shooting board technique

[rogerwilco]

I'm having trouble cutting square, and I think it's something about my technique.

At first I thought it was my shooting board. However, I've tuned it up, and can confirm the fence has a flat face and runs perpendicular to the shoulder. I've cleaned up the hardwood runner with a shoulder plane. And also double confirmed that a fence is perpendicular to the sole of the plane with an engineer's square.

My cuts are perfectly square across the thickness of the stock. But out of square across the width. On small pieces - let's say 40mm wide or less - it's close enough to square that I wouldn't sweat it. However, on wider pieces - let's say 150 or more - the cuts are noticeably out of square to the edge. I've also checked the piece has a flat jointed edge to register with the fence.

I feel like the piece is shifting around on me during the cut. It doesn't feel like a very controlled movement... I'm mostly applying pressure down and forward, and a little bit in toward the shoulder. The cuts end up straight, but not square.

Maybe I should stick some sand paper down to help things stick in place.
Any other tips?

[Tom trees]

Hard to get this right without any pics.
Are you sure your edges are planed parallel to a gauge line etc,

I find a good way of checking that the plane is bang on 90, is by planing some offcuts, say something sized like a deck of cards
and plane the edge long grain rather than going full hog at the end grain of the project.

Having the test piece handy for revisiting the troublesome encounter might shed some light, should things like the lateral adjust going out of whack.

Tom

[rogerwilco]

Thanks Tom. I went down there to take some pics, and ended up solving it.

I was already getting edges square to faces, and all bang on 90 there. The error was with cross cutting the face - those weren't coming out square to the edge, which suggests something askew with the fence. I checked it, but I wasn't paying enough attention. With a 3 inch engineer's square on the fence and the plane's sole, everything looked right... But I needed to pay more attention to the rest of the fence. There was a hump in the centre it. I fixed it, and now everything is perfect, and I'm getting exactly the results I want.

Hard to get this right without any pics.
Are you sure your edges are planed parallel to a gauge line etc,

I find a good way of checking that the plane is bang on 90, is by planing some offcuts, say something sized like a deck of cards
and plane the edge long grain rather than going full hog at the end grain of the project.

Having the test piece handy for revisiting the troublesome encounter might shed some light, should things like the lateral adjust going out of whack.

Tom