Another newbie question. I am finally going to build a (hopefully) decent workbench. Haven’t planned all the details but I know that I want bench dog holes. Do I extend the holes all the way through the bench? If so, how do I keep the dogs from falling through? How do you all address that problem?
Frank
Replies
If holes don't go thru, they will fill with shavings, screws, & small parts which are difficult to retrieve. Some dogs have springs which provide enough friction to prevent their falling thru. Buy your dogs before drilling the holes. There was a recent thread about how to drill the holes. You might want to look it up. Some folks want to slant theirs thru the top. Vertical may be advantageous if you ever decide to use cast iron holddowns thru them also.
Cadiddlehopper
Make life easy and get the Lee Valley round dogs. Then you only have to "drill" 3/4" holes. I put it in quotes, because you really want to bore the holes with a plunge router, ensuring holes perpendicular to the bench top. The dogs are brass and spring loaded so they don't fall through.
You can make square dogs, and make square holes--those holes are done with a tablesaw and dado blade, then gluing on the edge piece. Those holes are L shaped, so your square dogs don't fall through. I've done both, and prefer my new top, with the round holes. It also lets you buy other LV acccessories that fits the holes.
Yah, you need 'em all the way through otherwise a bunch of junk will get in there. Besides, that way you can push them down and out of the way.
Norm Abrams makes dogs totally of wood: there are some plans for it in one of his books. They have resistance by means of a wooden leaf type spring. I've made them and they're really simple.
The ready made dogs are well done. The wood ones can break. But what I like about the wood ones is they don't do any damage to your project wood like most metal ones do. But as I said, they're easy. I can knock one out (they are squarish in shape) in 10 minutes, start to finish with a table saw, a band saw and one #5 screw.
One other thing.
When you drill or cut for a dog, it wants to set in at a slight angle (as opposed to dead straight). If you put it in dead perpendicular to the table, and you apply resistance with your vise, the dog will lean back, allowing your project wood to pop up and out of the doghold.
Haven't built a bench in a while but if I recall correctly, they were set in tilting 5 degrees towards the vise end.
Have your vice at hand or at least know where the vice dog will be. If you want a double row of holes ( my personal favorite ) keep the holes 1" in from each side of the vice and 4" centers along the length.One row of holes ,determine the center of the vice,that will also be the center of the vice dog, 4' centers again. Bore the holes thru the top, otherwise the holes will clog up from shavings or dust.
Round or square holes should tilt a couple of degrees towards the vice. Just eyeball the tilt,the degrees are not critical.If you make make round dogs, 3/4" dowel with a crutch rubber top is the simple way. I turned my dogs on a lathe, 3/4" shaft with a
1 1/2" top, the tops are various heights, from 1/4" to 1" to use for different thickness boards. I also cut half the top off so the dog has one flat side.You could buy bench dogs of course, I never have.
mike
I use home made dogs. Their 3/4" dowel stock, cut to about 2" long. I cut 3/4" inner diameter plastic tubing to about 1/2" and attach to the end of the dowel. The dog holes are just 3/4" holes. These dogs don't fall through (because of the plastic tubing), and the plastic is real gentle on the wood. Takes some time to make a bunch of these, but they work well for me.
Bob
I second the suggestion for the round LV bench dogs:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31127&cat=1,41637
They also sell plastic protectors for the above, but I generally just use a block of thin wood scrap.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31128&cat=1,41637
I also find these to be very handy:
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31129&cat=1,41637
I also agree that plain old 3/4" dowels (with a 1/4" square on top) work very well.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
Thanks for all the tips. I learned a lot and nobody laughed at my question (that I know of).
Frank
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