Colleagues: thinking about building an "improved" shooting board. Other than equalizing the blade wear, is there any other advantage of a ramp?
Appreciate any insights....
[OP]
Contributor
Colleagues: thinking about building an "improved" shooting board. Other than equalizing the blade wear, is there any other advantage of a ramp?
Appreciate any insights....
Contributor
None that I can see.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
Contributor
It will also increase the effort required by the user so that's a good thing if you want to build up your triceps et al.
Member
A ramped shooting board is appropriate for paring inside miters on casing or base molding on furniture pieces -- but a flat shooting board with 45 degree stops will work well for framing or small moldings.
______________________________
Rob Payne -- McRabbet Woodworks
Contributor
For me a flat shooting board with a low angle Jack works fine.
With a ramped board one would need to make sure the ramp is causing the plane to push down on the work and not lifting the work.
If I make another shooting board, my main concern will be the thickness of the support table. Currently all of my boards use standard 3/4" stock. A bit too much of the blade on the bottom is doing nothing. Hopefully something in the 3/8-1/2" range will give a little more blade to use on thick stock.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
A ramped board would be great if you know the stock thickness and nice to have in addition to a flat one, not instead. For wide miters I just made one of these http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/wwm...tingboard.html work like a champ
Member
I built a ramp board and it is definitely easy to use compared to a flat shooting board. Just think about skew the board while planing. I will recommend building one.
Contributor
Ray, it depends on the plane you use.Originally Posted by Ray Newman
If you have a skew-bladed plane (such as a Stanley/LN/Veritas #51-type), then use a flat shooting board. There is no advantage here in using a ramped board. No only does the ramp reduce the skew, but the ramp does not spread wear significantly enough to warrant the time and effort of building a ramped board.
However, if you use a straight-blade plane (such as a bench plane of a LA/BU plane), the the ramped board is indeed worth the effort. What it does is reduce the impact. The ramped is enough to skew the blade so that it enters the wood progressively. This is not the same as a slicing cut, so do not confuse the two.
There are a number of articles on ramped (and other) shooting boards on my website. Search down through this Index page: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/index.html
Regards from Perth
Derek
Contributor
There is no advantage to a ramped shooting board except at the very entry into the cut and again at the very exit of the cut. Everywhere else in the cut the plane blade is actually contacting more material due to the angle than it is in a perpendicular situation. There is no argument in this, it is purely physics and geometry. Take for example an end grain shooting situation with a 1/2 inch thick board and a ramp angle of 10 degrees. The effective width of cut due to the ramp will be about 0.51" as compared to the 0.50" for the perpendicular cut. You might feel better thinking you are gaining some advantage over nature but its a fallacy
Contributor
The entry into the cut is where one would normally like the advantage.
Bumbling forward into the unknown.
Member
Pat's point is taken, but isn't any advantage related to slicing of the skew effect?
I think this is one of those things you just have to try for yourself.
Last edited by Robert Engel; 11-16-2015 at 8:16 AM.
Contributor
Exactly.
Regards from Perth
Derek
The skew angle would be the advantage but, these discussions often end up polarized so you will have to read through and judge for yourself. A ramped mock-up would take a short time to cobble together and may be the only way to find which camp you are in ;-)
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
Samuel Butler
Member
No, a ramped shooting board is like face planing a board over one of the diagonals. That is something else then a skewed cut, which is straight across the board but with the plane hold on a skewing angle. The only way to get a skewing cut on a shooting board is with a plane with a skewed iron, like the Stanley 51. Just like Derek allready mentioned above.
Luckilly shooting works very well with a normal bench plane and a flat shooting board. You can save yourself a bit of time, making a flat one and you can save yourself a whole bunch of money when you donīt buy one of these expensive planes from LV or LN. When you start a professional carreer, shooting heavy timber all day long, then one of these is probably a good investment. You can also save a bunch of time when you donīt want to shoot every board in the neighbourhood, only do it when you really need it.
Contributor
Sure, I can see that, but that will only help you for the first couple milliseconds
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