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I want to make a shooting board and I really don't know how. When I need to joint tops or backs I take them to a local cabinet shop in the neighborhood. He charges me a small fee for this service. And if he's busy I have to wait until he haves the time. This could mean day's. I dont blame him though. It's probably more of pain for him then its worth. He is quite busy most of the time. I rather save the money and be less of a nusiance and do this with a hand jointer plane. I have search the archives for ideas on making one and only found a few pictures that didn't show much details that I could get an idea from. Does anyone have any idea or drawings or good pics of theirs that I can get an idea from.
                                               Thanks Guys

If you have the cash, check this out...even though you can easily build it i am sure.

Shooting Board

With my lack of skill and time...i am all for purchasing. I am trying to get more motivated to build some jigs though

That's a nice looking shooting board, Frank. Here's a pic of one I built when I first started building guitars:



The spacer was originally one piece, but I cut it up because it was too wide for some of the tonewood I have. I used a block plane with it and was often frustrated at the number of times I'd have to shoot the boards before I got a nice tight joint. Later I tried using a jack plane, and finally a #6 Stanley. At that point I thought, "Why bother with the board?"

So I don't use it anymore. I use this now, and it works much better:



I just grab a flat piece of wood for a spacer -- a piece of oak is shown -- and clamp the plane down to my sanding board. The sandpaper keeps the spacer from moving. Um, Michael, you do have a sanding board, don't you? I use mine all the time.

Best,

Michael
Michael McBroom38893.8045023148

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Live to Play, Play to Live

A piece of 19mm MDF (or chipboard) as the base. Glue and screw a piece of 19mm MDF
on top leaving it about 75mm short of the edge of bottom sheet on one
side. Screw a piece of 25 x 19mm batten across one end of the upper
sheet as a stop for the top and another underneath at opposite end of
board to hook over edge of bench......hey presto one shooting board.


If you want plans...see Jim Williams' book on guitar building. he uses
plywood but MDF does the job.



kiwigeo38893.8255555556

If you've got a flat work surface (made of, say, mdf for instance), it's pretty easy and cheap. I'm joining a redwood top here, I just have the two halves stacked on a spare set of rosewood back plates to get it up off the table, then just clamped it all together. The plywood's there just so I don't crush the redwood top with the clamps.

It helps to keep a straightedge nearby to check your progress. It also may take you a little while to get your handplane technique down if you're new to that.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Here is a crude sketch of mine. It works pretty good, mainly because the plane is guided by the straight edge, not the skill of the operator.

I started out using a setup like Jon's, just clamp the top or backs between two pieces of word and go for it. It didn't work very well for me. I think my plane is to small and my skill is to little....

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Michael,

Most tops comes book matched halves. Lay the two halves on the shooting board face to face as they would have been in the billet prior to cutting. This serves to reduce mismatching of the edges if they shoot a little off square.

Campiano and Williams explain it all in their books along with other tips on jointing tops.

Again-for great shooting board plans by a proven master-go to Lie-Nielsen-choose block planes-choose the miter plane-click on link to David Charlesworth shooting board. Here is another pic of mineMT

I do something like Jon and Joe. The diagram above gives you one with a little variation. Very easy to accomplish as you can see.

Mike
White Oak, Texas

Thanks for the ideas guy's. Joe I like your idea about the straight edge. makes a lot of sense to me.

[QUOTE=FrankC] If you have the cash, check this out...even though you can easily build it i am sure.

Shooting Board

With my lack of skill and time...i am all for purchasing. I am trying to get more motivated to build some jigs though[/QUOTE]
Frank that is nice and the price isn't that bad either.