I have a bunch of dog holes on my bench and a bunch of bench dogs of various thickness. However, in practice when I am face planing a board I can almost guarantee that the bench dog will either be too thick, causing the plane to catch the top of the dog, or in the wrong place, causing the board to shift.
I have seen and envied some of the traditional planing stops like this Benchcrafted Planing Stop, but it would not work on my current bench. Lee Valley carries a different variety that seems to flip up nicely. My issue with both of these is that they are limited in scope, they will only work with wood that is relatively narrow (~6″) and squared off. I don’t always work with narrow lumber or with pieces that are squared off.
The idea hit me to put in a row of flat head screws, then I could raise as many or as few as I needed. The tapered shape of the flat head creates a natural downward wedge and all that are needed are some teeth on the head of the screw to keep things from sliding sideways.
The Plan for a Cheap Planing Stop
- Get some #14 flat head screws, 2.5″ long or longer (length depends on your bench thickness).
- Use an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel to cut some teeth on the head of the screw.
- Draw a line perpendicular to the front of my bench and the left edge of the bench.
- Drill and countersink the screws along that line spaced roughly every 2″.
I started with #14 flathead screws. I chose steel for strength. I considered brass for blade safety, since it it soft enough to not chip a plane blade, but I am pretty sure that brass screws would not be strong enough to not bend or break. I would have preferred slotted screws over phillips head because it is easier to clean debris from a slot than from a phillips head cavity. Unfortunately, the only flatheads that the store carried in that size were phillips head.
I held the screw in the vice and used a cutoff in my angle grinder to cut some teeth around the head of the screw. A triangular saw file could have cut similar teeth as well . The screw head is also slightly rounded at the edges, so I used a flat file to flatten the top of the screw, until the edge was sharper. I then repeated this 5 more times for a total of 6 screws. Since the screws are to be set ~2″ apart, that gives me a 12″+ capacity.
I couldn’t stick to strict spacing of every two inches because it would have landed some screws in weak areas at the seams between boards in my bench. The teeth are kind of sharp, so it is crucial that they are countersunk enough to below the surface of the bench.
Here is a close-up of the planing stop. The first 2 screws are an inch apart rather than 2″ to support narrower boards.
In this close-up, you can see that these planing stops when raised just a little can easily provide a stop for thin material. Thinner than the ruler in this photo.
Here they are effectively holding a 3/8″ board.
This last photo shows holding 2″ stock. I have found that more screws is not always better. So now I turn up the screw on each end, and leave the middle ones down. This works out because 2 points always form a line, where multiple points almost never fit cleanly on a line.
This method is easy, cheap, and very effective. It could be used on just about any bench.
I honestly created this idea on my own, but then in researching this a bit more, I did find that others had the idea first.
Previously
- Driftwood and Hurricane Shelves
I call this “The shelves that blew in.” It is made from a driftwood root and some wood that Hurricane Maria blew down in my neighborhood in 2017. Back in April we were walking on a beach near Stump Pass in Florida. My son was looking for a stick to play with and grabbed what […]
- Black and Decker Electric Chainsaw
I recently needed a chainsaw to take care of some wood that had found its way to my driveway. I pulled out my 16 year old 16″ Poulan chainsaw that had not been used in over 10 years. I quickly discovered that all the fuel lines had deteriorated. So I bought replacement lines and filters […]
- Safety glasses – my favorite Radians passes the test
Safety in my workshop is important to me. Especially eye safety. One of my eyes is in pretty bad shape (not from the workshop) so it makes me all the more protective of my one good eye. Over the years I have gone through a lot of safety glasses. Many of them have failed due […]
- Gang Saw
I wanted to build a frame saw for resawing wood, especially large slabs. Previously my resawing logs technique has either been to use my bandsaw milling sled for smaller logs or my one-man rip saw for logs that won’t fit on my bandsaw. Then I thought about the old saw mills that used to use […]
- Snakeskin Ring
The other night, the cat was watching something intently that was just outside the pool cage. When we took a look, there was a corn snake laying on the rocks outside the pool cage. He had just started shedding his skin. We watched him wiggle out of the thing 1/4″ at a time. It was […]
- Rose Petal Ring
A few weeks back I made a ring from shavings off a mango branch, followed soon after by a ring made of cat hair. With Valentine’s Day approaching, my son wanted to try making a ring from rose petals for his mom. So we bought some roses and some super-glue and got to work. We […]
- Log Toggle Coat Rack
I have seen a bunch of these flip down toggle coat racks and have been intrigued by the designs. Modern and unobtrusive. Toggle a peg down if you need it, up if you don’t. I find them clever, but they are too modern looking for my taste. So I started imagining one that was based […]
- Mango Shavings Ring
I was planing a piece of mango wood for a coat rack I am making, when I got completely sidetracked by something. The shavings were so pretty, the urge struck me to try making a ring out of them. I have never made a ring before, and for the past 24 years I have only […]
- Live Edge Oak Coffee Table
I got a nice section of a Swamp Laurel Oak log from a neighbor that was cutting one down a little over a year or so ago. I wrote up a post about slabbing an oak log by hand. The entire time I was sawing the slabs out of that log, I knew I wanted […]
- Making a Tapered Slab
You can’t throw a stick without hitting someone that has posted a youtube video about making a router sled and using a router to plane a slab of wood flat. They have become very common. I have covered making a router planing sled and what router bits to use for planing. Usually router sleds are […]
- Router Planing Bit Options
I built a router sled back a while ago to use in flattening some slabs. Over the course of flattening multiple slabs, I have had the chance to try a few bit options. Keep in mind that when planing with a router, you want to only have half the bit working at removing wood. So […]
- Curvy Bow Ties – Fun with Woodworking Keys
I have seen a few variations on keys. The wood bow ties that are mortised in cross-grain to prevent further splitting of a crack in a slab of wood (aka dutchman). I’ve seen dark wood keys in light wood, light keys places in dark wood. I have seen fancy carved keys in the shape […]
- Coping Saw – Blade Direction – You lead, blade follows
Almost every coping saw being sold today is set-up wrong. They are backwards. This is not a discussion of the push versus pull in terms of does it cut on the push stroke or the pull stroke. Most of them are set up to cut on the pull stroke, and I am fine with that. […]
- Latex Paint Tacky on Furniture: FIX IT
Though I much prefer the look of real wood, there are some pieces of furniture in my house that are painted. I’ve painted a few with latex paint. The problem is the tackiness. No matter how long I let the paint dry, even years later, it still feels tacky to the touch. Set something […]
- Natural Oak End Table
A neighbor was cutting down an oak tree back in April 2016. I stopped to help, and some pieces followed me home. Then they started talking to me. The log on the left said, “I want to be live edge slabs.” The one standing up on the right said, “I want to be and end […]
- Alcohol Based Tea Stain
As I started planning my next projects using the Oak that I had slabbed, I knew I would want a bit of color. I wanted to accent the grain of the wood and not hide it, so I was leaning toward using a dye rather than a stain. My only problem was that I have […]
- Slabbing Some Oak by Hand
In April of 2016, a neighbor around the block was cutting off parts of an Oak tree in his yard. I offered to help him. While I was helping him move some of it, the wood started speaking to me, and several large pieces ended up following me home. The log on the left saidi […]
- Easy Router Sled
A while back, a neighbor was cutting down an oak tree that was either a Southern Live Oak or a Swamp Laurel Oak. I tried to ID it using this oak tree guide but I no longer have access to leaves or acorns from that tree. They are pretty common, seem to grow fast and […]
- Simple Tool Oiler
I took a simple suggestion from Paul Sellers to make an oiler can by winding up a strip of cloth and putting it in a little can. I made three small ones using some caps from spraypaint cans. I squirted in several soakings of 3-in-1 oil and have found it to be very easy […]
Add your comment