Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all ive got to make a shooting board (Todd Stock design) and was wondering why some had two stops at right angles and some have just the one stop at the bottom like Todd's ,bearing in mind that i have never used a shooting board before would it be better for me to add the right angled stop to ensure that the plates are returned accuratley after candleing,thanks all Roby

Thanks Filippo see your point about allowing any width of wood my only concern was returning the plates to the board excactly the same after candleing Thanks again Roby

Mine has one end stop to keep from slipping and to keep in line after candling. I also put a board on top with clamps to hold down while shooting.

Filippo,

You'll be happy with the sand paper! I don't have a proper shooting board, I just use a scrap of MDF and my bench. I always used the same MDF scrap which happened to have some sandpaper on it. At some point, that scrap piece was re-purposed. Last weekend, I went to shoot some tops and a back (without the sandpaper) it was way tougher to keep things settled down. It made a bigger difference than I thought it would. . .

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Thanks all , i'm using cumpianos book and he says the accuracy of the shooting board depends upon returning the plates to the same alignment after each candling .

Bear in mind that luthiers use a shooting board in quite a different manner to standard joinery practice where the very edge of the plane sole below the blade runs on the upper guide board to establish the line.
Normally luthiers leave the boards overhanging and never contact the upper guide board with the plane, establishing the straight line through varying pressure at the start, middle or end of cut as required.

Jeff , this is not a deviation from "standard joinery practice" . You are describing the difference between a end grain shooting board and and edge grain one. The end grain one's purpose is to cut a board so the end is 90° so yes the plane runs against the edge of the shooting board. The edge grain board , what would be more appropriately called a joining board uses the planes sole only. Both are common, standard procedures among advanced or at least hand tool using woodworkers. Luthiers are woodworkers.

I find it very helpful to return the stuff to the board in perfect aliment. With a finely set plane it takes too many strokes to get back to the point where you are cutting both pieces unless you register it perfectly. A lot of times I only want or need to take one stroke to get things perfect. If I have to take more than that I don't know if I have corrected what ever was not right. Being able to evaluate a individual stroke tells me what is happening.
Also having a good registration on the end and back means I don't have to use clamps, sandpaper, etc. I can easily hold things down with another board and concentrate on my planing. Takes away some variables for me. I have shot plenty of joints without but I get better results with a board with stops.

L.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I agree with Link; some method for returning the plates the same position each time is a good idea.

Here's my jig, based on the one in Cumpiano's book, which I made it more than 10 years ago. Simplicity itself, but it works, so I haven't found a good reason to change anything about it.








With the top halves and the plane in place

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thanks for all the help guys,i think Todds idea about some kind of adjustable stop would be good,any ideas on how to do this?Thanks again. Roby

Lots of ways to do it. Mine just uses 8 penny nails and a series of holes.
L.

_________________
Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I too make large an small guitars (from porlors to jumbos), and I simply place a board of the appropriate size along one one stop as needed. The jig as is works fine for most common sizes, though. For irregular shaped plates, I use the nail trick...

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

You may want to rabbet the inside bottom edge of the parallel board a little. Any small debris wedged between the stop and the bottom plate will cause a misalignment with the top plate.