Shooting Handle

This is the second version of a shooting handle that I made to make shooting the ends of boards a bit more comfortable. In the photograph you can also see my shooting board. This was the second shooting handle that I've made; the previous version was much simpler but had a few disadvantages. The older version is described at the bottom of this page.

The new shooting handle can be rotated through 90° (after loosening the knurled screw), which helps when storing the plane (see the photo at the end of this page). It also has a long brass barrel that makes it more comfortable to hold than my previous version.

This photo shows the shooting handle in use to show how much more comfortable the holding position is than the plane would be without the handle.

These photos show the parts that make up the shooting handle. The brass parts are both made from 30 mm brass bar. The knurled part has a deep M8 thread and acts as a nut on the threaded part (which is made from 10 mm square EN1A). The pivot pin is silver steel, with an M2.5 thread in the end. The thread is just there for the purposes of disassembly if required.

The long strip at the bottom of the image is a piece of 1 mm thick aluminium and is used to give a soft surface for the grub screws to press against: the aluminium stops the grub screws from damaging the cast iron side of the plane.

The handle part (top left of the images) is made of 303 stainless steel. I made it out of stainless steel purely for the colour contrast!

This photo shows the handle partly assembled. The grub screw you can see in the end of the body is just there to ensure that the pivot pin doesn't fall out.

Previous Version

These are the parts that make up the previous version of my shooting handle. The brass parts were made from 30 mm brass bar; the cap screw is M6.

This photo shows how the old shooting handle fits onto the side of the plane. The hole in the smaller brass part is used with a tommy bar to help tighten the screw.

The main problem with the previous shooting handle was that it had to be removed in order to put the plane back in its storage place on the wall. As the newer shooting handle can be rotated through 90°, the new one can be left in place while the plane is stored:

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