Optimum Bench Dog Holes Placement?

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:32:06 -0500, the infamous [e-mail] scrawled the following:

Ditto that thought. Stagger rows by half that if you want.

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 6.75" for 7" vise jaw 0 0 0 0 0 27x37" pattern + jaw depth.

Drill 'em as you need 'em. Not a prob. Got a 3/4" forstner bit? A tubafore tee (underneath on a car jack) prevents blowouts.

Wonder Pups if anything. (now cost twice what I paid for 'em!)

-- "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." -- Thomas Jefferson

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 7 Nov 2009 07:54:20 -0600, the infamous "Leon" scrawled the following:

Good luck running with dogs in a termite barf top, Leon.

-- "To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." -- Thomas Jefferson

[upscale]

That's an idea that hadn't occurred to me. I was wondering how I'll drill interior holes where even my largest clamps would reach to position wood against blowout.

At approximate $35 each ca, they're only half the cost of the surface vises and certainly not as much reach. I also like that fact that you fasten your own block attachment to the end of the surface vices, something you can't do with the wonder dogs. I guess combination of both would fill most anyone's needs.

[Nonny]

When I see something like this, I wonder how people can live without a spool welder. They're cheap and you can use flux-cored wire to hold down cost if only used occasionally. I did woodworking, but occasionally I'd trot out the welder and make a fixture or work piece, while also having it handy to repair my normal homeowner's equipment like tractor, attachments and mower.

While the Lee Valley surface gizmo looks great and would probably be handy for some jobs, I found that when something was specifically needed, I could fabricate what I needed faster and cheaper (not necessarily better, though) than what I could buy. Once used, it'd get put into a corner, on a shelf or in a closet until needed the next time. For the very occasional use, such as I'd have for the Lee Valley clamp/vice, a large nut, piece of threaded rod and a piece of smooth rod for the dog hole would be perfect. Vice Grips make a great crank handle.

[Bill]

I too didn't find the episode Lew aluded to. However.. I figured out how to set up my (Comcast provided) DVR to record Woodsmith every time it is shown. I didn't even have to know which days it is on. I entered "W-O-O" and selected it from a list. Now, maybe THAT appliance can start earning it's keep. The first epison I watched, "sliding cabinets", illustrated a few interesting techniques.. The show seems to move at a pace which keeps it interesting, and, since it was on a PBS channel, was not broken up with commercials. In retrospect, maybe I'm the only one here who hasn't seen the show before...so many channels, good stuff gets lost in the commercial clutter.

Bill

[Leon]

Dang Bill welcome to the last century. LOL. I have had a DVR since 2003 and with DirecTV I connect to the internet also with a Cat 6 cable to my router. I can down load instantly all of the shows if they are available. IIRC it comes on or came on HGTV.

[Leon]

thanks~ ;!) We'll see how they work out. If they don't work I am only out $30-$40. I really simply need more storage and more horizontal surface.

[Jim Hall]

The first row should be close to the holes on the vise jaw so that you can clamp small short pieces. Lon Schleining recommends in his book spacing dog holes between 5" to 8". If you don't have a quick change vise you may want to move toward closer end of spacing to eliminate time spent cranking vise out to width and back. To reduce racking of vice, at least on wider boards, two rows of holes off the vise can be used. If you have the money, IMHO, its well worth investing in either Schleining or Schwarz book on workbench design and construction. A lot of good ideas there and considerations you may not think about.. May be available at the local library.. Good luck..

[Bill]

Leon,

I have an outlet in the wall going to a splitter-> cable_modem-> router-> Network Interface (in computer) for Internet. I also have my tv-card in my computer attached to the other half of the splitter.

Do you know if there a way for me to download a whole show "instantly", like you do, with this configuration? What you describe reminds me of FTP.

Maybe what you are able to do can be credited to the (TV) software application you are using? I am using an open-source application ("D-scalar") to provide an interface to my legacy tv-card.

BTW, I've collected 2 books on SketchUp: "Google SketchUp" and "Google SketchUp Cookbook" since you helped get me up and running with that.

Bill

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:54:01 -0500, the infamous [e-mail] scrawled the following:

Yeah, a 6' length glued to an upright on a floor jack works well and is safe for your billdrits.

The vise would take up most of the slack anyway, and it's much easier to adjust. Plus, you'd get a twofer.

Oh, come on. You're incapable of drillling holes in a _brass_ wonder pup end?

-- The Smart Person learns from his mistakes. The Wise Person learns from the mistakes of others. And then there are all the rest of us...

-----------------------------------------------------

[Leon]

Maybe. I am not a guru in this matter. I just recently was able to hook up the DVR to the internet. It is a softare function of the DVR AND it is not "instantly". It is a little slower than making a copy from a stand alone DVD player to a stand alone DVD recorder. Basically it takes about 2.5 hours to record a 2 hour movie. An advantage is that if it is available you can immediately down load it and begin watching after the progress bar turns green from red for an uninterrupted view.

Now with that said there are many many internet sources available for free that may have the TV show that you are looking for. Most of the major broad cast station web sites allow you to down load their shows to your computer.

Also HULU.com is a site for free movies that you can download.

I'll look into those. I have only purchased Sketchup for Dummies and it is a pretty good book but/and deals with the pro version. It is a good reference book. I knew most of what is in it. Yesterday I found a tutorial that shows how to animate components through svenes and layers. Basically you start an animation and it goes through the scenes one by one and shows a drawer opening and closing. It is cool but I am not at all sure it would be of any value unless you were trying to sell the project to a customer and you were not around to demo it yourself. He would have open the fial with Sketchup or Sketchup Viewer and play the animation himself.

[Robert Bonomi]

On a related note, make _sure_ you use the right shape holes.

There are well-known problems that arise from trying to put a square dog in a round hole.

[Stuart]

Wherever you put, them they'll be right some of the time and wrong some of the time >-|

One way is to get some aluminium "T" slot and set it into the top of the bench, then you can put the "dogs" where you like when you need them ]

[Stuart]

Tell me about it!

I recently finished a new bench with a nice (laminated) beech top. Within a few days I was routing out a piece of MDF and managed to put a .05mm grove in the top of it. I was really cut up about it. I am convinced I set and rechecked the depth stop on the router but it happened somehow.

I am currently building a stand for a small Seig X1 milling machine and I am in the process of making draws for it. The top draw is really just a slab of thick MDF with semicircular grooves for the cutters to sit in. The second draw, similar, which I was working on, is fitted to accommodate my engineers squares and combination set. My largest square required a recess

2mm less than the thickness of the MDF and that's when it happened.

[upscale]

beautiful slab maple work bench. It will be tough enough as it is to drill dog holes and you want me to cut dado tracks???

Maybe down the road when it's full of nicks and cuts and isn't so pristine.

[Chris Friesen]

I'd be worried about damaging the T-track given the amount of force occasionally exerted with my handplanes when hogging off large amounts of wood.

Chris

[upscale]

Not to worry. While I appreciate the T-Track suggestion, there's no way I'm going to be putting them in. I'll do fine with bench dogs (when I get them installed).

[Stuart]

Should have said 0.5mm deep x 15mm wide and about 140mm long

[Stuart]

Yeah that too. I got a "new" car in February - ex demonstrator, 6 months old, 2,700 miles on the clock, beautiful car. Within two weeks someone had "keyed" it - drivers door and front wing. Last week someone scraped all round the rear bumper (fender?), passenger side, whilst it was parked in Morrisons (supermarket) car park.

[Lee Michaels]

"Stuart" wrote

Yep, something similar happened to me. I managed to score a good deal on a store sample maple workbench. I was routing a bunch of signs in Lexan with a dremel mounted in a baby router case. It was simple. Put the sign on paper under the lexan and "draw" the letters and symbols with the baby router.

I don't know what happened but I did one sign and the lettering went through the material. I looked on the bench and the letters and symbols are permanantly etched into the benchtop. Luckily, I caught it before I had done much on that sign.

I got all upset about it and agonized over a cosmetic repair. Then I realized it was a bench top. I guess it is like that first scratch on a new car. I now have many nicks, etc on the benchtop. The rest of the bench looks pretty, but the top is starting to look ugly. If it gets too bad, I can always resurface it. But it works just fine the way it is now.