Thread: Shooting Plane

Lee Valley maje a fence that's held on with rare earth magnets (so you don't need to re-invent the wheel )

Mick

Just adjust the blade angle so it cuts square.

Hi jmk89,

The link below takes you to a thread in which apricotripper (Jake) posted some details about modifications he made to a plane to improve its use as a shooting plane.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...shooting+plane

Is this the modification you are referring to?

Originally Posted by Mirboo

Hi jmk89,

The link below takes you to a thread in which apricotripper (Jake) posted some details about modifications he made to a plane to improve its use as a shooting plane.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...shooting+plane

Is this the modification you are referring to?

Thanks Mirboo, that's exactly the thread I had in mind - I searched for threads that Jake had started, when I should have searched for the subject(doh).

I am still undecided what I will do - that's OK - the spare #4 isn't going anywhere and I can use my #6 and #7 on my planned new ramped shooting board to see if I need to consider the tripper modification.

Cheerrs

Jeremy

The idea of fixing the plane to a wooden board sounds good. I may even do that to an old new Stanley#4 that I never use. I would make the board quite long and wide to ensure it rides flat. Cover the bottom with wax to allow it to slide easily. Try to weight it down with something heavy to give it some oomph. Attach some wooden handles to make it comfortable.

Originally Posted by zenwood

The idea of fixing the plane to a wooden board sounds good. I may even do that to an old new Stanley#4 that I never use. I would make the board quite long and wide to ensure it rides flat. Cover the bottom with wax to allow it to slide easily. Try to weight it down with something heavy to give it some oomph. Attach some wooden handles to make it comfortable.

Thanks for your interest zenwood. I am stilll trying to work out what i want to do with this. I thiink that I will build the shooting board and then see about the plane!

Jeremy

You can use just about any plane on a shooting board. Some are better than others for this purpose. Here is a very short article I wrote:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/MUTools/u...e/whatPlan.asp

If I were looking to adapt an existing plane, I would look for three features. The ideal is a skew blade. The second is a low cutting angle for end grain. The third is high mass. I would say that 2 out of the 3 is great, while only 1 would make the job less special but will still work reasonably well (as I said, just about anything will work).

In Jake's first picture he showed a woodie. It may not have very high mass but it had a skew blade. The second was the converted #4 (whatever) attached to the steel plate. This had high mass.

A ramped shooting board is better than a flat one but is no substitute for a skew blade:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/MUTools/m...oard/index.asp

Taking these points, substituting hardwood for a steel plate is a waste of time. It lacks mass.

If only one feature could be had of the three I mentioned, let it be mass. With a sharp blade in a solid bed you will still cut hardwood endgrain. It is just that the resulting cut will not be as clean as a lower cutting angle. A skew blade effectively provides a lower cutting angle.

Points to ponder.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Jeremy

You can use just about any plane on a shooting board. Some are better than others for this purpose. Here is a very short article I wrote:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/MUTools/u...e/whatPlan.asp

If I were looking to adapt an existing plane, I would look for three features. The ideal is a skew blade. The second is a low cutting angle for end grain. The third is high mass. I would say that 2 out of the 3 is great, while only 1 would make the job less special but will still work reasonably well (as I said, just about anything will work).

In Jake's first picture he showed a woodie. It may not have very high mass but it had a skew blade. The second was the converted #4 (whatever) attached to the steel plate. This had high mass.

A ramped shooting board is better than a flat one but is no substitute for a skew blade:

http://www.wkfinetools.com/MUTools/m...oard/index.asp

Taking these points, substituting hardwood for a steel plate is a waste of time. It lacks mass.

If only one feature could be had of the three I mentioned, let it be mass. With a sharp blade in a solid bed you will still cut hardwood endgrain. It is just that the resulting cut will not be as clean as a lower cutting angle. A skew blade effectively provides a lower cutting angle.

Points to ponder.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Many thanks for these points, Derek.

I had seen the thread where your shooting board had been featured and my(?) version will, I think, be based on it (just have to wait for my delivery of Studley's hardwood to turn up ). I will then experiment with my collection of planes to see which I feel the most comfortable with and which gives the best result for different woods. Then I might make a decision about what to do with the spare #4.

The good thing about this set of points to ponder is that I suspect that it is impossible to get it absolutely wrong, you just get differing grades of useful. That means I might be able to spend as long on this as Wild Dingo has spent finding the love of his maritime life!!( ).

Cheers

Jeremy

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to pick up a very cheap/nasty plane, with no fancey frog/body mating area, so then it could then be attatched to some angle iron to produce a skewed angle?
Any thoughts?
It would be very easy to get some decent solid angle iron, and then get it machined on the outside to a perfect 90 degrees.
Basically, make my own stanley #51

Originally Posted by spoinky

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to pick up a very cheap/nasty plane, with no fancey frog/body mating area, so then it could then be attatched to some angle iron to produce a skewed angle?
Any thoughts?
It would be very easy to get some decent solid angle iron, and then get it machined on the outside to a perfect 90 degrees.
Basically, make my own stanley #51

Spoinky
I have more or less done what you have suggested. All done by hand though no machine tools involved.

See http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=16508

John

Spoinky,

Maybe the Lancashire pattern shoulder plane 3rd down on this page of Hans Bunner's site could offer some inspiration

http://www.hansbrunnertools.gil.com....alPlanes-1.htm

Brett

Hi Brett

Thanks for posting that picture. I have been hunting around for more..

This plane will not work on a shooting board - it will plane away the sides. However, this very design has been my inspiration, the model, for the shooting board plane I have been building for some months now!

Regards from Perth

Derek