Planing Bridge Cap

Farrell mfarrel2@tampabay.rr.com
Thu, 15 May 2003 09:17:15 -0400


I have to plane a new bridge cap a little bit for my target bearing. I know I have a tendency to plane the far side of my work more than the near side. What techniques might anyone have to offer to keep this critical task square - you just don't have much room for slop. If there is going to be some error, I trust it is better to make the hitch pin side a bit lower than target (but still have downward string pressure on rear edge of cap)? Should the plane of the cap top surface be parallel with the string plane? To dramatize, one can imagine a taller-than-needed bridge and you can slope the cap top downward toward the hitch pin and still technically, achieve your target downbearing (distance bearing).

I was just going to use a straight edge on top of the cap, perpendicular to the long axis of the bridge, on a level table to keep tabs on my cap angle. Any better method?

Seems to be an art (that is not quite achievable in one afternoon) to this downbearing stuff!

Terry Farrell
  

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