Reply To: Can an aluminium shooting board guide rail abrade the edge of a shooting plane?
You might consider replacing your aluminum fence with either one of the slippery tropical hardwoods, boxwood, or with one of the slick plastics like UHMW oR HDPE polyethylene, or for a harder fence , acetal (Delrin) I’ve used all three and found acetal was the most durable and stable , but none of them will harm your plane. Acetal is often used as bearing surfaces in harsh environments.. You could probably adjust to zero clearance. A little dry lube, paste wax, or light oil and it’s as slippery as ice.
Be careful if you use hardwoods. Some like cocobolo contain abrasive silica.
All three plastics can be shaped with woodworking tools although acetal usually requires carbide edged tools to get right. It dulls O1 rather quickly and requires super sharp edges. . Some plastics suppliers like TAP plastics will do simple cutting for you. Acetal commonly comes in black or white. The black will match your bed better. Just don’t use flathead fasteners. The cone shape can split acetal.
You aren’t the first who has come across the fit issue on veritas chute planes.
YouTube guru Matt Eastly did a video on making a ramped shooting board using what looks like HDPE for the bed and fence for the plane chute.
Watch to the end for his solution and you will smile at the do-it- yourself tutorial involving trueing his veritas shooting plane edge in a milling machine.
