Friday, October 8, 2010

Bench dog holes.

Continuing the evolution of my workbench, I drilled 3/4" bench dog holes aligned to the bench dog that is built into the vise. To drill the holes, I used a forstner bit on my power drill but did not drill all the way through the table. It's common to drill all the way through so dust, wood, etc. don't accumulate on the bottom of the hole requiring annoying clean ups, but that means the bench dogs would need something that prevents them from falling through the holes. What I did was to drill a smaller hole at the bottom that does go all the way through so that things can fall through but the dogs are still held up.

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Next, I made myself some bench dogs by cutting a 3/4" dowel rod to size. Buying bench dogs can cost $50 for a pair, a dowel rod costs $2 and I can probably get 20 to 30 out of it.

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Finally, I drilled two holes through a board that I can use with the dogs as stops in two directions.

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Showing how I can use the bench dog with the vise to hold the wood in place:

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