Are there any disadvantages to square bench dog holes?

[Jay Jeffery]

I'm laminating a maple workbench top out of 3/4" thick stock. This makes the addition of square holes about as easy as drilling round ones. Is there any disadvantage to square holes? They sure look cooler.

[Michael Gonzales]

Jeff, round ones just conform to the project a bit better if your using a vise.

[John McClanahan]

You may find more stuff made to fit the round holes.

[Robert Chapman]

Like Michael says - round holes conform to a project better by letting the round bench dog with a flat face turn in the hole so it's straight to the vise.

[Rick Fisher]

If you have round bench dogs, they fall on the floor with square holes..


Just sayin.. not really ideal..

[Kent A Bathurst]

I made my bench with square dogs > 13 years ago. I don't remember an occasion where I'd wished I had round ones. I don't know of any problems with round ones, either.

You gotta live with it. Do whatever you want, is my advice.

[Brent Ring]

I love my square ones. Had to make my own, but I have been very happy with them.

[Harvey Melvin Richards]

Round ones are easier to add when you decide you need one in a new location.

[Terry Beadle]

I've been using my square ones for over 10 years now. Made of red oak. Recently, one needed some maintenance and I decided to just replace it but this time with a cherry scrap. Worked great. They are about 1 inch square and about 5 inches long. Most of my dogs on my bench are square.

I made one for every hole. No swapping needed and dirt cheap.

I've also made some round holes in the bench top. Most of them are for clamping irons. However, I've made several round holes opposite my quick release Record for use on short pieces. I turn them on the lathe and cut them about 1/3rd the thickness of the diameter. These round pins readily adapt to what ever work piece that needs attention because they pivot in the hole.

So the bottom line is square ones work great. Round ones work well with odd shaped work pieces and are also good for square stock. Square ones also work well with odd shaped work pieces but some times need to be tweaked a bit with a chisel.

In either case, round or square, making a replacement is easy, cheap, and a nice break.

IMO, this is a coin flipper. The more square stock you work, the square ones gain ground in popularity.

[ian maybury]

I raised this same issue a few weeks ago Jay, the result was that pretty much all that responded posted in favour of round dogs. My caution was that they might be prone to wear or failure as they are not as chunky as the square type, but if this is the case the timing of my post was bad because it didn't seem to be anybodies experience.

It's worth running a search here as it's a bit of a perennial topic.

The flat leaf spring used on the square type to enable height positioning works very well, but it's harder to replicate with round dogs. This was a fairly consistent feedback too.

My personal conclusion was that square dogs as you say look the 'dog's' (English expression), are more traditional and hence deliver more bragging rights, and probably work marginally better for securing flat pieces with parallel edges near the front edge of the bench using a tail vise for hand planing.

Round holes on the other hand are more easily added afterwards, are easily drilled in the front edge and legs for vertical work, and are probably more adaptable (holdfasts, accessories, ability to rotate) for clamping more complex shapes on the bench top in areas beyond this.

Some use a row of square dogs, with round holes to the rear of the bench a la Schwarz Roubo from some years ago. Many others use all 3/4 round holes. It's probably mostly about which suits your situation best, but there's seemingly no major black/white argument in favour of either..

ian

[Prashun Patel]

Most of the holdfasts I've seen are round shafted; not sure if they'd fit a square hole properly. +1 on ease of adding new ones.

[Chris Parks]

So why not have round ones, drill a hole in a square bit of wood and place it over the round dog, the best of both worlds?

[Russell Sansom]

As Ian said, this is a perennial topic. Sometimes it gets heated, sometimes not. The problem for you and the problem with workbenches is that we have to live with it until we build a new bench. I built my current bench in 1978 when I was making harpsichords for a living. (In 1978 if you were modestly good and lived quite frugally you actually could live on the income. )

Anyway, here's a slightly different slant on the question.
I put square holes in my bench for two reasons: 1) That's what Krenov did and, 2) I wanted an excuse to chop 14 big mortises in 2"+ hard maple. When I was done, I was quite competent at chopping mortises. I mean, 2 days of hard work and I had paid my mortise dues and in all the time since I have never balked at cutting a mortise, big or small. I understand this is a little twisted from your original question, so here's my direct answer.
Over the years I've had occasion to work on all kinds of small stuff. Harpsichord Jacks, 1/10" soundboards, the tongues for bench dogs. The rectangular dogs will hold these kinds of pieces quite securely. They will slip off a round dog unless you have them centered perfectly, then a little force off center and ... the workpiece will squirt out like a melon seed. So on that count alone, I prefer the square dogs. I don't think this is as much of an issue with larger work, but it's still there. I have a set of dogs that have a "pitch" to the head. This works really well for holding a very thin board downward so it won't pop out. I suppose you can turn a flange on the top of a round dog to do this as well, but I've never tried it. At any rate the square dog takes a couple strokes with a block plane to put a pitch on it.

Rectangular dogs can be beautiful. As I said in a previous post, when I have a visitor I hand them a dog and explain how it works and let them clamp up a board using the end vice and when they leave I almost have to pry it out of their hands.

Here's a riddle: Why have joiners, etc of bygone eras used rectangular dogs and not round ones? I could be way off here, but I think antique benches have predominately rectangular holes.

[Joe Leigh]

This is always an interesting discussion, and in my way of seeing things always ends up with the same rationalization from "round dog" proponents, that is they're easier. Ask yourself, why do round commercial dogs have square faces? Because deep down inside they wish they were square dogs? Probably, but more likely it's because they were easier to make. So the real question is what does easier have to do with anything??

[Tom Scott]

I have square dogs on my bench plus a few round holes for holdfasts. The square dogs are secure, don't twist and stay at whatever level I put them at. If I were to clamp something really irregular in which the square ones didn't work, I could easily make some with a round head (and they wouldn't twist). Yes chopping the mortices is a pain, but if you're in the build stage, then it's easy to plan for square ones now.

[Frank Drew]

Jay,

I've only used square/rectangular dogs and holes along the front edge, so take this for what it's worth, but in almost a quarter century working at my bench (and at a few benches before I opened my own shop and made my own bench) I never found any problems with them, never wished I'd gone with round dog holes.

If you think you'd like to use holdfasts or other benchtop accessories, it's easy enough to drill some round holes wherever you want.