18 Australian Wood ReviewTOOLS & EQUIPMENTThe shooting board is one of the those
age old relics of woodworking that seems
so wonderfully simple it’s escaped
significant advance or improvement. So
in hindsight it shouldn’t be surprising that
someone would finally bring a product to
market that combines the simplicity of the
original design with modern materials.Given their track record of innovation
it’s perhaps also no surprise that it’s
Veritas who has found a way to improve
a design that has been an important aid
to woodworkers for centuries. A number
of Veritas products targeted at improving
the basic shooting board design such as
the shooting plane and shooting board
track have been available for some time,
however, their new shooting board fence
is a clever product that would appear to
have its design roots sourced from the
vintage Stanley 52, discontinued from
the Stanley line in the 1940s.In true Veritas style, they have taken
the design several steps further in
its evolution with their new fence
presenting as a clever piece of
functional engineering. The fence is
to be made available as a standalone
product for those that wish to match
it to a home made shooting board, or
alternatively, Veritas is also marketing
a complete shooting board product
in both left and righthand versions
that is ready to use straight out of
the box with both fence and trackspre-mounted to a solid 600mm long
birch ply base.The fence is fully adjustable with clever
preset detents allowing you to quickly
and accurately adjust your angle setting
to 0° and seven other angle settings
designed to suit the mitres required for
common multifaceted boxes or mitred
frames. Within each preset angle there
is provision to further customise the
setting via a number of additional fine
adjustment markings, each of 0.25° to
either side of the preset position.I tested a number of the angles and
found them all to be very accurate at
the default preset position without need
for finetuning. That said, experience
suggests that these fine adjustments
would come in very handy to ensure
a perfect fit on multi faceted frames.
To ensure there is no blow out on the
far side of endgrain being planed, the
design also includes provision for a fully
adjustable sacrificial fence that quickly
fastens to the fence casting.For those that opt for the complete
product these fences are included as part
of the package. It was this complete unit
that was supplied for my test along with
the accompanying Veritas shooting board
plane. The board itself is made from high
quality 19mm Baltic birch ply with a cleat
let into a housing across the base of the
board to ensure it sits solidly on the bench.In use I honestly found it difficult
to fault either product. The fence
adjusted effortlessly and the quality
materials of the board with adjustable,
low friction track ensured the plane
presented perfectly square at all times
to the material being planed. If I was
to suggest any improvement it would
be for the shooting board base to be
slightly larger in size and the angle
markings on the fence to be made
slightly more visible, given they are
finished in the same dark colour as the
fence within which they are cast.Recognising this is already a large item
to freight I can however accept the sizing
of the base as a very minor concession.
Choosing to purchase the fence alone
will of course allow full customisation of
your board design.In summary, I think Veritas and Carbatec
are on a winner with these products.
Both the full shooting board and the
fence are wonderfully designed items
of quality manufacture that I would
welcome in my workshop.Photos: Troy McDonaldTroy McDonald is an engineer and
woodworker based in Brisbane. Email
him at: [email protected]Review tool from Carbatec
http://www.carbatec.com.auVeritas Shooting Board and Fence
Reviewed by Troy McDonaldThe supplied package includes the Veritas fence, board
and track. The Veritas shooting plane in right or left-hand
versions sells separately for $590.Board
&Fenc
e (^) $ (^349)
Fence
(^) only
$ (^191)