Veritas donkey ear

The Veritas shooting board and shooting plane are some of my favorite pieces of woodworking gear. Expensive - but I'm happy every time I use them.

I had made my own shooting board last year - and it's one of those things where it's really hard to make things straight if you don't have something that is already straight. Especially if it's the second or third thing you've ever made. Mine was pretty janky and required constant tuning. I could have built a better one, but eventually I decided that some things should just be purchased when you're a beginner.

(If you're in the same boat, and right handed, I'd probably recommend Rex Krueger's, part of his beginner's set. They don't have a left handed option, though. The Compass Rose store is currently closed, so can't link to it.)

Anyway, at some point I saw someone who had built a donkey's ear - an attachment for their shooting board that let them cut miters, for box building or similar. Veritas had one, so I got it on backorder. When it finally arrived I stuck on the todo shelf.

Finally got around to building it and I was very pleased with the easy of assembly and how well it worked out of the gate.

You need to drill one hole in the shooting board base to lock down the donkey's ear when you're using it. I used a Forstner bit and a guide, and it went just fine.

Getting it trued up and testing it was also very quick. The set screws are easy to adjust and a digital angle finder makes it easy to check.

First test box went great, too. I tuned all the components on the shooting board as well, which is extremely handy.

I do not like red oak, but I had already started a box months ago, and the components were mostly cut down. They preceded the shooting board - so they weren't square! But fixing that took about 5 minutes.