dog holes on the side of the bench?

[BillyBob]

Ok, I did a google search and got tired of wading through the old messages with no answer.

I'm fixing the obvious shortage of dog holes in an old work bench I bought. I've done the top justice. It was a lot of work to disassemble and set up the top on a drill press with support stands. So I want to do anything else I can think of before putting it back together (like properly mounting the original vise that came with it).

I see some ready-made work benches and the pictures of the Veritas twin screw vise showing dog holes on the apron at the front edge of the bench. I'm having a little trouble seeing the value of these if you have a respectable vise and bench slave installed on the front of the bench already. But I don't want to read about some really great use for extra holes only 24 hours after I put the bench back together.

Any thoughts?

Bob

[Vic Baron]

I can get a 6 foot plank between mine - when planing by hand, don't have to work around clamps. Mainly it just holds some much bigger pieces and supports them along the length of the bench.

Vic

[BillyBob]

Thanks for the reply, Vic. I'll study my situation a bit more. My bench is a mini- compared to yours. I've mortised the rear jaw of the front vise into the bench and added an apron along the front that extends through the vise to make a continous surface the full length of the bench. I think this will make the front vise much more "invisible" when clamping boards of various shapes and sizes.

This has been a lot of fun, considering its 90% work and only a few dollars in cost.

Bob

[Bob in Oregon]

I built the Veritas bench just as in the plan. My bench has the twin screw vise and a front vise as well. You are right, the dog holes on the skirt arent needed if you have a front vise and board jack. However, I have found a use for them. Having a number of bench jigs, such as a regular and miter shooting boards, hold down, bench hook, miter vise, etc.,- I drill a 3/4" hole at the top of each jig, glue in a 3/4" x 2" dowel and hang them from the back of the bench.

[charlie b]

Dogholes in the side of the end vise (Twin Screw in my case) combine with a shoulder vise on the front of the bench lets me clamp one end of a long board to be planed in the shoulder vise and pinned in by the peg in the end vise.

You can also thread some holes, make some wood screws and make a pseudo vase vise - say for dovetailing. Have a look here

idea was stolen from Ken Vaughn's site

want to check around the rest of his site b

[BillyBob]

Thanks, Bob. I decided to leave off the dog holes on the side for now. I was anxious to get it into productive use.

Bob

[BillyBob]

Charlie, you never fail to disappoint me with your level of documentation and good pictures. If there is any topic on this planet that you've documented, it will be thorough and interesting.

Das Bench is not only a very nice piece of work but its also going to be a great laboratory experiment. I see you are going to answer the age old question of whether round holes will hold up vs. square holes. Get back to us in about 10 years and let us know.

Thanks for the links to more ideas.

Bob

[alexy]

Did you really mean what you typed here? I suspect not, since in the next sentence, you imply that he fails to disappoint you every time he documents anything!

[AAvK]

I am SURE that was merely a goof-up textual typo, with the word "never" removed, it must be correct, he intended compliment. but that was a good catch of yours, we ALEX's must be a shot sharper to some tiny degree... ay? Charlie you should reply I think because Billy couldn't have meant to insult you. And I agree with the possible true intent of Billy's comments, on the positive side.

[charlie b]

Regardless of what he meant I'm gonna take it as a compliment and just say "Aw shucks" and try and look humble.

charlie b

[BillyBob]

You took it correctly. Substitute the word "amaze" for "disappoint" and that approximates my intent. I wrote the message while my wife was in surgery and was not thinking very clearly. (She's fine now).

Bob

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 09 May 2005 05:04:58 GMT, the inscrutable "BillyBob" spake:

Dayamn, BillyBob. Ya done shoulda had the anaesthetist give drug your

-wife- instead. She could have used them more than you.

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