Replies

1. 
   ErnieConover | Jan 22, 2007 03:33am | #1

   Ah, to quote Shakespeare, “therein lies the rub.” The trick is to plane it until you have perfect angles. In the case of the miter shoot you need a perfect 90 between the two stop faces and they have to be 90° to the box itself. That is the point of having a first year trade school student make shooting boxes in years past.

   In the case of the miter shoot the 90 degrees has to be perfectly aligned to the plane trough as well. To plane the angles to perfection you need a good square. I like a machinist’s adjustable square such as a Starrett because it allows you to check 45° angles as well. You need a 05 or 05-1/2 Jack plane with a sharp iron that is not ground to a curve but rather straight across like a chisel. Check the edge with a square and decide how you need to correct. Throw the regulator away from the edge you want to remove more material from. In other words you are cocking the blade in the plane so that it takes more from one side that the other, the high side. You now place the plane down and work to get a continuous chip from end to end of the edge you are correcting. Check and correct some more.

   On the miter shoot this will correct the stop block being square to the shooting box base. To make the two stop surfaces 90 degrees to each other requires short strokes to bring the high end down, then continuous strokes to get the edge straight. All the while, you need the keep the edge square to the face of the block. It takes some struggle but you will learn a lot in the process. The important thing is that you use the regulator to make a edge square to a face and not try to do it by eye.

   Good Luck and have fun.

   With best regards,
   Ernie Conover

1. 
   LarryMartin | Jan 22, 2007 04:54am | #2

   Thank you. Could you go back to the first year trade school student -- how do you teach him to get the fences in his shooting board an exact 45-degrees or exact 90-degrees?

2. 
   ErnieConover | Jan 22, 2007 03:33pm | #3

   As I stated above, he would shoot the edge with a Jack Plane with the regulator appropriately adjusted until the 45° or 90° edge that made the joint in the box was perfect. He then mechanically screwed the two together and tested with actual work. Once working perfect he would add glue to the mechanical joint. Your question has now been turned into a web article and will soon have dimensioned drawings. It can be found at: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Community/QADetail.aspx?id=28150. With best regards,
   Ernie Conover