Best Shooting Board

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Christopher

I have watched all of Rob's videos on building shooting boards. The bowed design refers to adding a hollow to the main platform's substrate (not the track), as I recall. I have built many shooting boards over the years, as have others, and none have a built-in bow. Strangely, they all work accurately. Ergo, the bow is unnnecessary, and I conclude a gimmick to say "ours is built better".

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Joel Gelman]

I need to re-do my Donkey's ear to make it a bit nicer. I want to add the microadjustability feature as shown on Derek's version. I was thinking threaded inserts into holes drilled through the wood as part of that unless someone has a better suggestion.

[Jim Koepke]

I was thinking threaded inserts into holes drilled through the wood as part of that unless someone has a better suggestion.

This could be a convenient way to make adjustments if Allen head set screws were used they could be adjusted with long Allen keys from above.

I just use business cards as shims, tape and a little finesse with the holding hand.

jtk

[scott lipscomb]

I wish Lie-Nielsen would make a #52.

I stumbled upon a perfect #51 a couple of years ago in a Habitat for Humanity and I really like it...been looking for a partner ever since.

[Derek Cohen]

Scott, LN did have a #52 on the drawing board at one time. The closest you will come to a new #52 is the Veritas shooting board with track and fence.

Be gentle with your Stanley #51. The frog is fragile and tends to break where it connects to the body. Mine, like many, has been braze repaired. That is why I purchased one of the first LN versions.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Charles Edward]

Making shooting boards with highly accurate tablesaws and/or chop saws makes no sense. They're already capable of making the cuts, directly, the shooting board is supposed to rectify (off a hand saw). If for some reason the cut off the expensive power tool isn't quite nice enough, make one fine pass with a block or smoothing plane. Yes, you can do it -- you can make a freehand plane pass on a machine-cut surface and the world won't be knocked off its axis.

[George Yetka]

Making shooting boards with highly accurate tablesaws and/or chop saws makes no sense. They're already capable of making the cuts, directly, the shooting board is supposed to rectify (off a hand saw). If for some reason the cut off the expensive power tool isn't quite nice enough, make one fine pass with a block or smoothing plane. Yes, you can do it -- you can make a freehand plane pass on a machine-cut surface and the world won't be knocked off its axis.

One of the best benefits of a shooting board is that they allow you to really sneak up on a cut.

[Tony Wilkins]

I’ve been thinking about getting one of those Lee Valley shooting boards. I have their shooting plane and having the track seems to be a benefit. My current one is a bit rough after 3 Army moves and I’ve got several projects on the list already (and I’m slow).

what’s everyone’s opinion of them?

[Gary Focht]

Tony,

I bought their track and fence and made a shooting board. Works really well. Fence seems accurate, but I haven’t done a lot of 45 degree miter work with it - just some small trim pieces. The track works well, but I would be just as happy had I made one out of wood.

[Mark Rainey]

Making shooting boards with highly accurate tablesaws and/or chop saws makes no sense. They're already capable of making the cuts, directly, the shooting board is supposed to rectify (off a hand saw). If for some reason the cut off the expensive power tool isn't quite nice enough, make one fine pass with a block or smoothing plane. Yes, you can do it -- you can make a freehand plane pass on a machine-cut surface and the world won't be knocked off its axis.

Welcome words of wisdom Charles. I have seen experienced woodworkers with high quality tablesaws. The cuts are usually dead on. On the infrequent occasion they are not, they will resort to machine techniques such as flexing the blade a hair to get it perfect.

[Derek Cohen]

Making shooting boards with highly accurate tablesaws and/or chop saws makes no sense. They're already capable of making the cuts, directly, the shooting board is supposed to rectify (off a hand saw). If for some reason the cut off the expensive power tool isn't quite nice enough, make one fine pass with a block or smoothing plane. Yes, you can do it -- you can make a freehand plane pass on a machine-cut surface and the world won't be knocked off its axis.

I have a Hammer K3 slider, which has a crosscut table. I built a micro adjuster, and it is possible to make really minute adjustments for accurate crosscutting. However, while the angle can be set off-square, it is not convenient to do this, and a significant feature of a shooting board is shooting off-square when fitting inset drawers.

A recent build involved two bedside tables. These featured a mitred case construction (maximising waterfall sides) along with a tiny drawer in the side at the rear. The mitred sides were cut to size on the K3, here using a parallel fence (and the micro adjust can be seen on the crosscut fence) ...





Now, as good as this set up is - and it is damn good. One can joint pretty satisfactorily off the saw - there are tiny saw marks which will affect the perfection of the corners.

The solution is to use a LARGE shooting board, here with added donkeys ear ...





The result IS perfection ...



Hand and power compliment each other.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Joel Gelman]

I have an extremely accurate table saw and miter saw. When making a kitchen island and doing the base trim, which included many 45 degree cuts on some very short pieces, I used my shooting board and donkey's ear. What a pleasure. I could not imagine trying to (safely) fine tune those small pieces (especially the one pointed out with the yellow arrow in the picture) with my miter saw!

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[Jim Koepke]

Making shooting boards with highly accurate tablesaws and/or chop saws makes no sense. They're already capable of making the cuts, directly, the shooting board is supposed to rectify (off a hand saw). If for some reason the cut off the expensive power tool isn't quite nice enough, make one fine pass with a block or smoothing plane. Yes, you can do it -- you can make a freehand plane pass on a machine-cut surface and the world won't be knocked off its axis.

Gee Charles, I don't have a table saw or a chop saw. My shooting boards were made out of scrap worked with hand saws and planes.

A shooting board isn't always used to rectify a cut, it can clean up the saw marks with a few quick swipes of a plane:

Spalted Holly End Grain.jpg

This was my first trial with a new plane and the blade had a small nick that shows across the surface.

With a little imagination and finesse, a shooting board can be used to even make a round end smooth:

The Beauty of End Grain Mallet Handle.jpg

No sandpaper used here, just a very sharp plane and a shooting board. (it's all in the wrist)

There is a lot more than just squaring up saw cuts to using a shooting board.

jtk

[Charles Edward]

Gee Charles, I don't have a table saw or a chop saw. My shooting boards were made out of scrap worked with hand saws and planes.

A shooting board isn't always used to rectify a cut, it can clean up the saw marks with a few quick swipes of a plane:

Spalted Holly End Grain.jpg

This was my first trial with a new plane and the blade had a small nick that shows across the surface.

With a little imagination and finesse, a shooting board can be used to even make a round end smooth:

The Beauty of End Grain Mallet Handle.jpg

No sandpaper used here, just a very sharp plane and a shooting board. (it's all in the wrist)

There is a lot more than just squaring up saw cuts to using a shooting board.

jtk

Gee Jim, my post was about people who make them with power equipment more consistently accurate than the shooting board will ever be.

I must be the only woodworker around who has to take a skosh off the heel or toe to make a miter fit a case that's not dead-nuts 90*. I'm less interested in how y'all make miter shoots than I am how your cases are consistently not even a half-degree off. Please, do tell.

If you flush up a perfect miter on a case that's not exactly square then there will be a gap under the molding. Some crown combinations are designed to hide this gap, but I don't like that gap, so I touch a file to the miter or maybe take the barest of material off with a smooth plane or chisel. The miter off a decent manual box is as close as you need to be before making little adjustments. If you shoot them dead on, you could be making more work for yourself.

[Jim Koepke]

Gee Jim, my post was about people who make them with power equipment more consistently accurate than the shooting board will ever be.

I must be the only woodworker around who has to take a skosh off the heel or toe to make a miter fit a case that's not dead-nuts 90*. I'm less interested in how y'all make miter shoots than I am how your cases are consistently not even a half-degree off. Please, do tell.

If you flush up a perfect miter on a case that's not exactly square then there will be a gap under the molding. Some crown combinations are designed to hide this gap, but I don't like that gap, so I touch a file to the miter or maybe take the barest of material off with a smooth plane or chisel. The miter off a decent manual box is as close as you need to be before making little adjustments. If you shoot them dead on, you could be making more work for yourself.

My shooting board is consistently accurate, or at least as accurate one can be with a try square and the human eye.

The key to making a consistently square case is in stock prep. Make it flat, make it square, make opposite pieces the same length. Squaring a piece is fairly easy with or without a shooting board. Making two or more pieces the same length is a simple task for a shooting board. Removing excess length of a "skosh" or less is fast work with little noise of an electric motor. Maybe even faster than firing up the table saw (if I had one).

I don't like gaps either:

Detail - Molding.jpg

This was cut on a miter box by hand with a thin blade saw. The "saw fuzz" was removed on a shooting board. I like the wood grain to line up as much as possible on the vertical face of the miter. I guess on an electric power saw this would require switching to a thinner blade.

I have made a few of these small cabinets, so I am not sure if this one was dead on or required a little adjustment to come together without creating a gap. Small adjustments of a degree or less are fairly easy to do by hand & eye.

I have made simple, permanent accessories to shoot angles of as little as 2-3º off of square up to 22-1/2º & 45º. There have also been a few others for one off projects.

jtk