Diy bench dogs step 1.
Bench top with dog holes. The innovative prairie dog from veritas shown below below has a coiled spring at its base allowing you to pop it up 5x16 high or down flush with the surrounding surface by alternately pressing down on its top kevin installed a pair in his vise s adjustable jaw where typical dogs would not work. Second it needed a fence to register against the edge of the benchtop to place the dog holes a constant distance from. These marks should be aligned. To get started i made a jig that i wanted to do several things.
How long your dogs. Once one hole was drilled a dog placed through the first hole in the jig and passed through to the first hole automatically set the second hole of the jig to drill the next hole. Mark the location for the entrance and exit hole on the 2 4. Using the pencil.
Now clamp the 2 4 on edge to your benchtop and use the plumb holes as an oversized doweling jig to guide your auger bit. 3 4 dog hole bushing not required but highly recommended more below 3 4 auger bit more below crosscut saw drill and other assorted tools length of 2x4 some 3 4 plywood and other scraps. The dowels will need to be cut down to size to make useful bench dogs. There s no standard size for bench dogs but i ve found that 3 4 or 1 to be the most common size.
Cut dowel to length. Bench dog tools are used by woodworking professionals serious. The wood used to create a bench dog must strong enough to hold your work but still pliable so as not to damage the wood you re working with. Dog holes are used to secure what are called bench dogs often made of medium hard woods such as mahogany cherry and or walnut.
Third it had to be able to drill both rows of dog holes at once. First it had to keep the bit plumb. Since then the bench dog product line of router tables safety accessories and shop tools has steadily expanded. Bench dogs can also be made of plastic or metal.
The second piece of 8 4 ash was glued on as a fence the distance from the holes to the fence equalled the desired distance of the dog holes from the edge of the bench. Bench dog was launched in the mid nineties with the simple idea that great tools were the result of extensive experience thoughtful design and exacting engineering. Also discussed is selecting the right type of drill bit.