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.
- Screw stop examples on Stack Exchange Woodworking here.
- New Yinzer Workshop blog entry here.
Previously
- Driftwood and Hurricane Shelves
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- Black and Decker Electric Chainsaw
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- Safety glasses – my favorite Radians passes the test
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- Gang Saw
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- Snakeskin Ring
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- Rose Petal Ring
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- Log Toggle Coat Rack
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- 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
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- Making a Tapered Slab
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- Router Planing Bit Options
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- 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
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- Latex Paint Tacky on Furniture: FIX IT
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- Natural Oak End Table
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- Alcohol Based Tea Stain
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- 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
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- Simple Tool Oiler
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