workbench question

Bill McQueen

Member
Messages
140
Location
Lincoln AR
I feel pretty stupid asking this question about how to use a work bench, but I've never had one. My tablesaw has always been my bench. HF had one on sale, i know ,i know but poor people have poor ways.

Anyway the question is about dogs you put in the top of the bench. I was clamping a small piece of wood and I could only use one dog on the bench and one on the vise.

That put the vise in a bind (only pushing on one side). I had to get a larger piece to stradle two dogs to make it work. Do you have to have a bunch of scrap around to use these dogs? (dogs may be the wrong word their small metal 3/4x3/4 that drop in the 3/4 hole)

Thanks guys and gals

PS
I went on youtube and typed in everything I could think off and couldn't find a thing
 
bill no question is a stupid one... so from my understanding you dont need to use much pressure to hold something with a dog hole.. you are basically pushing against a im movable object to get a operation done.. now if you are trying to push against it in all directions then yes you need to regroup.. and clamp it appropriately.. go to google and ask the question and then see if you get some better links to your solution
 
I use two methods. One is to use some pieces of 7/16" thick scraps (so they don't interfere with most stock I am holding) that I have marked to remind me not to throw them out. They are long enough to straddle the dogs and vary in width. I have a center row of dogs so I do not run into this as much as a wider spaced set. The other cure is a spacer for the side not grabbing anything. A piece of 1/4" dowel with a series of 1/8" luan scraps threaded on. At one end I added some strips of old credit card/gift card material every other wood piece or so to allow fine tuning. This little rig sets in the drawer right at the bench with the wood strips mentioned earlier and my holddowns.
 

Attachments

  • vise-anti-rack-001.jpg
    vise-anti-rack-001.jpg
    105.4 KB · Views: 53
  • vise-anti-rack-002.jpg
    vise-anti-rack-002.jpg
    105.1 KB · Views: 52
  • vise-anti-rack-004.jpg
    vise-anti-rack-004.jpg
    105.6 KB · Views: 53
  • vise-anti-rack-005.jpg
    vise-anti-rack-005.jpg
    106.2 KB · Views: 51
Last edited:
Ken thanks for the video, seen alot of this guy but missed this one. Glenn thanks for the pic's just what I needed, I'm making on of those gagets in the morning.
Peter The HF bench is very study for what it is. It's not real heavey but you can bolt it down. The doors don't extened out as far as they should but they work smooth. I sacrficed one drawer because a had a old woodworking vise I saved for years just so I could bolt it to a bench some day, it comes with one on the end and I put the other one on the side about a foot from the end. Thanks for all your imput.
 
Bill when it comes to using the vise and dogs to clamp think of perhaps lining yourvice with wooden jaws wide enough in both directions so as to be able to get some distance between holes and drill two holes in the centre of the moving jaw use a forstner drill bit to get a nice clean hole.
Other thing you can do is to take a 3/4 inch dowel if thats the size of your dog hole and drill a hole through a piece of hardwood that is say 2.5" x 2.5" x 0.25 " thick. Then glue the dowel in flush to the flat surface of the wooden block and cut the dowel off at say 3" long.
Now you got a square topped dog to fit in the bench hole and it will anchor the edge of a piece of stock you wanna work a lot better.

Oh and if you find you come up short in clamping distance make two wedges and slide them opposite facing each other into the gap between the workpiece and bench dog.
Many ways to skin the cat ...its woodworking:).

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks, still another good idea I get to try. I had another thought I'd like to interject. There are these things called holdfast, a piece of metal round stock with a curved top the you can put in the dog hold and give slight tap and holds your work to the bench. It seems there are some that work and others not so much. Have you had success with any particular brand?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Bill in my view there is only one brand that seems to have the whole category beat.

Thats the gramercy ones from Tools for Working wood.

I think you gonna find a whole bunch of guys here will agree with me and have em in their shops. I got two and they work unbelievably well.

You get cheaper ones and cast iron ones but they also break. This is a tool that really works well.
 
I'll give a +1 for the gramercy holdfasts in general, I had no idea what I was missing until I got them and wouldn't be without them now. Really fast/convenient to work with.

I'm not sure they would solve the OP's problem though as they clamp "down" really well, but not so much across.

I use ~most of the same tricks (roughly) as Rob and Glenn outlined. I actually turned some square topped dogs in a little scrap (for lathe practice more than anything, still pretty rough there..) a while back which ended up being pretty handy for this sort of problem - I think I need to make another set with shorter tops :D. Doesn't totally solve the wracking problem though, I think Glenn covered that pretty well..
 
When I went looking around the internet I got educated that there are holdfast and then there were holdfast. Some said HF broke on the first lick, others liked I think it was jorguson and a few go for others. One guy said the hand forged were the best. Alot of complains about holdfast so I really appreciated a name brand being mentioned. I went to the site and they looked good. Feb. plan to pick some up, because I'm having some lifting problems when I try using the vise and a boards with dogs to sandwitch things.

Thanks
 
Bill i think somewhere there is a picture Glenn has another trick gadget for that.
What you can also do is take a bar clamp, I think Glenn used some from HF and cut off the head. Drill a hole through the bar and get a further piece of flat bar of same or slightly lesser thickness and width of the bar in the bar clamp. Cut this extra bit i am guessing around 1.5 inches long. Drill a hole through the center to match the bar clamp. Then attach the short piece to the end of the bar with a screw and nut. Pene over the protruding screw bit so the nut cannot come off. Now this piece should swivel and be able to line up with the clamp.

So to use it you insert the open end into a dog hole and have the short bar swivel to prevent the bar clamp from pulling out. This short piece you attached straddles the bottom of the dog hole beneath the bench.

So this should look like you now got a bar clamp sticking up out of your workbench and its adjustable and tightened ot loosened in the same manner as ordinary use except you clamping down on the bench.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
Bill - the forged ones are often quite good as well, but the prices I've seen run into the $100+ range for nice ones. The Gramercy are both good quality and reasonably priced.

There are an almost unlimited number of clamping rigs, I also use a "Wonder Dog" from lee valley on occasion, and I like the looks of the "split nut" design they sell, but haven't ever tried one :D

Rob - I bet you could make one of those pretty easily out of a pipe (pony) clamp.. in fact I'm thinking you could just slide the tail end on underneath after you drop the pipe through and use that as the under bench piece.. hrm... especially a deep reach pipe clamp would be handy.. would require no modification at all even.. slightly more "hassle" than insert and twist but adjustable to almost any height...
 
Well I got them in and found out I was going to have to drill some larger holds, which I did. They work so well all I have to do is push down on them and I get a pretty tight clamp without even using a hammer. Thanks so much for turning onto these puppies.
 
Top