Yes, I am talking about shooting boards.

Shooting boards are one of the gateways to fine woodworking. Sure, there are many gateways, but the shooting board, in its different configurations guide the cleanest edges and end grain cuts to the finest accuracies, the most spectacular fit and finish, and it puts this capability in the hands of any woodworker.

I have always enjoyed woodworking jigs, and have made a number of shooting boards over the years. I have thought about many different designs for a long time. I’d have one that did this, but not that, and wish I had one that did that too, but then, that method can become a stack of shooting boards, and most of us don’t have the space for that. It’s true; there are some very specific types that are meant to cover specific uses. Others are great for general work, but the worry over wood movement and long-term accuracy causes some folks to question how much energy to put into the making of their own.

I decided to try designing a shooting board, using a design that encompasses the many qualities that I felt most woodworkers would most desire and need in a basic shooting board. Reinforcing as many strengths as I could, while diminishing the weaknesses where possible, and offer it for sale to woodworkers who may be interested in a shooting board that can cover a lot of fine woodworking situations, yet may not want to build one of their own. If you are interested in purchasing a shooting board, I’d be happy to build one for you. Please see the details at the end of this article.

My design is a shooting board with pivot fence. Made from Baltic Birch for durability, and stability in most any climate. It’s adjustable and calibratable for square as well as the 15, 22-1/2, 30, 45, and 60-degree radials. The base measures approximately 14-3/4 inches square. The plane chute is 14-3/4 x 2-3/4, and 1/2 inch below the base to assure a firm squaring registration with most any maker’s planes. The fence, 11-1/2 long by 1-1/4 wide, is positioned 3 inches from the back edge for planing stability in the chute, leaving a full 11-1/2 inch surface for the work piece. The base has been sanded to 150 grit overall to improve traction on the bench and work piece. The Chute has been sanded to 400 grit. The Shooting Board has been finished with Watco Teak Oil, a user repairable finish, and the Plane Chute has been waxed to aid smooth shooting operations.

Steel T-Nuts, counter bored, pressed and epoxied into the base provide 5/8 inches of steel threading to assure accuracy and lasting structural integrity through years of adjustable use. The cleat hooks the unit to the bench with four 1/4-20 flat head socket cap screws tapped directly into the base, and countersunk into the cleat for a very sturdy connection.

A dust groove runs along the left side of the chute to help assure that dust and shavings don’t foul the shooting plane’s accuracy during use. The chute is checked to assure it is coplanar with the top of the jig, and corrected before it leaves here.

Steel Button Head Cap Screws with Brass Knurled Knobs assure a long lasting, secure, comfortable way of adjusting and fixturing the fence. Under both knurled knobs, a brass washer protects the fence from wear. The fence has a small-elongated slot machined on the calibration side that matches the pivot radius, so the fence can be calibrated to the drafting squares accuracy in any climate or wood moisture condition.

Fence calibration is easy and inexpensive with $4.00 Drafting Triangles available from nearly any good office supply store in their drafting supplies section. The 8-inch 45-45-90 square and 12-inch 30-60-90 drafting triangles assure the best registration. Other angle finders such as adjustable drafting triangles and various styles of protractors and protractor squares can be employed to find the other angles as well.

Here the fence is being calibrated to shoot in the square position. Simply loosen the fence fixturing knobs. A 45-45-90 Drafting Triangle is positioned between the fence and the sole of the shooting plane. The shooting plane is positioned with the toe end at the fence, and the plane sole is pulled firmly against the left side of the plane chute. The fence is then positioned so that there is a tight fit of the triangle between the sole of the plane and the fence, and the fixturing knobs re-tightened. You can also use machinist squares, combination squares, and vernier protractors with rulers from the edge of the chute. THe accuracy of your set up tooling is transfered to the jig. It just takes a few seconds. This assures total shooting accuracy every time you use the Shooting Board, any season of the year.

Here the fence is being calibrated to shoot in the 30 degree radial position. A 30-60-90 Drafting Triangle is positioned between the fence and the sole of the shooting plane. The same procedures for squaring the fence are repeated.

Here the fence is being calibrated to shoot in the 45 degree radial position. A 45-45-90 Drafting Triangle is positioned between the fence and the sole of the shooting plane. The same procedures for squaring the fence are repeated. This is the woodworking secret to perfect mitered corners, perfectly squared ends, perfected dimensional accuracy in layout.

Here a Lie-Nielsen 62 is engaged in shooting square the end of a board, the angle cut on the fence near the knurled knob is used to shoot at any angle other than square. Simply flip the fence over so this angled portion faces the work piece and recalibrate.

Here is a look at the fence, sole, chute relationship, where the wood if engaged would be being pared square by the shooting plane. A fine adjustment and a sharp blade is desirable.

This is a look at the hand position, fixturing the board to the hook portion of the Shooting Board. A firm grip on the side of the plane body near the blade bed pushes the plane forward while holding the plane against the left edge of the chute.

The Stanley #4 is a viable shooter when sharp. Here is it shooting the end grain of Panamanian Rosewood Veneer. Veneer can be trimmed long grain and on any miter angle using this method. Starburst or mitered veneers anyone?

The Shooting Board can shoot Long Grain to 11-3/4 inches.

As shown, the Plane Chute measures 14-3/4 by 2-3/4, which will accommodate Lie-Nielsen’s #9 Iron Miter Plane and 62 Low Angle Jack, the Veritas Low Angle Jacks, as well as other Infill and wooden miter and non-miter planes. Any of the Stanley Bailey and Bedrock planes are suitable for use, and a even a block plane, particularly a low angle one can also be employed if the wood isn’t too thick.

For the best results when using a plane for shooting, the soles should be square to the sides of the plane body, the iron sharpened to the equivalent of an 8000 grit waterstone and stropped. The side and sole of the plane waxed and the iron set for a thin shaving of .001 or less.

When shooting, a firm right hand grip on the plane on the side of the sole positioned near the plane bed at mid-plane, with the shooting board firmly hooked against the bench or fixtured in the face vise. The left hand fixtures the work piece against the fence.

In order to reduce the possibility of tearout, consider making your first cuts to the work with the index finger only of your left hand between the work piece and the fence near the plane chute, so as to skew the work towards you at a slight angle. Take a few passes with the plane here, so as to relieve a slight amount of material at the back of the area being squared. Then place the work piece full against the fence and shoot the edge, stopping when you have planed to the area you relieved. With experience, you will be able to determine for yourself when this method will be most helpful.

When shooting angles other than square, it may occasionally be helpful to fold an eleven inch strip of 150 grit sandpaper cut 1-1/4 inches wide in half, lengthwise, and place it between the work piece and the fence to help resist slipping. This is particularly helpful when working steep angles.

I am offering this shooting board (the deluxe shooter model is shown) for sale in right or left handed versions, please have a look in the Evenfall Studios Online Store. These jigs are craftsman made by me, built for accuracy and longevity. Meant to be a durable, serviceable tool that helps promote the ability for any woodworker to work at the finest levels of woodworking accuracy.

Custom offerings are possibilities! Please feel free to email me and discuss your needs. We also have some accessories available for the boards, such as taller fences, and a bench hook board lift that matches the shooting board height, as an aid for leveling long work is also optional and made only if ordered. Please feel free to inquire about these and other custom options.

To place an order, have a look in the store at the various models we have available, and simply click to order. Your order will be placed via a Paypal Shopping Cart System. For purchases, we accept PayPal which also handles most major credit cards, and United States Postal Service (USPS) Money Orders. Online ordering is preferred.

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2009 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Here’s a photo of a pair to draw to. The shooting boards, shown here in left and right-handed models. You could almost call them V-Twins, but darn it, somebody already thought of that…

Back in late March 2009, I revealed I was going into the woodworking tool business, offering high accuracy shooting boards with calibratable fences, which can be fixtured from 2-7 positions depending on the model. Woodworkers found this very interesting! I want to take a moment to say thank you to all who have purchased one. It has been a warm and well-received response from the woodworking community.

We continue making shooting boards and now offer about twelve different models as well as many other tools in our product line. Additionally, we have created a number of accessories for our shooting boards, making them the most accurate, well-rounded and capable shooting boards available anywhere.

Click Here for detailed Features and Specifications.

Left-handed shooting boards are available in every shooting board model we offer and have been since day one. All our accessories work with left hand models, and when Lie-Neilsen makes the LN-51 available as a left hand shooting board plane, we are ready to offer that option as well!

The first weekend of May 2009, woodworker and furniture maker Jeff Miller sponsored a Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at his shop in Chicago. From what I understand, it was quite the event.

Ron Brese was an exhibitor at this event, and used our ‘Deluxe Shooter’ as the test bed for his beautiful infill miter plane. This plane is now one of Ron’s standard planes, and our ‘Deluxe Shooter’ is the original shooting board design here at evenfall studios.

The Brese Infill Miter
Cian Perez Photo

The Brese infil miter on Evenfall Studios ‘Deluxe Shooter’ Shooting Board
Cian Perez Photo

According to Ron, all those who made it to the event enjoyed the tools and discussions with vendors, and a great time was had by all.

A collection of Ron’s planes and our ‘Deluxe Shooter’
Cian Perez Photo

Cian Perez was at the event and offered me the use of his stellar photos, showing the shooting board, and Ron’s Beautiful Planes. Some of you may know Cian from his super useful How-To Guide, woodworking link sites: The Neanderthal Braintrust, and The Power Index. Thank you very much for offering me the use of your great photos Cian!

I can’t thank Ron enough for taking our board along to the show. If you ever get the chance to enjoy a visit with Ron at a tool show, you’ll find him to be a great guy and a resource of woodworking information. A top craftsmen who is always willing to answer questions and offer great insights. Get out and meet the toolmakers whenever you can! Be sure to visit Ron’s website as well!

Shooting with Ron’s Infill Miter
Cian Perez Photo

You can always see the latest additions to our product line in the New Products section of the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store!

Let’s take a moment and consider woodworker safety.

So much has been said, all of it is good. For our part, I just want to remind you of this one important batch of thoughts.

Mindfulness is everything. Your brain is the most important safety device you have. Keep your mind in the work. Watch what you are doing. Think about how you going to accomplish every task, BEFORE you do it. Know where your flesh and clothing is in relation to the cutters and tooling. Regard any moving part or mechanism as potentially dangerous, in spite of the safety devices it may have, because in reality, it is inherently dangerous. Short cuts are throat cuts. Damaged body parts will never be the same as new. A clean work area is a much safer work area, so clean up frequently and often. If it seems unsafe or risky, trust your instincts, it probably is.

If you are working with a hand tool, please remember that they work best when they are surgically sharp, and without care and respect, they will cut you beyond the bone in a second. Dull tools are even more dangerous, it pays you dividends to keep them sharp in many ways. Fixture the work piece. Always keep your flesh behind the cutting edges. Never, ever fixture work with your hands when using chisels, gouges or planes. Use clamps, fixtures and jigs for this, and use both hands to guide the tool. Be very careful when working wood with knives and axes. Fixtures are not as usable here so know where your body parts are in relation to these tools and keep them from harm.

If you are using a power tool or shop machine, jigs, guides and guards are especially important. Consider carefully why a guide or cover is protecting you before you remove it. Take extra care when working small or thin stock with power tools. Small and thin stock is far safer to work with hand tools and proper fixturing. Consider a shooting board for this. If you are tired or agitated, it is time to consider stopping to rest.

One time is the same as anytime. You are never afforded certainty with carelessness. The one time you bypass any safe practice, you invite the perfect storm to come find you. It can ruin more than just your day.

Our shooting boards offer a lot in the way of safety when it comes to working wood. This is especially true when working small or thin stock, but over all, the use of a shooting board is one of the safest ways to approach perfecting your work. With accuracy capabilities to 0.001 of an inch, you can’t go wrong.

We make many tools in our product line that are designed to enhance and improve the outcomes of woodworking with many different tools. If you’re ready to take woodworking to the next level of perfection and safety, please see us in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store.

Thanks for everything, and please work safe!

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2009 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

There are a number of things a woodworker can classify as delicate work. It can of course mean short in length or width, thin stock, veneer, inlays, book matched pieces, and even working with tone woods. Luthiers commonly join book matched boards for stringed instruments, and these boards are very fragile.

There are also the occasions where using a power tool or a shop machine may not be the safest way, or the most accurate way to accomplish a task and so we are left trying to come up with an alternative method for accomplishing the fine work we need done.

Often even the finest blades of a shop machine can leave some tear out, or small nicks on a cut edge, and due to the rotational force and unequal loadings on rotating blades, the attempt to trim just a little can often result in too little or too much. At best, it isn’t often predictable.

Jointers too, are not without issue. Handling small or thin stock on a Jointer can be dangerous due to the size of the piece and the lack of structural integrity the materials can have when they are thin. If we try to joint them we risk damage to both the stock and ourselves, and this is never good either way. There is never a good reason to have the fingers in harm’s way.

Another happening with cutting and jointing thin stock is that if you are not using high tooth count blades on your Table Saw or super thin settings on the jointer, what you get is a bunch of chatter and snipe. You can joint with the router table if your fence will allow this, but in my experience, there are times on small work that I would prefer to remove less that 1/32nd or even 1/64th, yes .008… It is really hard to get most fences to dial this, but a plane will do this easily, and still with power tools some boards will require you to have your fingers way too close to a dangerous area.

Sometimes it is safer, or more desirable to resort to hand tool methods. Yes, this is the Saw Stop method of jointing edges. Fixture the work and use a sharp plane. Planes have none of the characteristics of the rotating oscillator. They simply shear off a layer one thin bit at a time. This is particularly useful on boards that are too fragile or small to safely size with power tools.

Jointing edges of thin stock and short stock is just as important as the larger stuff. Fit and finish are often even more crucial because the small items may be picked up and closely examined. At the same time, gluing and clamping still requires the same tolerances of larger boards. A straight edge, matched in the joints is still important as always.

Often, many Luthiers feel jointing book matched instrument tops and backs with a plane is both preferable and desirable with tone woods, as this prevents any damage to the wood fibers that could interfere with instrument resonance. The rotary cutters involved in shop machines often make them wonder and give them some concern if making a beautiful sounding instrument is possible if wood fibers should suffer bruising. Certainly good, even great sounding instruments are made, but, the question is, can they be even better? Perhaps shooting these edges manually is part of what takes good to great.

So we have established that it is important to joint and shoot the edges of small boards, tone woods and veneers. We may find it less than easy to balance a #7 or #8 jointer on top of a thin board. Doable sure, but it is tricky work, and easier if it is something you are used to doing frequently. Shorter planes can work but there is still balancing the plane for side-to-side squareness. Of course there is a need for truing any stock, and when you build small boxes and drawers, maybe even cleaning up inlays and virtually any board less than 24 inches long or 3/8’s of an inch thick or less, the need is still obvious, but the size tends to change the dynamics of how.

Edge Jointing veneer while balancing a plane on the edge isn’t going to happen, because there is no way to balance a plane on veneer, and this won’t give you the accuracy needed should you want to create a sunburst pattern or well, even book matching of stock that thin.

Enter the long grain shooting board.

A long grain shooting board can be very effective for handling all the difficulties that shop machines, or trying to plane without one can have.

Several woodworkers have approached me about adding a long grain shooting board to my product line this year, and after discussing with them what features would be most desirable in a shooting board purpose designed for long grain shooting, I am now offering a long grain shooting board. It uses a lot of the same Features and Specifications that I offer in my end grain shooting boards.

The major differences are that it is nearly 30 inches long, and offers at least 24 inches of shooting run, a fence that is a 90-degree fence only, but is user calibratable to confirm it is accurately set to 90 degrees.

I have also included a couple anchor points for a caul that is used without the fence that helps fixture the materials you are shooting along the chute at any angle or shape you choose, as long as you are trying to shoot an edge that is parallel to the chute. This way you can fixture materials to be jointed squarely to 90 degrees, or any arbitrary angle you desire.

So whether you work with veneers, or small boxes, or even are interested in Luthery and need a way to joint edges in a damage free way, a long grain shooting board can be a help to you. It is also just handy for general purposes, allowing you to joint the edges of any board and any thickness straight and square, with the safety of knowing a board too short or two thin will not stop you from safely bringing that board to the dimensions needed for your project.

If you are interested in a long grain shooting board, I make them for the left or right-handed woodworker. Please have a look in the Woodworks Store, or at the Long Grain Shooter’s page. If you are interested in a fixturing caul for it, please be sure to mention one when you contact me.

I am always open to discussing shooting devices, accessories and other jig suggestions. Good things are coming, Stay Tuned!

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2009 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Many woodworkers have learned, shooting boards are one of the magical epiphanies of woodworking, along with sharpening, planing, good layout tools and good technique! I have been amazed with them ever since my granddad showed me how to use his when I was a kid. After all these years, they are still really cool! Many woodworkers have chosen Evenfall Studios for their shooting boards. Our every board must live up to the rigors of quality woodworking, delivering high craftsmanship to any woodworker, using any plane. They are built to last. Hundreds of them live in both professional and hobbyist craftsman’s shops all over the world.

There will be three vendors, all Infill Plane Makers exhibiting in the WIA marketplace, who use Evenfall Studios ‘Deluxe Shooters’ under their infill miters.

Daed Toolworks Photo

Raney Nelson of Daed Toolworks, an Infill Plane Maker from New Jersey, will be exhibiting his infill planes at his first WIA, and I wish him the very best of success.

Raney has been using my ‘Deluxe Shooter’ shooting board in the manufacture of infills as well as other woodworking projects for a long time now. He will be bringing his “Deluxe Shooter” along to demo his miter planes on.

Raney is also a furniture maker and borrows heavily from asian designs. He is also a huge advocate of shooting boards and has made some very specialized boards for various projects he has built. Raney is deeply interested in all aspects of design, and as such, in his infill making, he has fleshed out many historical details and incorporated them into his infill miter designs. Please feel free to ask Raney any shooting board questions you may have.

Marcou Photo

Phillip Marcou of Marcou Planes, an Infill Planemaker from New Zealand will be coming to WIA to exhibit his planes with Fred West. Phillip has been an Infill plane maker for many years now, and this will be his first trip to WIA.

Many people already know Fred West as one of the Admin Staff over at talkFestool, a woodworking forum for Festool users and including, believe it or not, Hand Tools! Fred is a very enthusiastic woodworker and supporter of many toolmakers. He is a great guy, and we all thank him for helping to get Phillip to WIA this year! Fred will be bringing his Evenfall Studios ‘Deluxe Shooter’ along to demonstrate the Marcou M12 Mitre Plane.

All of these guys are absolutely great people and are very happy to let anyone try out anything they like including the Shooting Boards. Please feel free to ask them any questions you may have!

I also want to thank Ron Brese of Brese Plane, for his support of our shooting boards at many past woodworking events. Ron, Raney and Fred have used my Shooting Boards extensively and I am sure if you ask them, they would also be more than happy to field any questions about them that you may have. Unfortunately this year, Ron was unable to get one of his great Shooting Board Planes ready for exhibit in time for WIA this year, but he will have some amazing new Stainless Steel Planes along that you’ll want to check out!

For those who want to do a little more homework on our shooting boards, the Features and Specifications page will flesh out a lot of the details that explain our passion for high quality, longevity, and high accuracy. You can read what Chris Schwarz had to say when he took a ‘Deluxe Shooter’ for a test drive.

You can always see the latest additions to our product line in the New Products section of the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store!

Please feel free to Contact us if you have any questions at all about our shooting boards and accessories, or if you have anything you’d like to share. Our store is always available to place your order, 24/7-365. For those of you going to WIA any year, have a great time! For those unable to attend, you can still make any weekend a skill building weekend. Check out a few books in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Library.

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2010 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Working with picture frames and moldings in general presents a special set of circumstances when mitering. Often, the bottom and back of the molding are the only surfaces that can be registered flat and square, and so they have to be the ones used when registering them against fences for cutting and shooting.

So it goes that if you can only orient a molding one way, which is on it’s back, a single chute shooting board will only be able to shoot half of the miter. The right hand board will only shoot the left side of the miter, and the left chute will only shoot the right side. A problem if you only have one chute. There are workarounds, but ehhh… They are often rife with as many problems as they hope to solve.

Enter our newest shooting board, the ‘Picture Frame Shooter’. A shooting board with twin chutes, independent, calibratable left and right hand 45-degree miter fences, with tall, removable fence faces to prevent breakout to the top of most plane blades.

Not all moldings are tall, so both the fence base and fence face are flattened to 0.001 when we make them. If the high fence face is in the way for a low molding or workpiece, simply remove it, as it is just held in place by two 1/4-20 flat head cap screws, and use the base for low moldings. The base is the same basic fence we use for the Standard Fence on our other shooting boards. You can remove and replace the fence face as you need.

Baltic Birch Construction. Solid, Hefty, Stable. The best material we can obtain for shooting boards, and hearty in any environment. We figure if old woodies are still alive and kicking after 100 plus years, our shooting boards should enjoy a good run as well. We build them to last. Like any fine tool, this one is precision and will appreciate being kept safe and dry when not in use.

Twin chutes, 2-3/4 inches wide by 14-3/4 inches long. Complete with dust grooves and will accommodate any plane, same as our other shooting boards.

A roomy board lift to place your moldings for shooting.

Individual, and fully calibratable 45-degree left and right fences, offering 5-1/4 inches of molding registration and breakout protection nearly 1-3/4 inches high.

A 90-degree fence, 11-3/4 inches long for right angle work like our Deluxe Shooters, and this fence can be made right or left handed depending on your preference for no additional cost.

Fence faces and bases flattened on a granite surface plate to 0.001.

Stainless Steel and Brass custom made thumbscrews to add durability and corrosion resistance. These mount into steel threads.

The same fence angle calibration system employed on all our shooting boards, which will transfer the accuracy of your finest layout tools to this board as well. We recommend plastic drafting squares. An 8-inch drafting square can be had for less than $5.00 in any office supply, however, if you like Starrett accuracy, these boards can work with that as well.

We recommend that you calibrate before each use for total shooting accuracy. No test shots, no shimming and taping or bumping and fudging. Just calibrate and shoot your miters with confidence.

The rest of the details on the new ‘Shooter’ borrow heavily from it’s older brothers, and you are welcome to have a look at the Features and Specifications page for more details.

As always, the boards are finished to 150 grit smoothness, and offer plenty of traction for the work. The chutes are made square to the work and polished to 400 grit.

Then the boards and fences are given a saturation of Watco Teak Oil, which we have found to offer stove bolt protection in tough conditions, and is easily field repairable should the need ever arise.

Finally the chutes are waxed with paste wax and buffed. The wax is as easy to renew as it is to wax your planes. We find that this is as slick as UHMW and far squarer to the work, because there are no screws to deflect a slick plastic material. We feel it is the accuracy that is wanted most, and the final result in your project is what really matters.

Make no mistake about this board. It is a pure shooting board, every bit as capable as our ‘Basic Shooter’ and then some. It is not sole and only for moldings, You can shoot any rectangular dimensional board.

The ‘Picture Frame Shooter’ is also equipped to address most any board that has a distinct front and back like moldings do. The 90 degree fence is similar, flattened to .001 on both the base and face, both 45 degree fences are treated the same. The big difference is only that when a board has a non flat front, the miters must be addressed from either side.

It’s a fully tricked out workhorse and ready for service whether you build picture frames commercially, or enjoy doing them for yourself, friends and family. If you are looking for high accuracy and durability for fine framing or 45-degree miters of any kind, this is the ultimate shooting board.

If you are interested in a ‘Picture Frame Shooter’, we are taking orders for this and all our products. Please visit the ‘Picture Frame Shooter’ product page, and have a look at the rest of our tooling in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store.

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2010 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

We are happy to share with you that the LN 51 is already a perfect fit on all Evenfall Studios right hand shooting board models, and if it is a Chute Board you really want, we offer a both a shooting board model called the ’51′ Shooter and a ‘Chute Adapter Kit’ that creates a true “chute board” out of many of our existing shooting board models for the LN 51. This kit fits ALL our shooting board models except the long grain shooter, and the LN 51 will work just fine on a long grain shooter without the chute as well. Most planes that are commonly used for shooting will fit within the enclosed chute of our boards, even with the LN-51 kit rail installed.

Our LN 51 chute adapter is reversible. It consists of one precision-milled baltic birch rail that is flattened to 0.001 on each side, and the three adjustable mounting slots allow adjustment for the nominal 2-1/8th inch width of the LN-51. This means no matter the nominal width of your 51 or if wood should move, the chute can be “zeroed” for a tight clearance fit in the chute.

One reversible chute rail is provided with both sides flattened, creating two wear surfaces for use with the LN-51. Three 1/4-20 stainless steel button head cap screws are included to mount the rail to the chute. This means you can configure our shooting boards for use with or without the chute adapter; it isn’t a permanent fixture.

Specifically, this kit can be fitted to the right chute of the Basic Shooter, the Basic Plus Shooter, the Deluxe Shooter, and the Picture Frame Shooter’s right chute, adding flexibility to the high accuracy, adjustable angle shooting boards we offer. These are top quality adjustable angle shooting boards built to meticulous specifications.

You can read about these specifications here.

There are two ordering options:

If what you want is a “Chute Board” for your LN 51, and you do not yet own one of our shooting boards, our shooting board for the LN 51 is called the ’51′ Shooter. Just navigate to that store page, read up on the details, click to place one in the shopping cart and check out. It’s simple as that.

If you already own one of our shooting boards and would like to upgrade it for use with the LN 51 with this kit, we can supply the kit rail and mounting hardware, and you can either drill and tap the chute mounting points for the machine screw mounting hardware yourself, (recommended) or mount with wood screws instead. We supply complete instructions for the retrofit of your existing board with the kit. The LN 51 Chute Adapter Kit page is here. Even if you don’t know when you’ll have an LN 51, it may be convenient to have your shooting board prepared to work with one in the future.

If Lie-Neilsen releases a left hand version of this plane, this chute kit will have that covered as well.

Again, ordering is super easy. Simply navigate to the appropriate link posted above, add it to your shopping cart along with your order of the shooting board of your choice. Remember this option is not currently available for the Long Grain Shooter. The LN 51 adapter is found in the Shooting Board Accessory Section, where all the other shooting board upgrades are kept.

If you have any questions at all, please Contact Us and we’ll be happy to flesh out any of the details.

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2011 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

It’s our Deluxe, Basic Plus and Basic Shooters made available in “Chute Style” for the LN 51 shooting board planes.

While we have mentioned similar news of this recently, and have been offering chute adapter kits to be used as an upgrade to our shooting board line, it just made sense to give this series it’s own identity, and make it easier to order.

The LN 51 is a premier plane when it comes to shooting, and many woodworkers are selecting it as their choice for the shooting board. It made perfect sense to give the 51 a great Chute Board for it’s purpose. This shooting board is a precision tool.

The ’51’ Shooter is Artisan Made like all our tools, sharing all the features and specifications of our other shooting boards and tools. It can be ordered from The ’51′ Shooter Page in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store.

If you already have a Shooting Board of ours and would like to retrofit it to work with the LN 51, we still offer a Chute Adapter Kit that will turn your Deluxe, Basic Plus, or Basic Shooter into a ‘51’ Shooter. It can be ordered from the Shooting Board Accessory section in our Store. Once you receive it, simply install the kit, adjust it to fit, and wax both the chute and your plane. Welcome to shooting heaven.

It is also important to note that this chute rail is not only adjustable, but reversible with two sides flattened on certified granite. It’s removable as well, so you can still use nearly any plane with our shooting boards, if that is what you wish or need. And if you ever damage or wear out the rail, we offer replacements in the Shooting Board Accessory Section in our store.

We welcome the ‘51’Shooter to our Shooting Board line up. We now offer seven different styles of shooting board in all.

More good things are coming!

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2011 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

For many years, I have had a continued interested in tool sharpening, as well as how they dull through use, while paying attention to the many trade-offs offered by different sharpening methods. I looked for ways to optimize the sharpening process for better workflow. Along the way, sharpening more frequently, meaning not waiting until blades are unusably dull stood out as very important, and some other ideas became viable as solutions to challenges other woodworkers I spoke with were having. Sharpening needed to be handier, and the sharpening tools tools more effective. The fruits of these studies are coming forth in the Sharpening Aids we are offering through our ‘Woodworks Store’.

We are introducing a Sharpening Station based on Abrasives over Glass, otherwise referred to as “Scary Sharp”. We call it the ‘Sharpening Station 1′ “Scary Sharp”. There are several strengths it brings to sharpening.

Portability is a big strength. Many woodworkers and sharpeners are space challenged, and having a space where this always happens isn’t always possible. This station is designed as a bench hook, so you can either hook it on the edge of the bench, or clamp it in a vise to sharpen. Then remove it so you can use the bench for your projects. It is also very usable on other level surfaces that are not a bench. As a for instance, you could use it on a Workmate, a Festool FMT/3 with the ‘FMT/3 Cleat’ installed, even a table saw if you use one. You could even take it with you as a traveling sharpening solution.

Another strength. Four flat glass surfaces. Many waterstone users lament how much flattening is necessary with them, particularly the coarse grit stones. Much of the stone is worn away flattening, not sharpening. Another downside waterstones have is that as they go out of flat, they transfer whatever shape that is to the tool’s edge. They are also very messy, and have freezing liabilities in cold climates. The coarsest waterstones are mainly used for getting a tool’s bevel established, and to be certain, when good maintenance practices are used in sharpening, the coarse stones are rarely used.

The Sharpening Station 1 can eliminate the need for coarse waterstones, replacing them with coarse abrasives on flat glass when required. No more flattening ever. These four surfaces are flat and stay flat. They measure 3 x 10 inches and offer a lot of flexibility. They are high enough above the bench top for finger clearance when flattening tooling backs or knife sharpening. Load them up with coarse grit for grinding and flattening sessions. Step the grits for working the bevels up to fine sharpness, set them up with fine micro abrasives when maintaining sharpness during fine woodworking sessions.

Many Woodworkers are resorting to different sharpening methods for different parts of the sharpening process. I still use stones here for some work, both Diamond and Oilstones. I like flat stones for knives, chisels and plane irons. The emphasis here being on flatness, that’s what I value the most. They also work well for out-canal carving tools. My observations have been that abrasives on a flat surface, be it on glass or granite, have some niche areas that are too good to ignore, particularly the flexibility and the flatness. Not having a huge mess to clean up is also a big plus. So whether you use stones or mix power and non-powered sharpening methods, the ‘Sharpening Station 1′ can augment or replace some sharpening tools.

A sandpaper cutter for sizing the sheet abrasives to the sharpening station is also built in. At the far end of the station, we’ve incorporated a handy cutter big enough to handle most any standard sheet abrasives available, by length and width.

Simply transfer the size of the glass to the back of the sandpaper, insert the paper, abrasive side down under the cutter, apply pressure with one hand and tear carefully with the other. It’s that simple.

You can choose from self-adhesive abrasives, or use spray adhesives to adhere the abrasives to clean glass. It’s always ready for work.

Flexibility. Our ‘Sharpening Station 1′ shares sharpening modules with our ‘Bench Strop’. It is part of an interchangeable system of tops that we call “Strop Tops”. Currently our Strop Top line up consists of the Glass which is included as standard on the ‘Sharpening Station 1′. Horse Butt Leather, Cowhide Split Leather, and bare MDF can be purchased separately. That’s a lot of versatility, and all it takes is a 5/32nd hex key to interchange them. If you like finishing with a strop of MDF with fine polishing compounds embedded, we have you covered.

The station as shown weighs approximately 10 pounds, measures 14-3/4 inches square and is finished with teak oil. It’s a sturdy tool and it shares a lot in common with other tools we make. Because it does, it offers the same precision and durability enjoyed by other tool designs we offer.

It’s available for ordering now, just follow this link to the ‘Sharpening Station 1′ “Scary Sharp” in the ‘Woodworks Store’.

In other news, we have been working on other ‘Woodworks Store’ upgrades, which will help showcase other new tooling we are offering. As many know, our store has been using shopping cart ordering for some time now, and our web store has expanded from our original shooting board, the ‘Deluxe Shooter’, into multiple categories of woodworking tools and jigs. We have also been working to create better descriptions of our tooling so you’ll have a better idea of what our tools are and what they do.

New to the web store is the ‘New Products’ page, where we showcase the newest offerings in our product line. This means going forward, that if you are wondering what our latest tool and product offerings are, just have a look in the ‘New Products’ section of the store!

The New Product lineup currently has the Sharpening Station 1, as well as our latest shooting board model, The ‘Ultra Shooter’. What is the Ultra Shooter? It has all the angles our Deluxe Shooter has, and we added 75 degrees, so it shoots 90, 15, 22.5, 30, 45, 60 and 75-degree angles with fixtured precision calibratability. All the same attention to detail as all our shooting boards have plus an angle that is handy for veneer and other fine work. The ‘Ultra’ is also available in ’51′style shooters as well.

Other new products include ‘The Any Angle Fence’, which allows you a fence that will self fixture at any angle our shooting boards currently fixture, with full calibratability, and will fixture any angle in between 1 – 90 degrees by clamping. It has two fence faces, a tall one and a short one, that have been precision flattened to .001 to place between the fence base and the work piece to prevent damage at the cut. It will work with any of our Deluxe or 51 shooter style models.

The Glass Strop Top too is a new addition to our product line, and it not only fits the new ‘Sharpening Station 1′, but the ‘Bench Strop System’ as well. It can be ordered individually if desired.

We do a fair bit of cooking around here, and found our spice rack organization lacking. The ‘Spice Rack Tiers’ hold 24 bottles of spice on board and allow another six bottles in front, to enable easier workflow when cooking. These tiers are not just for spices, they have application elsewhere too! Maybe in the shop or for other hobbies. You decide. Please check them out.

Also new, are the ‘Medium’ and ‘Small Drill Squaring Guides’. Many times, we need a perpendicular hole and we can’t leave it to chance. There may not be a Drill Press available, or a hole needs to go where a Drill Press can’t reach. Often we want countersink screws to wind up flush to the surface.

These drilling guides can be used with any drill, hand, battery or corded electric, to drill a perpendicular hole and most any angle the work is at. We drill and ream these to cover all the holes from 5/64ths to 15/64, by 64ths on the ‘Small’, and from 1/4 to 1/2 by the 16th on the ‘Medium’. Surfaces are flattened to .001 on certified granite. They are not a steel bushing based guide. They are made from 6061 Aluminum and meant for starting holes in wood and soft materials that are square to the work. Take a look at them in the store.

Another new item is the ‘MFT/3 Cleat’. It is a replacement Cleat that allows our Shooting Boards and some of our other tools to mate to the edge of the Festool MFT/3 Work Table more effectively. So if you are an MFT/3 user, please check them out! Any of our tools with cleats can be user retrofitted. See them in the Shooting Board Accessory section of the store.

Speaking of Shooting Board Accessories, we have some old items with new ordering capabilities. The ‘Standard Cleat’ is the cleat we spec as original on all our shooting boards and some of our other tools. Now you can order a replacement should you like.

Also, we have created more specific ordering for our ‘Standard Fences’, and ‘Double High Fences’ so they can be ordered by the angle. Traditionally we supply the ‘Standard Fence’ and ‘Double High Fence’ with a 90 and 45-degree angle. We now offer both models with 90 and an option of 15. 22.5, 30, 45, 60, and 75-degree angles. This is great if you want a replacement fence for your original, or want to order fences for any specific angle your board model can fixture! Have a look at your options in the store!

If you are ready for your sharpening sessions to become better organized and more efficient, we have the tooling for that. If you have been considering a Shooting Board, we have many options that have most of the angles covered. Ordering is easy in the ‘Woodworks Store’.

Thanks, and as always, please check back often!

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Our new ‘Ultra Shooter’ is an expansion of our ’Deluxe Shooter’ model, providing seven calibratable angles from which to shoot accurately. It offers all the angles of the deluxe shooter – plus the 75-degree angle – which is very useful for trimming 15 degree wide pie shaped slices of veneer, or thicker stock for use in starburst arrangements, compass points, various inlay designs, or anything else you might imagine.

The ‘Ultra Shooter’ shares the same general design, accessories, precision and attention to detail with all our shooting boards, including the ’51 Shooter’ series.

The seven angles the ‘Ultra Shooter’ fixtures are: 15, 22.5, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90. You can order a ‘Standard’ or ‘Double High’ fence to match any angle the board can shoot. This board can shoot the angles needed to build most anything, and if you’re like me, you never know what your future woodworking projects may require. With an ‘Ultra Shooter’, you’ll be prepared.

Click here to see the Features and Specifications of our Shooting Boards.

For more information and ordering, please see the ‘Ultra Shooter’ Shooting Board in the Woodworks Store.

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

In it’s most basic form, a shooting board is a jig that fixtures a work piece and guides a plane so that the ends and edges of a board can be trimmed, but it doesn’t have to stop there. It’s one of the most important woodworking tools. The definition of trimming itself becomes a list of desirable outcomes from a shooting board, and with a sharp iron in a plane, it can allow woodworking tolerances to 0.001-inch accuracy.

Jigs are a huge part of woodworking, and many are single purpose built. Given the small shops that many woodworkers work in, it is valuable to have some tools and jigs that will help perform a wide range of tasks, and take a minimal amount of space for storage.

Over these past several years, I have received many questions about shooting boards from woodworkers who are very interested in the quality of their work. Wood for projects can become expensive, and many skills are earned with practice. Many woodworkers desire tooling that will help give them the best quality results possible.

While we make a range of shooting board models with different shooting outcomes in mind, there are some features and specifications we apply to all our shooting boards to help assure they will provide the best finish results possible, provide high accuracy, and compensate for wood movement as much as possible, no matter where in the world they may be. We custom make them here in shop for each woodworker as ordered, using a combination of hand and power tools, guided by hand and eye. No CNC, no work is sublet to others.

For our shooting boards and associated wood tooling, we select B/BB and BB/BB grade Baltic Birch Plywood of either Russian or Finnish origin. It is 100% Birch, 1.4 millimeters thickness per ply. We spec 12 and 18 millimeter Baltic Birch for most of our tooling, with 9-13 ply’s respectively. These thicknesses relate nominally to 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick.

It is a very strong, dense and durable product, often used in things like speaker enclosures, furniture, as well as in woodworking jigs, and heavy-duty industrial applications that include flooring. It leaves the mill between 7-12% Moisture Content. At 68 degrees Fahrenheit and 65% humidity, (relatively high humidity) the equilibrium moisture content of Baltic Birch Plywood is around 12%.

The wood movement stability of Baltic Birch Plywood is very good. Laminations always total an odd number and are laid in at 90 degrees to each other. The top veneers are always similarly oriented, and have few solid birch patches. I further grade for this as I select the best sheets for use from our supplier.

Dimensional Variations in and across the face grain direction averages 0.015% dimensional increase per 1% increase of moisture level, and thickness changes of 0.3% dimensional increase over 1% increase of moisture level, over a range of 10-27% MC. This translates to actual changes of 0.0018 inches per foot across face grain, and 0.0003 inches per inch in thickness per 1% change in MC.

When compared to the wood movement in hardwoods in general, which is seasonally considered to be 1/8th inch, or .125 inch across the grain on average, Baltic Birch is a very stable wood product, and maintains dimensional accuracy very well for shooting board applications. It makes for a stout, durable, and accurate shooting board.

The chute on our shooting boards measure 2-3/4 inches wide, made to work with any plane. It is sawn straight to within 0.001 inch straightness during the manufacturing process, which creates an accurate running surface for the sole of the shooting plane to register against.

During the creation of the chute, we cut a 1/8th x 1/8th dust groove along the inside edge of the chute. Dust and debris that commonly fouls the chute from the end grain cut can affect shooting accuracy, by lifting the plane out of squareness to your work. This groove helps keep plane shavings and dust from affecting shooting accuracy.

Shooting your work to obtain perfectly squared or mitered ends matters on more than one geometrical plane; top to bottom as well as fore and aft. Our boards are quality checked and corrected so the plane rides the chute, coplanar to the board lift or platform. This helps assure that the plane shoots square to the board end in any fence position. While it is true that wood can move, Baltic Birch Plywood moves almost imperceptibly in this dimension. Every shooting board leaves here giving your plane’s lateral adjustability the maximum chances for any needed corrections.

Finally the chute is then precision finish sanded to 400 grit smoothness. It is a polished surface that is waxed and buffed to a high gloss. It offers as smooth and accurate a surface to the plane sole as possible.

Most shooting boards are of the bench hook design and ours are no exception. The stresses of shooting are all transferred to the cleat that “hooks” over the edge of the bench, or is clamped in the bench vise. To assure this cleat can keep up with the way you work, it’s held on by four 1/4-20 flat head cap screws, tapped deeply into the wood and torqued directly to the base of the board. The cleats are removable and replaceable. We also offer an upgrade cleat to make our shooting boards and bench hook style tooling a better fit when used on the Festool MFT/3 work tables. Replacement Cleats are available to keep our shooting boards up and running over the long run.

The relationship between the fence and the chute is the heart of any shooting board. Our fence designs approach the alignment task a bit differently. They are not permanently mounted to the base, and include the ability to be calibrated quickly. The fences are all based on a pivot design, some with multi-angle capability and have a slot in the far end for precision calibration. This means that while seasonal movement happens, our shooting boards have the capability to calibrate for this and remove any angular error between the chute and fence every time, no matter what climate the shooting board is located in, any season of the year. These calibrations are possible with something as accurate, yet inexpensive as plastic drafting triangles.

The Standard Fence is shown here, and currently there is also a ‘Double High’ model available, that is 1-7/16ths of an inch high. This style of fence has two working sides, one side for shooting 90 degrees, the other side comes standard for shooting 45 degrees, and other angle fences are available for order. We also have fence models available on some of our shooting boards that offer a fixed or sliding, yet removable high face. All working fence faces and bases are sanded flat to 0.001-inch flatness on certified granite surface plates, to 150 grit surface smoothness.

The fence pivot point, and angle adjustment points are steel reinforced threads set into precision located counter bores. Each point takes three separate drilling operations, and has a steel threaded insert press fit into a bed of epoxy for a very strong and permanent connection to the base. Thread depth is 9/16ths of an inch deep, creating a solid connection for the fence.

Our thumbscrews are custom made from 1/4-20 threaded 316 stainless steel and brass. This combination offers corrosion resistance, is attractive, and is knurled for a good grip. Hand tightening is all that is recommended or generally required. We offer thumbscrews in 2 different lengths, Standard and Double High. The Standard size being 1-5/8 OAL, 1-3/32 threaded. The Double High size being 3 inches OAL and 2-1/4 threaded. A brass washer is included with the thumbscrew to help keep the fence in good condition under heavy use.

Our shooting boards measure 14-3/4 inches square. Single chute models have a lift platform that provides nearly a square foot of support for your work with the fence set to 90 degrees. Twin chute models offer a platform nominally 9-1/4 wide. The lift and bases are finish sanded to a 150 grit surface smoothness to help offer some skid resistance under working conditions. We finish our wood tooling with Watco Teak Oil, an “in the wood” marine grade finish, for use in above the waterline applications that offers excellent wear, and high moisture resistance. It is an easily repairable finish, should it need to be refreshed for any reason.

Our design and quality standards provide the woodworker a shooting board capable of transferring high accuracy from instruments as fine as machinist quality squares, or protractors, even drafting triangles quickly, or using the tooling you have. It is a wooden tool, so we must accept some wood movement, but we do our best to assure a consistent tool, and hope it is treated with care going forward. Quality assurance for the accuracy that is most susceptible to movement is available each time it is used, because the woodworker calibrates the shooting board with their instrument. This means our shooting boards work in ensemble with your shooting plane to transfer that calibrated accuracy to your woodwork.

It’s all about delivering the quality you work hard to achieve for your projects, the workflow you enjoy, developing your skills and abilities, and providing for a lot of creativity in the process. The beauty of our shooting boards is in what they help create for you! Our shooting boards are a great value, worth having, and we hope you’ll agree.

We make a number of high quality tools and jigs for both hand and power tool woodworking. All are made with the same care, precision and attention to detail as our shooting boards are.

Please see us in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store for model descriptions, ordering and further details.

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Call it a mission statement if you like, but I personally like helping woodworkers create, while achieving their personal best levels of craftsmanship no matter which hand they favor. Our tools are designed to help create fine craftsmanship with either hand, no matter which side you favor. We make a number of woodworking tools and jigs that are purpose-made to help unlock the creative process, making the tools you may already have, work even better and more accurately, by giving both you and your tools as much capability as we can in the process.

Curves often look right when faired by eye, particularly when they are not adjacent to each other, but some of the hardest things to do are straightness, squareness and angular accuracy, exactly where you want or need it. Why? Because the look and fitment of everything matters in fine work.

In joinery, the squareness, straightness and fitment are often everything to the joint. Starting with straightness is a set up for accurate squareness, because the layout tooling transfers accuracy from one place to another.

Shooting your work matters a lot in joinery, including dovetailing. While we are not so concerned with dovetail angles specifically, we are very concerned that the end grain of the boards are square side to side and edge to edge, or the boards will not come together square. That isn’t good in case work. Further, the end grain after shooting is smooth, and layout with both pencils and knives is much more accurate and easy to see and saw to, than that over rough sawn stock.

In joinery, glue is adhesive, but lasts because the physical joinery fits right. It is the joinery that bears the load; this is because the accuracy and close fitment of the joint leaves just the right amount of space for glue. When all this comes together simultaneously, glue holds and the joinery lasts for years. That is what strength and beauty are made of.

Other times we are trying to bookmatch boards or veneers, maybe joint stock that is awkward, short or thin without endangering our fingers on a powered jointer. Sawing compound angles by hand without becoming a contortionist, or even just saw accurately where needed. Drill squarely on any flat surface, or rasp and shape ergonomically.

Where possible, I have always felt that either hand should have equal chance of doing great work. We strive to make what we see in our mind’s eye translate to the woodwork and it doesn’t matter which hand we favor.

So whether you are southpaw or not, we offer nine different shooting board models, as accurate as we can possibly make them from wood, that can be made specifically for either left or light handers. Most of our shooting board accessories, which greatly enhance our boards capabilities, can be specified for left handed use as well. When Lie-Nielsen produces the LN-51-L Shooting Board Plane in the future, we are ready to offer left handed 51 Shooter shooting boards for use with it, too.

Our Sawing “East / West” Bench Hooks are available in left or right hand models, and are ready for use with both Japanese and Western style saws. Saw to the line and shoot the rest of the way. Our Handsaw Mag Guides are extremely adjustable, and will work equally well for either hand.

Our Drilling Guides are ambidextrous. They help you start drill holes that are square to the work with either hand or electric power, and with either right or left hands.

Our Rasping Fixture will allow you to rasp ergonomically on anything from cabriole legs to saw handles, without the use of a vice, and often at angles that are more comfortable than when the work is held in a vise. It also protects the workbench from damage from the rasps and we make it for use with either hand.

We also offer a Planing Stop that will effectively stop thin, thick and even curved stock, that mounts easily to either end of a bench, depending on which planing hand you favor. It maximizes the usable planing length of your bench, and is out of the way of other woodworking activities when not in use.

To help keep all your tooling running sharp, Our Sharpening Strops and Sharpening Stations pay attention to the need for flat surfaces when sharpening, making sharpening, and sharpening maintenance easier in handy to use ways, no matter which hand you favor.

We continue to develop new tooling, and as always, with attention to both left and right handed or ambidextrous operation, so please keep an eye on our New Products Page for news about that. Please feel free to follow any of the links to look at tools that help make fine craftsmanship easier. If you have a tool idea you would like us to consider for use in either hand, please contact us and let us know. Remember our mission is about helping you achieve your personal best in woodworking craftsmanship.

We enjoy your questions and comments! Please Contact Us.

Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Having a shooting board can be a solution to many woodworking’s problems. What a shooting board does in it’s most basic form is create a chute for a hand plane to slide squarely (side to side, and front to back) to the work, and position a fence to hold the work at a specifically given angle, such as 90 or 45 degrees, so that the end grain of the work can be planed square and smooth. The finish result desired is the smooth finish and squareness front to back, top to bottom.

Getting boards square is the first part of any woodworking process. We can’t reliably lay out anything until we have created at least one accurate reference side, edge, and end on our work. Most commonly, we use a shooting board to true the ends of our boards, but a shooting board isn’t limited to end grain work, and I’ll come back to that in a bit.

The end of a board just off a hand saw will be pretty rough for use with layout and will likely not be true enough for layout work. In addition, rough sawn wood is difficult to lay out on. Pencil lines are inaccurate at best, and knife scribe lines are impossible to see. While end grain can be sawn very cleanly and accurately by machine, it too can be improved to even higher accuracy and better appearance by shooting, so shooting is applicable for both hand and power tool woodworking. Accurate layout can use all the help it can get. For the nicest looking work and best fitment, using a shooting board is everything.

Joinery relies heavily on all the accuracy you can give it, because the fitment of joinery should do more work than the glue holding it. This means tolerances need to be precise. Smooth, accurate surfaces and appearance of end grain or long grain from a shooting board makes boards easy to mark and see the layout marking.

Let’s consider how shooting the end and long grain can aid the following kinds of joinery.

Dovetail layout fits best when it is done squarely, or the box won’t close squarely and properly due to misalignments. Remember too, that any error introduced to the work can quickly add to itself and render precision fitment impossible. A hallmark of any fine woodworking is precision fitment, freshly shot edges and ends are the running guide for marking gauges, squares, bevels and dovetail markers. In boxes, often grooves and rabbets are plowed as well and the plow plane is only as accurate as your edges and ends. You will always be glad you made all this work easier on yourself by shooting it first. A shooting board is an excellent place to trim proud dovetail joinery flush to the case as well.

Mortise and tenon joints are often greatly helped by shooting. While there are many ways to lay out these joints, there are also many applications of this joint and the shooting board can really help a lot. The accuracy of the end grain is again the guide, particularly if you lay out tenon shoulders with a marking gauge. This is the best way to lay out shoulders, rather than with a square from the edge because it assures consistency all the way around the work piece and across multiple work pieces. This way not only are they all the same, but the wood fibers are pre-cut by the gauge before sawing.

Mortices too can benefit, because again the marking gauge needs to ride accurate surfaces, and the cuts it leaves are the initial cuts that leave the wood fibers clean. Shooting is not actually making the mortise or tenon, but it can be the basis for an accurate mortise and tenon if we lay out from edges and ends we have first trued by shooting.

Shooting Boards can be more versatile than only shooting 90 and 45 degree angles. With Shooting Boards configured with multi position fences like we offer, Almost any angle can be applied to a workpiece by shooting. Our boards can be set accurately before you shoot any angle. We offer up to seven specific shootable angles with our Ultra Shooter: 15, 22.5, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90 degrees, and we offer three other boards in this style with fewer angles, if you don’t think you need them all. With our ‘Any Angle Fence’ you can shoot any angle in between all those angles. This is a handy shooting board accessory for shooting work that is out of square in the first place, unusual configurations, angled tenons, lap joints, and so on.

Mitered Joints are a particularly exclusive joint, and offer quite a few challenges to fitment. Frames and moldings offer different challenges. Frames are squares and rectangles but close like a circle. There are 360 degrees in a circle, and too, 360 in a square. We shoot the eight 45 degree angles that add up to 360 so that the angles match and have a precise fit. It only takes less than half of one degree to create an obvious mismatch. Add that mismatch to 8 angles and the final miter of a frame can be off by several degrees. An accurate shooting board can bring precision to this kind of work immediately. Not only does this precision look great, but it offers the best mating surface for glue and a strong joint.

Moldings also fit tighter and appear almost seamless after shooting, but mitering moldings can offer some special challenges. Sometimes case work is out of square and needs compensated for, or is square. Either way, accuracy is important for precision’s sake. Moldings can only be trued in the orientation they will be presented, (inside corners, outside corners, vertical and horizontal orientations, etc) so the shooting board needs to have a chute on both the left and right side, and the ability to orient the moldings properly, against either the base or fence, so the right and left ends of moldings can be trued in the proper orientation. There are many ways moldings are oriented. These are the reasons we offer shooting boards that specifically address 45 degree miters, and molding work.

Shooting Boards offer a safer alternative when working with small or thin stock. Shop machines and power tools can inflict a lot of damage to the work and hands, particularly when cutting and truing small and delicate work. For example, A powered jointer will snatch a small work piece from you, leaving your hand exposed to the blades; it will also chip and tear out thin stock. Small work is no safer on a table saw or chop saw. What to do? Use the shooting board.

Our Long Grain Shooter is particularly handy as a 24 inch jointer for small or thin stock, as well as veneers and Lutherie work. It is also particularly handy for shooting wide case work panels square for appearance and joinery. Let’s face it, balancing a large hand plane on small or thin stock isn’t easy. The Long Grain Shooter removes those obstacles by holding the work and guiding the plane. With this shooting board, you don’t need to use a jointer plane for this work, you could use a jack or smoother instead if you like. We also offer a planing stop accessory for our shooting boards so you can plane the faces of short or thin stock safely and without damage to the work piece from errant power tool mishaps. With a piece of 1/8th masonite or MDF placed beneath the workpiece, this planing stop will allow you to plane to 1/8th inch thick, and with no danger to your plane iron. If you like making small boxes, a shooting board can be a huge part of total stock preparation.

So why shoot? The woods we woodworkers use are often more expensive than our tools, and often each piece requires a lot of prep to arrive at it’s final form. You may not always need to shoot, but when it matters, a shooting board can help remove a lot of what is often left to chance, and turn efforts into precise outcomes that you can be assured of. It is a tool worthy of taking woodworking into the realm of fine woodworking, and that is what inspired many woodworkers in the first place.

You can build your own shooting board or buy one. We offer a large number of high precision shooting board styles and accessories that allow any woodworker to directly gain versatile and accurate control over many woodworking situations. I build them all with 0.001 standards on every important parameter in mind, using the most durable and stable plywood materials, and finish them to withstand real world use in woodworking shops. The finish is marine grade and helps limit wood movement in a material that is already minimally affected by humidity.

When I’m not building shooting boards, I am working on new shooting board and tool designs that will further enhance any woodworkers desire to bring more “fine” to their woodworking. Please come to the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store and have a look at not only our Shooting Boards and Shooting Board Accessories, but the many other tools we offer that help make woodworking easier, and enhance woodworking quality as well!

We enjoy your comments! Please Contact Us.

Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

We offer over ten different shooting board styles that offer woodworkers an accurate shooting experience based on their choice of planes, their need to shoot rectangular or molding stocks or both, and the angles they need to shoot the most. What many may not be aware of is that we also offer a range of accessories for our shooting boards that help make them do a wider range of woodworking tasks.

The Standard Fence is the fence we supply with our Basic through Ultra shooting board line as original equipment. It is an adjustable fence made from 18 mm Baltic Birch (23/32″ nominal) that compensates for wood movement in any climactic season. Each fence face is made flat and square to 0.001 and is user calibrated for maximum accuracy in any positioned angle using tools as inexpensive as a drafting square. The angles used on the supplied fence are 90 and 45 degrees. It is a flippable fence that allows for shooting the 90 degree angle on one face, and flipped to shoot the 45 degree angle on the other face.

We also supply this fence as a replacement for woodworkers who wear out or damage the original 45/90 fence, and we make this fence with specific angles to match the full range of angles our Basic through Ultra shooting board line can shoot. For best results and highest accuracy we recommend using the fence made for the specific angle you need to plane.

The angles are always a combination of the 90 degree and the alternate angle. We offer them in 15/90, 22.5/90, 30/90, 45/90, 60/90, and 75/90, which covers all seven major angles our boards can shoot.

The Double High Fence is basically a double thick version of the Standard Fence. it is 36 mm high ( 1-7/16″ Nominal). It is used for backing thicker stock when shooting to prevent blowing out the wood fibers on the back side of the work piece as the plane cuts through them. It shares all the same attributes of the Standard Fence, for accuracy, and adjustability. It too is a flippable fence and can be supplied in all the same specific angle combinations as the Standard Fence.

When ordering a Double High Fence, we offer the 45/90 version complete with a pair of Double High Thumbscrews which we custom make to attach this fence to the shooting board. The 45/90 is the most popular combination of angles and is the one most woodworkers want first. We offer the Double High Fence in all the same angle combinations as the Standard Fence, and we recommend using a fence specifically made for shooting each angle. All angles of the Double High Fence other than the 45/90 are NOT supplied with the Thumbscrews, however the Double High Thumbscrews and the 45/90 Double High Fence are available separately if required.

The Any Angle Fence is a solution to many woodworking conundrums. Often we encounter casework or walls that are not square, yet we need to fit pieces that have complimentary angles which will create tight miters. Other times we are fitting tenons that have specific angles and we need to shoot them accurately so the layout can be successful. If we think about it long enough, there are many applications for this fence because shooting is for both the desired finish and fit, as well as the angle required.

The Any Angle Fence is a three piece pivotable fence made from 18 mm Baltic Birch with a radius on the chute end which will not foul the shooting board chute. The base fence is always fixtured by the pivot side Standard Thumbscrew, and can also be fixtured at any of the angles the shooting board model it is being used on will fixture. The fence is longer than our Standard and Double High models so a clamp can easily reach the fence to clamp it in place for fixturing most any angle between 0-90 degrees. The fence base is not meant to be used by itself alone.

Two fence faces are supplied in 1-inch and 1-23/32 high versions, which are squared and flattened to 0.001 tolerances. While only one fence face is used at a time, the 1-23/32 can utilize the full shooting capacity of a 2″ plane iron on our boards, and 1-inch is much more convenient for shooting thinner stock. To use the fence faces, simply set the fence base at the desired angle, and place the fence face of appropriate height between the base and the work piece, and slide the fence face over so it will “zero” against the plane iron and shoot. The fence faces are not anchored to the base so they can offer all the versatility for any angle you may require.

We recommend the Any Angle Fence be used mostly for when our Standard or Double High Fences cannot reach the desired angle. The Standard and Double High Fences are always the first line fences for high accuracy repeatability, due to their single piece design, dedication to the respective specific angles and fully mounted fixturing.

We also offer our Standard Thumbscrews and Double High Thumbscrews separately in case the originals should become lost or damaged, or alternatively if you would like to use them as a part of a project you have.

We make these 1/4-20 Thumbscrews here, in house. They are made from 316 stainless steel and brass for corrosion resistance and durability. We recommend finger tightening, but they each offer the ability to be loosened with either a wrench or hex key. They are all supplied in pairs with a brass washer, and make a fine quality thumbscrew for nearly any application.

Stay tuned for our next article in the Shooting Board Accessory Series, for more on how our shooting boards and accessories can help you make your woodworking better, easier, and more accurate. Have a look in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store at the Shooting Board Accessory Section for full details and pricing. All our accessories fit, support or will work for every shooting board (model appropriate) we have made back to day one. Artisan Made in USA, we ship worldwide.

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Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

The Shooting Board Planing Stop is a really handy sort of planing stop. Often when we are working small or thin boards on the bench, they can be difficult to hold. Many planing stops are meant for thicker and often longer stock. There is also the need of keeping the plane iron safe from damage if the planing stop is metallic. This planing stop is capable of helping work a wide range of board thicknesses and keeps the plane blade safe down to the very thin stock range. One of the handy things about this planing stop is that it works with left or right hand shooting boards, and improves the ergonomics for the woodworker. You simply orient the board against the planing stop as you need.

The Shooting Board Planing Stop is made from 6mm Baltic Birch ( 15/64 nominal ) which allows you to safely plane boards to 1/4 inch with no fear of getting the plane iron into something steel. If desired, a piece of 1/8th inch MDF hardboard can be placed under the work piece to decrease the thicknessing range to 1/8th inch. It comes with mounting hardware, and is great for working boards too shall or thin to safely work with shop machines or traditional handwork methods. It is excellent for use with small box work, and other small piece work.

The Lie-Nielsen 51 Chute Adapter Kit is our upgrade kit for those who have already purchased a shooting board from us in the past, and have since gotten an LN-51. This kit retrofits all our shooting boards with right hand chutes back to day one, and is installed by the end user. It comes with complete instructions detailing how to do it with the hardware we supply for mounting.

It includes the Chute Adapter Rail which has a great degree of adjustability to compensate for the nominal sizing of planes and shooting board chutes, and both sides of the rail have been flattened to 0.001 tolerances for use. In other words if one side of the rail wears out, flip it over and use the other. We offer this as a replacement part for those who may wear one out as well. All that’s required is install it, calibrate it and keep it waxed!

Of course if you already have the LN 51 and want a shooting board for it, please look at our 51 Shooter line of shooting boards for a full line of options. We make these with the adjustable LN 51 Rail installed. We can also fit these rails to the right hand chute of the Picture Frame Shooter, Casework Miter Shooter, Master Miter Shooter, and the Long Grain Shooter as well in a two-rail configuration. You can find all these shooting boards in the Shooting Board Section of the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store. We also want you to know that if and when Lie Nielsen produces the LN 51 in left hand, we are ready to supply boards for that plane as well!

The MFT/3 Cleat is an upgrade Cleat that can be retrofitted or installed when ordering so that if you use the Festool MFT/3 Multifunction Table, this will allow our shooting boards a better fit when used with the side rails on the table. Often having the shooting board not be on the work bench is handy, and many Festool users do not use a traditional bench, but do like to shoot the ends of their woodwork. This cleat makes all our shooting boards and several other tools we offer a perfect fit on the MFT/3.

Installation is easy. We can intall it to your board as part of your order, or you can replace the Standard Cleat that was installed as an upgrade. It will come with new mounting hardware, and all that is needed is to remove and replace the four mounting bolts with a hex key to make the change.

The Standard Cleat is the cleat originally supplied on all our shooting boards. We offer this one as a replacement in case the original should become damaged. This is the “Hook” of the shooting board and transfers all the force of planing and shooting to the workbench. This is a replacement part, and it’s nice to know there is a replacement for your board should you ever need one.

The Bench Hook Board Lift is an accessory to all our shooting boards that helps keep long stock coplanar to the chute when planing. Often the overhang from long stock is too much to counterbalance. This accessory hels you with that. For some angles, where long stock may angle off the bench, I suggest catching it with a roller stand, but for most 90 degree work on long stock, this board lift is the key to accurate shooting.

The Long Grain Shooter Accessory Caul is a fixturing aid. It is meant to be used without the fence installed. Often when used in book matching boards, the edges to be mated together need to be trued on a shooting board. This is true of veneers and the backs and tops of musical instruments, where boards may be damaged if trued on a powered tool.

Sometimes the overall shape of boards is not square, and never needs to be square. The accessory caul is meant to be used as a form of holdfast, fixturing the edges that need shooting, parallel to the chute for planing. It will allow for the positioning of nearly any shaped board that will fit to be fixtured parallel to the chute, so that Book matching, or sunburst patterns may be possible. It is really only limited by the imagination.

I am always thinking of ways to help make our shooting boards be more versatile, and woodworking easier. New possibilities are always on the drawing board. Please stay tuned for future additions, in our New Products Section and please contact us if there is a tool you feel the marketplace is looking for. We are always interested in hearing from you!

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Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Our 51 Shooter Deluxe with LN-51. M. Handrinos Photo

The Shooting board is a fixture that has a “Chute” on it which guides a handplane. This chute should be straight and coplanar to the work. Often this chute is used on the end grain of boards, perpendicular or at any required mitering angle to the work, such as 45 degrees. Depending on the length of the board and it’s chute, long grain trimming is also desirable for when the workpiece has to be made as accurate as possible, and as safely as possible.

So what’s in a chute, and where did those funny looking words come from? Names are often something that get made up, in an attempt to best define what something is, or what is happening in a process, quickly. Unfortunately sometimes, words such as these defy normal spelling conventions. Luckily, in this particular case, all the various spellings lead to the same place, and the fixture itself has come to be called by two different names. First, the “Chute” Board, because the fixture is made with a chute that guides the plane. Second, the more popular name, the “Shooting” Board, because “Shooting” is a correctly spelled word that sounds like the word Chuteing, as if Chuteing or Shuteing were actually a dictionary word. “Shooting” best describes the fixture when in use; the act of precisely guiding a handplane to make fine, accurate trims to the work.

A couple of the coolest things about shooting boards is that any sharp hand plane will leave wood with a smooth accurate finish, which is equivalent to approximately 600 grit smoothness if compared to sandpaper, but with none of the burnishing to the wood that comes from sandpaper. I often use a Stanley 60-1/2 Block Plane on mine, and with that I can easily shoot up to 4/4 board thickness with it. There is no need for an expensive plane to buy into shooting; the accuracy is in the shooting board. Any sharp plane can play. Some of my personal favorite shooting planes would most likely be a Low Angle Jack, or a Skew Block Plane. The bottom line is, you can use what you’ve got.

Some woodworking processes are hard to make accurate, or accurately enough. A shooting board can be and often is used to correct all those little issues into straight, square or angled perfection. It can make your skills look good, and even help you develop better woodworking skills.

Here at Evenfall Studios, we offer a number of different shooting board styles that will best fit your style(s) of working wood. Our boards will fit most any plane made on the chute, and help you shoot most any angle you will ever need to with high accuracy. The beauty of our boards is built in, using the very best materials and construction methods. They offer Calibratable High Accuracy, Seasonal Stability, Durability, Multi-Angle Configuration, Accessories to Enhance Flexibility, and Replacement Parts, for Consumables like Fences, which are subject to wear and tear.

Our want is for you to be able to calibrate your shooting board and go right to work in any season, knowing that without further concern or further fumbling and testing, that your boards are coming of your shooting board exactly as you require, from the first shot going forward. Our boards deliver on that. That’s not only saving your time, but saving your wood. Let’s face it; wood is far more expensive than tools. This is why having good tools where it really counts matters. Our shooting boards are a real value!

Hand made attention to detail, quality assured throughout the build process. This is the woodworking fixture made to make every workpiece right, with accuracy in the 0.001 inch range for both squareness and angular accuracy for that final perfect fit. You wouldn’t want to compromise for your project, and I won’t compromise for the tooling we make for you. I select the best materials I can find, meticulously process them to create each part, and assemble them precisely to assure our shooting boards will transfer high accuracy to your work, so your work remains at it’s best. That is the difference that having quality tooling can make.

Whether you are Shuteing, Chuteing or Shooting, we care about how well you are able to do it. Not worry about it, Just do it good.

So do it good. We are here with the shooting boards and accessories for doing that when you need us.

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Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2012 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

The Long Grain Shooter, shown in left hand.

The alignment and fitment issue was, that once the casework was assembled, his carcass or boxes were not square from top to bottom, and the joinery would either bind, go together under extreme stress, sometimes fracturing pins or would not sit square on a flat surface when the box or casework was placed on the edges, even though the dimensional widths of the boards were perfectly the same. All this was due to mis-alignment from un-square ends on the dovetailed boards.

He also wanted to make small boxes and trays that use compound dovetail joinery, so as to create tapered sides and ends, but again could not get the angles consistently precise enough for the box to sit flat on the table once assembled, if it would align once assembled. This is a situation that reveals itself during assembly, and exposes the fact that angles are not matching and complimentary to squareness. The last joint will expose the cumulative error if we are off even a little.

This process can be deceiving, because each joint when examined separately will assemble and look like it should. The problem comes to light as the box comes together and the last joint will not align. This is all very disheartening, and what makes it worse is that the dovetails themselves are not responsible for this kind of misalignment, nor can they correct it. It is all about having the required matching angles on each end of the board in the first place, and this is necessary before before the joinery is laid out or cut.

His questions were, would a shooting board help this, Did we make shooting boards that will address this issue in scale to the size of each project, and is there a fence that can handle angled tapers with repeatability?

The answers are Yes, Yes, and Yes.

With dovetail Joinery, either perfect squareness or the correct angle needed has to be precisely in place on each end of every board prior to dovetail lay out or cutting. Shooting each board’s end to the correct angle first is essential.

The Ultra Shooter, shown in right hand.

Our standard sized shooting board line from Basic through Ultra Shooter, and our molding style boards will handle this squaring task out to about 11 inch board widths. For Carcass sized work which only rarely exceeds 18 – 24 inches, our Long Grain Shooter is the go to shooting board. With it you can easily shoot wide end grain in the 24 inch width range and likely to 26 inches with care. Precision joinery on casework is not a problem with the Long Grain Shooter in your tool arsenal.

the Any Angle Fence.

For shooting tapered or compound dovetails, we have an accessory fence called the Any Angle Fence. It is a three piece fence that will bolt directly to any mounting point on our Basic through Ultra Shooter Style boards, as well as the Long Grain Shooter and Kanna Shooter style boards.

What the Any Angle Fence makes possible is the ability to shoot any angle in between the shooting boards standard mount points and it is simply fixtured to the shooting board by the pivot point on the chute end, and to the board and bench on the swing side with an F clamp. The fence comes with a low 1-inch face, and a tall 1-23/32 inch face which allow for shooting thin or thick stock to the full capacity of a 2 inch plane iron on our boards.

Each fence face and base are flattened to 0.001 inch, and the fence faces free float between the work piece and the fence base and zero on the chute of the board so as to reduce blowout on the work piece. This fence can be set repeatably and accurately using quality angle measuring tools.

Another handy benefit is that the shooting board is also an excellent platform for trimming the proud pins and tails without blow out as well.

So whether you are dovetailing for square or tapered sides, on large or small boxes, including casework – remember shooting the ends accurately is key to precision dovetail layout and fitment. Almost all joinery can be improved with the use of a shooting board. A good shooting board that provides the capability to be adjusted accurately, any season or day of the year, can provide total repeatability. Accurate tooling plays a successful part of any project. Our shooting boards are precision tools that have you covered, as accurately as your angle setting tooling can set them.

If you haven’t ordered from us before, please see our full line of shooting boards in our online store. If you have ordered from us before, I’d like to invite you to look again, see what is new, and what can accessorize your shooting board to help do even more precision woodworking!

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Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2013 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Notable points about the plane are that it is configured for 2-1/4 inch bevel up irons from the Veritas LA Jack series. It comes with an adjustable mouth. It beds the iron at 12 degrees and is supplied with 25 degree beveled irons in either Veritas PM-V11 or O-1, and with 20 degrees of skew, this makes the cutting angles about as low and nice cutting as any shooting plane going. It also has a two position handle so the plane can be used like a bench plane for some operations. In all, it has the precision engineering and performance we have all come to enjoy from Veritas and Lee Valley Tools.

Best of all, it is a very affordable choice for many woodworkers who wish to add a shooting plane to their tool arsenal, and it’s available for the left handed woodworkers as well!

Our Shooting board line is fully ready for the Veritas Shooting Plane. We have designed a chute adapter rail and tested all our shooting board models for use with this plane, and it makes a really nice shooting combination. An accurate tool combination that is a joy to use.

Like our ’51 Shooter’ series of shooting boards, The ‘Veritas Shooter’ enjoys all the same Features and Specifications. It is available in the Basic, Basic Plus, Deluxe, and Ultra configurations, in both right and left-hand models. They can also use most all of the same accessories we offer for all our shooting boards.

For those who work moldings, on picture frames and casework, we also offer the option to add chutes to Picture Frame Shooter, the Casework Molding Shooter, and the Master Miter Shooter. You can choose the option for either right or left-hand versions, and the twin chute shooting board models will deliver with the option to add a chute rail to either chute, or both chutes. The favored hand for each twin chute board is about the 90 degree fence. We make the fence for your preference. The Chute Rail itself is designed to be reversible and ambidextrous. This way if you choose to run a dedicated shooting plane in both the left or right chute, you can purchase a chute rail for each. Please have a look at your options in the Shooting Board Section of our Store.

As always, like all of our shooting board tooling, we build to 0.001 tolerances, from select Baltic Birch, and we confirm accuracy on certified granite and precision machinist tools. Finished in marine grade teak oil, we strive to provide you the best stability and highest accuracy you can ask for from wooden tooling. They are very durable, wear well, easy to use, fully adjustable and calibratable by you in your shop, throughout any season of the year.

If you have already purchased a shooting board from us and would like to use the Veritas Shooting Plane, we have you covered. We have made a Veritas Shooting Plane Chute Rail Adapter Kit available so you can upgrade the board you have. You can also use our kit to add a chute to a board you build yourself. You can find them in the Shooting Board Accessory Section of our Store.

Chute style shooting boards for your Veritas Shooting Plane are available. If you have any questions, please ask. Ordering from us is easy. We would be happy to custom make one for you!

We enjoy your questions and comments! Please Contact Us.

Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2013 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.

Our Veritas Shooter Line of Shooting Boards.

Do you have or want a Veritas Shooting Plane or Shooting Sander? These tools will interchange on the same shooting board. Use our ‘Veritas Shooter’ shooting board for both!

For the woodworker who is not ready to invest in handplanes and the sharpening maintenance that is part of using planes to their full potential, the Veritas Shooting Sander is a great tool that will allow for utilizing the full advantages of a shooting board. If you already are an avid shooting board enthusiast, this tool opens the shooting board’s options and capabilities even further, making the toughest jobs that need truing possible and easier.

The Veritas Shooting Sander is a handplane-like sander that utilizes the same concepts a handplane does on a shooting board, but uses sandpaper instead of a plane iron to abrade material into final dimension instead of cutting it. Because it uses sandpaper strips adhered to it’s platen, it is reversible and ambidextrous. It sands on the push and pull stroke, and can be employed in both the left or right hand. Fresh sandpaper can be exchanged quickly, and it’s simple to use and maintain!

There are benefits to shooting in many situations. Both sanding and planing have their own subset of benefits in which there is some overlap, and some exclusive domains. Sanding when shooting can be of advantage in a number of situations. Veneers and thin stocks can be very fragile, and easily damaged. Reversing grains can also be difficult to true, and endgrain is not the only part of a work piece that can be trued with a shooting board.

The process of shooting is done to accurize the ends and edges of a work piece. Our shooting boards are made to provide the woodworker or maker a tool that provides full accuracy over this process. The chute is straightened and flattened to 0.001 inch, and is coplanar to the surface the work rests on. The shooting board fences are made straight and square to 0.001 inch on certified granite and can be calibrated for accuracy at any mount point the board has been supplied. Please see our Features and Specifications page. In other words, if a Starrett square has a certificate of accuracy, that same accuracy can be transferred to setting the fence angle on our shooting boards. These are precision tools.

Sometimes we work with woods in a flitch, where the matching grains are the main attraction. Other times a drawer front is matched grain in an apron styled table or desk, and the fitment is crucial to the look of the piece. We need to prevent damaging these parts as we work them toward their final dimensions, because using a flitch or other grain matching methods means the final look of the piece is from the sum of all it’s parts.

Moldings are another realm that can be very fragile, particularly when they become very ornate. The orientation of moldings can make them difficult to support while shooting. Sanding these can sometimes reduce the risk of damaging them. The capability to sand while shooting can be very beneficial and worth having in your shop.

Sanding while shooting opens up a lot of additional and non-traditional options and possibilities for the woodworker and the maker. This means we can use the shooting process to accurize materials we ordinarily have not been able to before, or would avoid shooting with a handplane, because the material isn’t appropriate for planing. We can now consider plywoods, and MDF as well as other manufactured wood products. Also plastics such as acrylics and polycarbonates, composite materials, etc. For shooting angles onto Aluminum and Steel, there are great abrasives available for accomplishing that, and we recommend using our Disc Sander Shooter.

Many abrasives are available beyond what is sold for the Veritas Shooting Sander. Think outside the box. It isn’t limited to sanding sheets, even though that encompasses a lot of options. As a for instance, 1×30 and 1×42 sanding belts are available from a number of different sources such as Lee Valley, Trugrit.com, Klingspor’s Woodworking Shop and ECON abrasives to name a few. There are many different kinds of sanding media and a wide grit selection for durable sanding and finishing of all kinds of materials including steels, from super coarse to sub micron. 2 inch width belts are available from some suppliers as well.

While these 1-inch belts are a little narrower than 1-1/4 inch, they can be easily cut to 9 inches long, cut lengthwise to be narrower, and combined to be wider so as to fit the full 1-1/4 inch platen if needed. We offer a sandpaper cutter on our Sharpening Station 1 that will help trim abrasives to size for this as well as help keep your edge tools sharp. Then the back of the abrasive sheet is sprayed with an adhesive like 3M 77 or equivalent, and appropriately positioned on the platen of the Veritas Shooting Sander and used on the shooting board. Remember, the sandpaper does not need to be positioned lower than the bottom of what you intend to sand.

The trick to all of this is to cut close to the line and shoot in to the final finish. The finish is the accuracy and surface quality you desire. If a material can be reasonably sanded and it’s dimensions allow it to be appropriately oriented on a shooting board, this tool combination can help accurize it’s surfaces and dimensions, taking work to a new level of fit, finish and accuracy, without a power tool.

Veritas designed their Shooting Sander to be the same width base as their Shooting Plane. If you need a shooting board that works with the Shooting Sander, our full line of ‘Veritas Shooter’ style shooting boards will allow you to interchange either the Veritas Shooting Plane or Sander on our shooting boards with no modifications.

The Veritas Shooting Sander will shoot up to 1-7/16 inch thick material with our Double High Fence. The Veritas Shooting Sander will also work on our twin chute models like the Master Miter Shooter, with or without Chute Adapters, and the Long Grain Shooter as well. Our shooting board models which are not sold with Chute Adapter Rails will also work with the Veritas Shooting Sander, along with most accessories from our Shooting Board Accessory product line.

All Evenfall Studios Shooting Boards now come standard with Chute Adapter Rail mounting points, and ready for use with our adjustable Chute Adapter Rails. This means you can use the planes you have now, add a Chute Adapter Rail for a plane you acquire later, exchange Chute Adapter Rails for different planes you may have that can use one, or even remove them to accommodate different brands and styles of planes and sanders you may want to employ on our shooting boards.

We also offer kits that allow you to upgrade our early boards that were not drilled for rails, or retrofit a shooting board you have to utilize our Chute Adapter Rail systems. You can find them in the Shooting Board Accessory Section of our Store.

Versatile tooling for versatile woodworking and making. Chute style shooting boards for your Veritas Shooting Sander are available. They are the ‘Veritas Shooter’ style shooting boards we offer. If you have any questions, please ask. Ordering from us is easy. We would be happy to custom make one for you!

We enjoy your questions and comments! Please Contact Us.

Thanks for visiting Evenfall Studios!

© Copyright 2014 by Rob Hanson for evenfallstudios.com All Rights Reserved.