After an excellent demonstration by Blaine at a CATS meeting, I have the itch to build a shooting board. My question is this:

What would be a better material to build it from, baltic birch plywood or MDF?

[Sam Yerardi]

My first thought would be Baltic birch plywood. I use both, but the only drawback to MDF I can think of for this app is if it draws moisture (for whatever reason) you may obviously end up having an accuracy problem. It's just been my experience I would expect MDF to respond negatively before the Baltic, but others may have different experiences. If moisture isn't a concern then I think either one should work fine.

[Narayan Nayar]

Shooting boards are really easy to build, and I took a disposable approach to the one I've built, building it out of MDF as David Charlesworth suggests in his DVD.

A couple of issues which I'll rectify in the next version:


My shop isn't very organized right now, so in the process of moving things about to get something done, boards tend to get banged up. Edges, particularly MDF edges, do not survive dents very gracefully. Whatever I use for the base, it'll have a hardwood edge.
I find myself using shims, again as DC suggests, more often than I would like. I've seen some "adjustable" fences on other's shooting boards and I might take that approach next time.
My next shooting board will be ramped and will have an attached base which reduces friction.
I like this guy's (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/3056) approach. I've seen others which are really over engineered (there's at least one floating on the web which has t tracks in it).

[Bill McDermott]

My board is a salvaged melamine shelf. Works really well. Flat and slippery. A little wax makes it super low friction.

An 1/8" x 1/8" kerf runs the length.
The plane rides to the right of the kerf, and overlaps it.
1/2" MDF covers everything left of the kerf.
3/4" x 3" hardwood creates the 90* fence.
A 3/4" x 3" x 10" cleat is screwed to the bottom, so I can lay the board on my bench and clamp the cleat into my face vise. I have a hole in the cleat that fits on a stub of a dowel so I can securely hang the board on a stretcher below the bench.

By the way, the LV LA Jack is just so sweet on the shooting board. The ribbons of end grain that slice off are unlike anything imaginable freehand.

[Mark Roderick]

I also used melamine. Works great.

[Eric Hartunian]

The first, that I still use, was a few small pieces of birch scrap, that I glued together and added an oak fence to. I put slots in the fence, so I could also use it as a bench hook/ miter box thingy. This turned out to be good in theory, but almost worthless in practice.
Shooting board #2, which I really like, is a piece of 1/2"birch ply, glued to a piece of 1/4" hardboard. The hardboard is the same length as the ply, but it is about 3"wider. The fence is a piece of scrap hardwood. In use, the plane rides on the hardboard, which is quite slick (I also wax it on occasion). This has worked out really well for about 6months or so.
My next one will be sloping, just to see if it makes a difference.

Eric

[Mark Stutz]

What would be a better material to build it from, baltic birch plywood or MDF?


Both! Almost two years ago a slapped together a "temporary" shooting board until I could build something nicer!:D 3/4 MDF base with a 1/2 in piece of plywood glued on, narrower than the MDF to create a ledge for the plane. I put a hardwood edge on the ply and a hardwood fence, waxed the MDF and shot away. It's remained very stable and true. Eventuall I'll get around to a ramped one, but not likely very soon.

Mark

[Grant Vanbokklen]

Can you do long jointing with a plane and shooting board? I'd like to learn more about shooting board method. Are you also planing the shooting board too? Seems that if there were specialized planes that did not have part of the blade, so that the sole of the plane rested on the shooting board?

[gary Zimmel]

Mine is also a temporary one from a year ago...

3/4" MDF base with 1/2" MDF glued to it and a maple fence.

[Mark Stutz]

Grant,
While one can shoot long grain, usually with a straight edged board for a guide with the plane resting on the bench. Shooting boards, however excell at planing end grain, usually to square it to the long edge.

Yes, the first pass will remove .001 to .002 from the edge of the board, but as long as you don't use a rabbetting plane, the blade will not go to the edge and will limit the depth of cut to the projection of the iron.

Mark

[Marc Casebolt]

I keep hearing about "ramped" shooting boards. I know what you are talking about, but cannot see a reason for making one instead of a straight one. It seems to me that you are cutting the end grain off at aprox 90 degrees either way. How is a ramped shooting board better than a straight one?

Thanks,

Marc

[Chuck Hamman]

Marc,
A ramped board will utilize a wider section across the edged of the plane blade. When you shoot with an unramped board you are using the same, smaller section of the blade over and over. Unless you are shooting a lot of boards it probably won't make much difference to you.

[ralph cox]

Marc,I may be wrong, but I believe the ramp alows a wider section of the edge of the blade to make the cut as the plane travels up the ramp;this distributes wear on the edge. Again this is only my understanding and not
based upon experience.I apologize the slow response time and resulting redundance folks!
Cheers,ralph (who has an SB on the never ending to do list):D

[Mark Roderick]

Potential difficulty with the ramped shooting board is that you better have the blade exposed exactly the same amount or you introduce more error in the cut.

[Chris Padilla]

I like this guy's (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/3056) approach. I've seen others which are really over engineered (there's at least one floating on the web which has t tracks in it).


http://www.whitemountdesign.com/ShootingBoard.htm

Found this great tutorial through Narayan's link above.

[Marc Casebolt]

OK, that makes sense, if it is just to utilize more of the blade. Mark R's comment also seems important.

Thanks,

Marc

[Stephen Jackson]

As I understood it, when I first read about the ramped board, it is very similar to angling the plane (at 45 degrees, or so) when planing with the grain. The action of the plane tends to shear the wood fibres at an angle. Not sure whether I've described that accurately, but I tried. LOL

[Marc Casebolt]

Stephan,
That is what I thought also when I first looked at the ramp, but it does not seem to work that way. You are still pushing the plane straight ahead into the wood, so there will be no skewing of the blade into the work.
I'm sticking with the theory of using more of the blade.
I'm also sorry if I hijacked this thread.

Thanks for all the info,

Marc