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Leave the guiding faces of the stops, the ones in line with that guiding edge of the upper board, a little oversize. The plane will trim them flush when you take your first few bedding in passes. Inspired by a certain make of shoulder plane, I thought Id try a 1¼ forstner bit hole in the mitre stop, to make gripping the work against the stop a bit easier. Maybe. Well I wont know til Ive tried, will I? |
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Remember that bevel on the guiding edge of the upper board? The one for the dust and such to go in so as not to foul the straightness of the guiding edge? Here it is. |
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The first couple of shavings will remove just a little of the guiding edge ply, and hopefully all the face of your stop. That is until the stop is flush with the guiding edge, and the blade cant cut any further because its stopped by the sole of the plane running against the same guiding edge. Just like happens if your upper board is too thin for the thickness of your plane sides. |
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You want to try to push the plane like youre wanting to plane right into the bottom corner; you wont be able to, but itll help you avoid tilting the top half of the plane into the work and thus ruining your careful 90° set up. Sort of angling the pressure in the direction the green arrow is pointing |
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The last step is to decide how youre going to hold the completed shooting board on the bench. Thats pretty important; holding the work piece on the board is going to take all your attention, you dont want to have to worry about the whole shooting board skating about too. At the moment Im trying them held between bench dogs, simply cos I havent tried that way before. A ledge screwed on underneath could just hook over the edge of the bench like a bench hook, or be held in a vice. Maybe at a comfortable angle? Again, try anything that takes your fancy. If it doesnt work just change it. |
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I slapped on a bit of old Patina I was wanting to use up for a finish, but again it's not important. A scribble of wax candle or similar on the side of the plane will help it run slickly, and some fine abrasive stuck to the face/s of the stops will give some extra grip if you find things slip a little. As long as you don't put abrasive on the plane's runway and wax on the stop you'll be fine... |
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So why a pair? Well I got the idea when I made my bench hook/mini shooting board combo. When making them I ensured the combined thickness of the base and upper boards of the shooting board were equal to the thickness of the bench hooks base board. Now when sawing longer stuff the mini shooting board acts as a support for the end that isnt on the bench hook, and vice versa when the shooting boards in use. They make a very handy duo, and well worth making IMO. In time Ill probably set up the new boards to be held on the bench in a similar way, and so the same useful additional support feature will be available for them too. Will it work? Dunno until Ive tried it, do I? All together now; its not the science of rocketry |
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