shooting boards

[Zahid Naqvi]

I am in the process making a box as a gift and in doing so had the need to make mitre joints. I being a neander, mostly, don't have a mitre saw or a band saw, and my table saw is not accurate enough to trust for small projects like these. Besides I wanted to exercise my neander muscles. So I made a couple of shooting boards to cut 45 degree mitres. Had a few obstacles along the way and I was wondering how others tackle these issues.

1. It is real hard to get a precise 45 degree on a shooting board, and you don't discover the accuracy, or lack of it, until after you have assembled four pieces and then try to connect them into a square or rectangle. I was able to correct some of the inaccuracies by inserting shims against the support to increase or decrease the angle of the work piece.

2. I made a second shooting board which allowed me to shave corners at 45 degrees for making the case. It is rather difficult to explain verbally, perhaps the attached line drawing may help, excuse the funky colors and some drawing lethargy. The work piece is blue and the hand plane rides on the 45 degree board with the blade facing the work piece. Same problem here accuracy can only be determined after four pieces are cut and assembled.

3. The only planes I could get to work on these shooting boards was the #7 jointer plane. I was under the impression that I would be able to use my block plane, which just didn't have enought momentum to handle the work. It may be due to the fact that I was working on lacewood.

So any ideas on how to make shooting boards like #1 and #2, and which plane do you guys use on your shooting boards.