A Shooting Match With my Nemesis

So I finally decided it was time to make my shooting board.  I've needed one for a while.  So I bought a two 4'x2' sheets of Baltic Birch Plywood, one in 3/4" and one in 1/2".  But using "sheet goods" (typing that makes me feel dirty) meant that hand tools were out.  So I had to use my old nemesis, the Man-Eating Shop Monster (Table saw).  I took a deep breath, set my fence, raised the cold, vicious teeth of the 10" Woodworker II blade to one inch above the table, and pressed the start button.  Nothing happened, that was when I remembered that I leave the thing unplugged so it can't sneak into my bedroom at night and try to kill me.  So I plugged it back into it's 220v power source and pressed the start button.  The motor came to life, and the song of the blade echoed through my shop.  Nervously I fed the sheet of 3/4" ply into the blade, hoping it wouldn't reject it and spit it back at me, or decide it needs to taste human flesh.  Luckily it didn't, and the base of my soon to be shooting board sat on the table next to the blade.  I pressed the kill button, and realized that I had been holding my breath.  This was just the first of many cuts....

I figured the short cut off from this would make a great hook for the bottom of the shooting board, to hold it to my bench, So I set it aside.  


Next I cut a piece of the 1/2" plywood about 4" shorter than the base, this gives me a plane ramp wide enough for the wood-stocked plane I am going to build specifically for shooting, with enough left over room to build a track so the plane stays flush to the work piece.  More on that in another post (the anticipation is killing me, but since I'm not only the writer of this blog, but most likely the only person who reads it I have a pretty good guess as to when the next post is coming).  

So, I laid the 1/2" piece onto the 3/4" piece, and drew a pencil line along the ramp to make it easier to line them up, then I took a scrap piece of 1/2" plywood for the fence at the far side.  Being the brilliant man that I am, I got out my square, and made sure that the fence was square to the ramp, like a so...

As soon as I got it square and marked with a pencil line, I realized I was not that brilliant.  It is far more important that the fence is square to the PLANE than to the ramp, so after looking around to see if anyone saw my blunder (it seems like there is always someone to witness the screw-ups, but never the achievements), I got one of my jack planes, and set it by the fence.  Despite all it's shortcomings, the table saw is pretty accurate.  I ended up not having to move the fence at all.  

So, now it was time to attach the ramp to the base.  I decided to use screws AND glue.  That way the cockroaches can shoot good miters after the nuclear holocaust.  In digging through my hardware cabinet, the shortest screws I had were 1 1/4", now doing math....one three quarter inch piece under one half inch piece, minus the countersink distance, carry the six, divide by 10, and take the square root of negative two, and I get a screw that is just a smidge too long.  Poop.  It's midnight, and the only store still open is Walmart, which I hate, plus I have a recently acquired hernia so I really don't feel like driving, and we get a stroke of brilliance....I cut a piece of 1/8" plywood and glue it to the bottom of the 3/4" piece!  Now I have room to countersink!  So I drill, and drill, and drill.....

Ok, so gluing three sheets of plywood together, and then adding 24 screws was overkill, but hey, this is America, anything worth doing is worth doing to excess.  After the great screw fest of 2012 was over, I re-checked the fence for square, and screwed it down.  I didn't use any glue for the fence because I want to be able to take it off.  While I was drilling one of the holes, I felt the fence move just a tad, so I re-drilled it.  I really need this thing to be perfectly square.  It can be (and is) ugly, but it has to be square.  

So the shooting board is done.  Now its time to make the donkey ear.  I use the 3/4" plywood and again go back to the table saw.  Now, I don't have a zero clearance insert that works when the blade is angled on the table saw, so I make my cuts without one.  For this I use a miter gauge that clamps the work piece, and a big dose of stupid.  I make the ramp for the workpiece to rest on, then I make two supports to hold it perfectly angled to the plane.

  
Again I did not use glue, partially because I wanted to be able to take this thing apart if needed, and second, I was fresh out of overkill at this point.  In setting the donkey's ear up and getting the edge flush with the ramp, I noticed that it wobbled ever so slightly.  I added a machine screw to the back corner so that I could adjust it until it sat perfectly.  

My original plan was to leave the donkey's ear like this, and use two dowels to keep it lined up.  I used my brace to drill the holes for the dowels, then carefully marked the shooting board to drill the receiving holes for the dowels.  When I tested it....I was off a little.  So I did what any professional would do...I got mad and called it a Cotton-Headed Ninny Muggins.  Then I changed my design.  I filled in the poorly drilled holes, and then I made a bottom for the donkey's ear.  In the long run I am glad I did, it makes it a lot stronger and less prone to accidental re-dimentioning.  I was then able to drill through the bottom and into the shooting board, so the dowels lined up perfectly.  

Next, I made a fence for the Donkey's ear.  I grabbed a scrap piece of 3/4" plywood....and then remembered that the fences need to be REAL wood because the plane iron will hit them.  Poop.  After this project I may have to re-evaluate my brilliance.  In my defense, it was about 1:00 am, and I was on narcotic pain killers (insert witty quip about excuses here).  So I found a scrap of white pine, carefully mitered the ends in my super dangerous no insert table saw rig.  It was like staring into the bowels of hell, dark, dusty, huge blade that wants to eat me.  Anywho...I again used my jack plane to square up the fence, and screwed it on.  

And, recognizing my folly, I also replaced the fence on the shooting board with one made of white pine.  I cut the fences so that the surface the work piece touched is end-grain, hoping this will help prevent slipping.  Last thing was adding a little wax on the plane chute, then testing it out.  I grabbed a couple of pieces of pine, and started planing...

The end result is an absolutely perfect miter.  So beautiful, oh how long I have desired you, perfect miter...sorry, got distracted.  So....up next is a purpose-build shooting plane to match the shooting board.  Here is a sample of what I am looking for:  My try plane is acting as a stand-in...

It slides so perfectly.  oooooh, goosebumps.  Anyway, despite using the big, nasty, man-eating table saw, I managed to make a dimensionally perfect and aesthetically nauseating shooting board with a donkey's ear.  I am glad I have one now, and I am glad I still have all my fingers.  And yes, I did unplug the table saw.