Hi ivy-draped Galoots !

Here's the consensus regarding the inverse shooting board,
also known as the Non-Normite Jointer Project.

(1) It ain't new.  Coopers used 'em.  Be nice to see one ?
(2) Coopers were making barrels, so we're not talkin'
    hightech where they're concerned, and we want quiet jointers
    that can do anything Norm can do, but keeping our fingers
    intact, if not the skin on our thumbs.
(3) It's gotta be duck soup to remove & replace the blade
    for resharpening without losing its setting.
(4) It's gotta have an adjustable mouth.  Ever lose the end of a
    short board in an *l*ctr*c jointer ?  That's one reason, but
    the main one is so we don't have to juggle the board to face
    the grain the right way (short version: no pull-out).
(5) The blade's gotta be skewed. Groan; get the trig book out; the
    Bedrock's frog seat is tilted; skewed blade's bad enough.
(6) Add a fence & a miter-gauge slot (prosthetics for the cautious).
(7) Make it really long (some) or portable (others); that means
    we're gonna have a series of sizes, loosely based on weight.

The adjustable mouth and the R&R ease lead us to a cross between
a Bedrock frog and the Gage setting mechanism. [Sheesh; I thought
I was just gonna borrow that 605C Bedrock frog from Barry's auction,
the one that was installed crooked enough to scare away all but the
lucky unwary.  Hee, hee. (drive-by gloat; undeservedly so).]
Those in the know will remember that the Gage design has a crossbar
above the cap, whereas the Bedrock depends on a clamp screw that
penetrates the blade.  They would seem incompatible, but the inverse
shooting board (ISP/NNJ from now on) need not have its blade holding
mechanism confined between the closely spaced cheeks of your normal
plane. Also, if it works as planned, not many folks will see how
ugly things are gonna be under there.

Comments & flames are welcome.  No money has yet been committed,
and no bribes have yet been paid.  A hunk of steel channel, say
1-1/2 deep by 3 inches wide by 2 feet long, would make a nice base
from which to start ...

Remember, we're doing this to protect all those old iron planes
from being crushed in YB's Emmert vises. Why crushed ? Gotta hold
'em upside down somehow while we're sharpening the blade !

If we get a prototype done in less than a year, mebbe the thing can
be patented in spite of its public development. Patentee ? The List.

Best regards,
George
amenex@e...