Follow our shooting board plan and make your own shooting board. Getting the perfectly square joint is often difficult to achieve with the tools and machinery we have available to us. One or more bad adjustments can multiply and instead provide us with a close but not perfectly square joint or miter. This shooting board plan was created to be able to easily make your own shooting board. to ensure.
The shooting board was developed over a century ago to ensure that corners and miters on smaller boards are square. The shooting board is especially suited to thinner work which cannot be hand planed easily due to the narrow bearing surface. A good example of narrower stock is the components of a small drawer for a jewelry box or a drawer for a small cabinet. Another example is the face frame of a small cabinet with thin, narrow rails and stiles.
Shooting boards can be assembled to be as simple as possible or assembled with a few extra features which make it a greater pleasure to use. In the photo below there are two attached levels of baltic birch plywood, with the top level (baseboard) being narrower than the bottom. This creates a lower runway at the right which enables the side of the hand plane to have a surface to glide on and be guided along from the front to the back of the shooting board as in the second photo below. An edge miter is being trimmed using the edge miter attachment.
The shooting board plan has a fence installed onto the baseboard of the shooting board. This fence provides both a stop and bearing surface for the small piece we wish to square or miter. The fence must be perpendicular to the path of the hand plane sole, as this is what determines how square the end of the board is in relation to its’ long edge. The fence is attached with screws and can be adjusted in the future for wear. This set up allows the adjustment of the dark hardwood face enabling the fence to be perfectly perpendicular to the edge of the shooting board runway, without needing to remove the fixed portion.
Comprehensive information, shooting board techniques, large photos and (10) detailed computer designed illustrations (CAD) are included with your shooting board plan purchase. Descriptions and illustrations of both face and edge miter attachments are also included.
Shooting Board Plan $14
