Thursday, August 19, 2010

Hand Planing Small Parts (Part Deux)

I've blogged about a make-shift small parts planing board that was specialized for mitered boards, but the point there was making something disposable for a special purpose.

For straight boards, I usually just make a quick fence of 1/8" hardboard or underlayment backed by 2 dogs and go to town.  This isn't the most stable and take awhile to find that &*%$ hardboard scrap from last time.

So while making my shooting board, I took some of the scrap to make a less-blingy planing board.  Basically, I hand planed some cherry scraps to 1/8" and 1/4" thickness then lined them up across the end of a board; these act as the fence and give me some options for thickness.

You'll notice that I used hide glue for the fence.  During use, it'll get shredded.  Once it's too bad, I can use a heat gun to quickly remove the fence and attach a new one.

I also planed two scraps of cherry to about 1/8" that I keep with the board.  Sometimes when you are planing something long and narrow, it wants to move on you.  Just clamp one of these sticks to give some light edge support and the stock will stay still.  I didn't want to put sandpaper on the board itself since I'd likely scratch up the plane more than anything else.

Now it's trivial to trim up some thin stock without hardboard moving on me (or just plain hiding better than my finding abilities!)

This is a super trivial addition to your shop; make one now.