Since craftsmen earned their living at their bench it was all about pace and when you re doing a lot of planing a wooden dog might not last too long so steel it was.
Wood in 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. Diy bench dogs step 1. The dowels will need to be cut down to size to make useful bench dogs. These aluminum bench dogs fit snugly into the 3 4 holes drilled into the bench.
Wooden bench dogs workshop projects like many others my workbench has a row of square holes down one side that evenly spaced and work with the wagon vise to clamp boards or other work pieces down to the bench. Kreg 4 piece bench dogs they fit snugly in the bench holes and work well with my 30 wide wood vise for large glue ups. Plane one side of the wood dowel step 4. Square steel bench dogs used to be the most common since years ago hardware would generally be made at the forge and hammering a nice fitting square dog would have been easiest.
You ll find a tremendous variety of dogs and other bench accessories such as hold downs that fit into 3 4 round holes he says. Tools and material step 2. Kevin likes dogs with round shanks for their versatility. Cut a 2 piece of steel wire step 6.
Cut dowel to length. Powertec 71159 aluminum bench dogs inch x 2 3 8 inches spring loaded hold down for workbenches 2 pack 4 8 out of 5 stars 7 9 99 9. Insert the wire in place step 7. Big horn aluminum bench dogs by lee kendall lewiston me us i have a traditional woodworking bench made of 4 inch thick oak.
I have 3 holes place along the white oak moveable jaw. The tiny brad points are helpful when painting to reduce surface contact and for drying. Cut the wood dowel to 4 step 3. Drill a whole to hold the spring step 5.
I have not studied the exact chronological order of wood holding on the benchtop but quickly thinking brings to mind the round wood dogs circa 1400 the square wooden bench stop then the iron tooth in the wood bench stop the iron holdfast then wood and or iron benchdogs. Bench dogs fit into these holes and are usually spring loaded to keep them in place. Wood project designers builders kevin boyle and john olson differ in their preferences for dogs that require round or square bench holes. They are about 2 1 2 inches long and are solid aluminum and very sturdy.
Using the pencil.