Shooting Board

[Arthur 51]

hi all. I've found a web site that helped me understand what a shooting board is. But my hand planing is dire. Anyone ever used one with an electric planer?

Arthur

[Andy Cap]

Surely the whole point of a shooting board is that it guides the plane. so skill's not really an issue. Trimming the back edge does stop splitting however.

Using an electric plane on it's side with the blades exposed would be extremely dangerous IMO.

Andy

[NoSpam]

Many years ago I made a shooting board for my electric plane. I used some old kitchen worktop to get flat siding faces and made a 90 degree mount for the plane. It worked well but finger care is needed.

D

[John Rumm]

The electric version looks more like:

(having said that, if you by PAR prepared boards, then it ought to be square and flat enough for edge jointing anyway)

[Brian G]

> or

> ;-)

"(having said that, if you by PAR prepared boards, then it ought to be square and flat enough for edge jointing anyway)"

That little sentence must have my old apprentice master 'spinning in his grave' and I won't repeat his reply and actions when, as a first year apprentice, I asked him "why can't you this f***ing job on the planer" - after spending nearly a week 'shooting' and jointing boards on his instructions (ouch was my only reply). :-)

BTW, for the less experienced in this group, the terms *Shooting a board* and *Shooting Board* have different meanings and purposes:

===================================== Shooting a board:

The whole point of 'shooting' boards ready for edge gluing is to remove the marks left by machining and straighten the joint to get as close a fit as possible, apply the glue to the edges and then 'rub' the boards together to spread the glue very thinly and then cramp (not clamp) the boards together.

This would be done with the board fixed in a vice (or other devices to hold a long board) and using a jointing plane with a very sharp blade on a 'fine' cut - and when done correctly, this produces an amazingly close and strong joint.

=====================================

The use of a SHOOTING board:

The 'shooting' board is primarily used for accurately squaring and cleaning up the end grain of timber or cleaning and adjusting mitres (standard or compound) - it would not generally be used when jointing two 'long' boards ready for gluing.

These are my last words now on stairs and 'shooting'

Brian G

[John Rumm]

While I don't argue with the concept that a machine planed board will have some ripple on the surface (which is often easy enough to see[1]) and hence offer a less perfect gluing surface, it would be interesting to see exactly how much difference in bond strength you get when compared to a manually finished flat edge joint. With modern adhesives its seems quite common for the glue line to out perform the material anyway.

[1] Having said that my thicknesser (which runs its cutter block at 20k cuts / min) does leave a surface so flat that I can't actually see any ripple in it.

Last time I wanted to use stairs and shooting in the same sentence was when I realised my architect could not count, and had specified 12 steps (and set rise and going appropriately), but drawn 13!

[dom]

Pay a lot of attention to sharpening and adjusting the plane - you can't beat having somebody show you how. Buy an old Stanley No:4, the steel in the modern ones doesn't measure up. Practice lots.

They can probably be counted on half their fingers.

A power plane is a crude tool by comparison, more useful for taking out the donkey work before finishing with a hand plane.

In their place, they're phenomenally useful - but that place is not accurately trueing up a board.

[Peter Ashby]

If you don't care about being able to see the joint then sure slop on some poly glue it'll probably hold. If you are filling gaps then you are sure to see the joint. If there are no gaps (apart from a thin shaving off the middle of course) then you won't see the joint. If you are going to paint it then you may as well use mdf, ply or pine board.

Peter