My “Simpleton” Shooting Board

Chris Schwarz recently posted about his simpleton shooting board and it made me laugh as I have a similar shooting board that I made several years ago. I took great pains to make the fence adjustable for “all those times when I would need to tweak the fence angle”. That was probably because the fence kept shifting about when force was applied against it. So how did I solve it? A couple of pan head, self tapping screws did the trick and it has held well for 2 years now. I have a super fancy Super Chute that Tico Vogt sent me and I love it, but sometimes I want a wide surface with plenty of support to shoot panels or pare and trim joinery and this big and simple shooter fits the bill.  I usually clamp this big shooting board in my sliding leg vise and leave it set up on the bench throughout the joinery stage of a project.  It constantly gets use from chopping dovetails to paring tenon cheeks to…umm…shooting end grain.  And when I’m feeling really fancy, it makes a great place mat on which to put my lunch.  Candles are optional but highly recommended.  You gotta treat yourself right.

The big difference is that when I decided that the angle needed to be tweaked, instead of getting a shoulder plane, I went the ghetto-fabulous route and used a little bit of blue tape! You gotta love that blue tape, it really makes the design pop!

Sorry, no SketchUp drawing provided for this shooting board. 🙂

 

Join the Conversation

How many shooting boards do you have around the shop?  Are they adjustable or fixed in place?  Do you design fabulous, multi-function bench appliances or “simpleton” versions?