Veritas Bench Blade

These were just announced by Lee Valley. See: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=64685&cat=51&ap=1

I'm thinking that the variation that has the wedge lock post might work very well on Festool's Multi-Funtion Table (MFT). I plan to buy a bench blade tomorrow (when returning a few duplicate Lee Valley gifts) and to find out. Then, I will report back in this thread.

Mini Review

I purchased one of the wedge lock versions of the Veritas Bench Blades this afternoon and tested it out in my woodworking shed.

The good news is that the Bench Blade is of good quality and that it works as advertised. The bad news, for me anyway, is that I am not at all sure that I will be able to make much use of it.

Here it is right out of the box:

And, here it is placed into a hole in My Festool MFT (multi-function table) with the blade slightly above the surface then tightened into position:

The following two pictures show the blade fully loosened, then fully tightened:

The difference is about 7mm (or 1/4 inch).

Here, I have used the bench blade to clamp a small piece of walnut on my MFT:

The other side is being held in place by a Festool clamp that is higher than the surface of the walnut -thus the small plywood shim. This setup works but demonstrates that, because there is only a small amount of movement in the bench blade, some other adjustable dog or clamp will also be needed to hold an object in position.

Another place that I can make use of a Bench Blade is in the holes in the end-vise on my my woodworking bench. Because the holes are only 45mm deep, often my regular bench dogs project up higher than I would like:

That is not the case with a bench blade:
Of course, I could have accomplished the same thing by making some hardwood dogs that did not extend up as far as the metal ones.

I will keep this one Veritas Bench Blade but, at least for now, will not purchase any more. I hope that I will find other places where it comes in handy and I do expect to hear from others of some good applications.

I didn't know about them but I would say that they are mainly thought to be used as surface clamps to hold relief carvings (as suggested in their pics) to me the bench dog stop function for planning is more a "side use" than what I think they were originally thought for.

When I make relief carvings I fix them using wedges against a wood frame, that forces me to put some spacers between the wedges and the piece, with those I could just use a 1" plywood board filled with and array of holes and place them ad the edge of the piece to be fixed, their low profile would not interfere with my hands or tools and the cam function would make changing the position of the piece very quick.

Thanks Toni, that makes sense.

A question if I may Frank.

On your fifht pic there is another type of surface clamp shown with your name on it. Is it a self-made or a purchased one?

If you purchased it I would be interested where from and its brand name.

Thanks in advance.

Toni, the clamp is part of the Festool Clamping Elements set (see: www.festoolcanada.com/products/mft-multifunction-tables/clamps/clamping-elements-2pack-488030.html). The part of the element that presses against the wood is 17mm thick whereas the Veritas Bench Blade is only 7mm thick.

Thanks Frank I'll check for them.