Evenfall Studios Shooting Boards
Features and Specifications

"It's all about your details"

Yes, it's true, wood moves. Select Baltic Birch is used for it's solid wood construction, many fine laminations, it's inherent stability and resistance to wood movement. It makes for a stout, hefty shooting board. The 2-3/4 inch wide chute is straight to 0.001 of an inch for accurate shooting. The chute is polished to 400 grit surface smoothness and waxed for low drag planing.

A dust groove is sawn against the board lift to help prevent the small chips and dust that fall during the shooting process from fouling the chute, and lifting the plane out of squareness with your work. This helps keep the details on every project the way you meant for them to be, right the first time. The entire board is hand chamfered with files to assure the edges remain strong and last for years.

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. These boards are checked and corrected so the plane rides the chute, coplanar to the board lift. This helps assure that the plane shoots square to the board end in any fence configuration. While it is true that wood can move, every shooting board leaves here giving your plane's lateral adjustability the maximum chances for any needed corrections.

Most shooting boards are of the bench hook design and this one is no exception. The stresses of shooting are all transfered 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 and torqued directly to the base of the board. They are removable, and if damaged, are replacable to keep the shooting board up and running over the long run.

The fence is the heart of any shooting board. This one approaches the task a bit differently. The fence is a pivot design, with multi-angle capability and a slot in the far end for precision calibration. This means no matter the wood movement this jig may encounter, there is no reason you can't compensate for this immediately and shoot boards with Dead Nuts Accuracy™, every time, no matter where you live, any season of the year. These calibrations are possible with something as accurate, yet inexpensive as plastic drafting triangles.

The Standard Fence is shown, and currently there is also a 'Double High' model available, that is 1-7/16ths of an inch high. The fence has two working sides, one side for shooting 90 degrees, the other side comes standard for shooting 45 degrees. Both working faces are sanded flat to 0.001 inch flatness on a granite surface plate, to 150 grit surface smoothness.

Additional fences are available as options.

The fence pivot point, and angle points are steel reinforced counterbores. 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. Threads go 9/16ths of an inch deep, creating a solid connection for the fence.

The thumbscrew is custom made from stainless steel and brass, which is corrosion resistant, attractive, and can be loosened with an Allen wrench should it become overtightened, though hand tightening is all that is recommended. The threads are waxed, and a brass washer is included with the thumbscrew to help keep the fence in good condition under heavy use.

The boards are offered in three versions. The 'Basic' that is two positions, 90 and 45 degrees. The 'Basic Plus' is a three position board that adds 22.5 degrees. The 'Deluxe' is a six position board that includes three more positions at 15, 30, and 60 degrees.

The whole idea is to provide you a product capable of transferring Dead Nuts Accuracy™ from instruments as fine as a Starrett combination square or protractor to this jig quickly, each time you use it. This means the jig working in ensemble with your shooting plane transfers that accuracy to your woodwork. It's all about delivering the quality you work hard to achieve for your projects, the workflow you enjoy, and the ability to provide for a lot of creativity in the process.

These shooting boards measure 14-3/4 inches square and have a lift platform that provides nearly a square foot of support for your work when set to 90 degrees. The lift and bottom are finish sanded to a 150 grit surface smoothness to help offer some skid resistance under working conditions. The finish is Watco Teak Oil, an "in the wood" marine grade finish for high moisture resistance. It is an easily repairable finish, should it need to be refreshed for any reason.

Additionally, these shooting boards are available in the 'Kanna Shooter' model with a thicker board lift, and the fence is mounted in a pull orientation for use with Kanna, the wooden Japanese hand planes.

There is a 'Long Grain' Shooting Board available as well. A Long Grain Shooting Board is basically a precision jointer. It can be used for fragile situations, such as a Luthier's need to book match fragile instrument woods with care. It excels on fine trims, starburst patterns in any angular orientation and book matching on veneer work. It can even be used as a small scale jointer for thin and delicate boards in the 24 inch range or less. Any situation where you need Dead Nuts Accuracy™ in your woodworking projects.

For specific project examples, this jig is great for jointing true the edges of thinner boards used in jewelry box construction, puzzle making, fine joinery, multi-species glue ups or any delicate truing situation. They are also a great consideration when needing a safer way to joint edges than machinery can offer. You have the choice of fixturing to 90 degrees with a fence, or any orientation desired along the chute with a caul. The mounting bosses are provided for each method. The 'Long Grain Shooter' Model measures 29-1/2 x 14-3/4 inches overall.

There are other accessories available, please feel free to look in the store for pricing and further details.

1993 - 2009 evenfallstudios.com