Hi All: Well, they’re finished. Attached are pictures of my new mitre plane and shooting board. The plane stock is laminated 4/4 Brazilian Cherry with a hard Maple wedge. It is 2 ½” high, 3 ¼” wide, 15” long, and weighs exactly 4 lbs. The bed angle is 38 degrees with the mouth located 5” back from the toe. The iron is from Lee Valley. It is one of their new O-1 steel 3/16” thick, 6” long, and 2 3/8” wide wooden plane irons. These irons are sans chipbreaker. The shooting board is based on a combination of David Finck’s and Lie-Nielsen’s plans. Here is a link to Finck’s. https://www.finewoodworking.com/subscription/workshop/workshoparticle.aspx?id=30678 And here’s the link to Lie-Nielsen’s. http://www.lie-nielsen.com/pdf/Shooting_Board_And_Fixtures.pdf My shooting board is 20” long, 18” wide and made out of Baltic Birch ¾” plywood with a beech stop. I used David Finck’s method of attaching the stop. Otherwise, like the Lie-Nielsen version, I can use either side of the shooting board and will be making their angled fixtures. The center section of my board is 12” wide with 3” wide ramps on each side. The saw kerfs really do help the plane stay flat in use. It will take awhile before I know how happy I am with the plane. Up to now, I haven’t felt that much need to shoot the ends of boards. When I have, I used a LN BU jack with the hot dog grip. The plane has a very tight mouth and smoothly glides through its cuts. I’m still trying to figure out the best grip to use on the plane. The shooting board is a big improvement over the quickly built fir plywood piece of junk I was using. This setup will get a workout on a frame and panel blanket chest I have procrastinated on. gdblake
Replies
gd,
you old vanguard, you! what to say? man i love the little champher (sp.) on the front end- very larry williamsesque. boy oh boy i hope it is even more than you expected, as a user. the finish looks impeccable right down to the sexy, shapey wedge. did you route the chipbreaker screw slot in anticipation of a chipbreaker? i very much appreciate all the encouragement you've posted of late. most inspiring.
by the way that finck book finally got here and i am currently studying the ropes and keeping my feeler out for a likely chunk o' hardwood to suit the making of a smoother.
thanks,
eef
I had to comment.. On the shooting board..
I made one similar to this.. It works great!
http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/ShootingforPerfection.html
I think the taper makes it perfect for 'shooting for perfection'.... Mine do not get to perfection because I use common planes.. Not the good ones!
Hi Gregory
Terrific looking plane! I like the design, including the bed angle. Tote/grip?
One mod I'd add to the shooting board is to campher the rear edge of the fence to prevent it breaking out (I round mine off).
Regards from Perth
Derek
Hi Eef, Will, and Derek:
Though you can't tell it from the pictures, I actually had already champhored the rear edge of the fence on the shooting board. Apparently not enough, as I got a little bit of tearout where the fence meets the retaining strip at the base on the first pass. Oh well, it doesn't affect performance, but I did enlarge the champhor to prevent anymore issues. I looked at several old and new examples of wooden mitre planes (or in this case, strike blocks)and they were all sans totes or knobs so I followed the crowd. It is nice to be able to use the plane on either side. The wider iron is handy and the wide (3/8") cheeks register well against the shooting board.
I thought about making a ramped shooting board, but decided against it. Maybe next time if I find myself using this a lot. I played with the setup some this morning and found the plane takes very clean cuts in hard or soft woods. The endgrain floats off in ribbons which speaks well for the Lee Valley iron. I slotted the bed just in case I discovered the low angle really needed the help of a chipbreaker. I didn't need to bother. Even though the mouth is extremely tight clogging is not an issue. I wish I had made this plane and shooting board a few years ago rather than purchase the hot dog for my LN BU jack.
gdblake
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