Huey shows you how to make perfect evenly spaced dog holes in your workbench top using a router.
Drilling bench dog holes. Center the jig s hole over a dog hole photo b and clamp it in place. To get started i made a jig that i wanted to do several things. 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. Drill through the 2 4.
First it had to keep the bit plumb. Place one end of the bent steel into a drilled opening of the bench dog with the arc zenith facing away from the dog then use pliers to bend the steel and force the other end into the other drilled opening. If your entrance and exit holes both hit the mark the hole is plumb. At your drill press bore a 1 hole in the jig to ensure it s perpendicular to the face.
Popular woodworking magazine managing editor glen d. The length of the 2 4 will allow you to put holes anywhere you please on a benchtop. The bench dog pattern is one issue another is the angle of the hole to drill. Another says to drill 2 to 3 degrees off vertical.
Install a 3 4 guide bushing and 1 2 straight or spiral bit in your plunge router. Then lay out the locations for the holes and drill as shown. Here s how it works. Next tap the bushing into the hole.
One school promotes a true vertical angle 90 degrees from the benchtop. Second it needed a fence to register against the edge of the benchtop to place the dog holes a constant distance from. Also discussed is selecting the right type of drill bit. Third it had to be able to drill both rows of dog holes at once.