Wood springs on square dogs - side or face?

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've begun cobbling together some bench dogs, because I really need all my stickers for stickering wood right now, and because I'm tired of trying to catch them before they fall through the bench. So I got that part taken care of, and now I'm thinking I need to put some springs on them so they stay at the height I want.

I've seen them the spring both on the face (below the part that contacts the wood) and on the side - any preference for either, or does it matter?

I've also got some 1/32" model makers plywood kicking around from some project or other - think that would work well for spring material?

[Jim Koepke]

Just my 232874 but it seems the spring on the face side would have the dog in the correct position when the vise starts to tighten.

jtk

[Noah Wagener]

The guy at the local Woodcraft showed me some springs like the ones that hold those 4 in 1 screwdriver bits in place. just drill a small hole and pop 'em in. But if you've already made dogs smaller than hole to accomodate traditional spring design they probably wouldnt work. I was wondering how far up from the bottom of the dog do you start the bevel and how steep?

[Mark Dorman]

my metal dogs have them in the side. I don't know what's best or traditional but they work for me.

[Karl Andersson]

My dogs are all wood (dogwood) - both the bodies and the spring "leaves". The spring is just from the stiffness of the wood, no added metal spring like some aauthors show. I put them on the side of the body - I figured if they were on the front, they would be compressed somewhat when under a load from the vise and that would evetually bend the leaves to follow the body, taking away the spring effect.

As for Noah's question on how far up and what angle, I made the leaves and cut them to fit the bodies, then planed the last inch of the 7-inch dog at an angle that sprung the end of the leaf 1/2 inch from the side of the dog. I just held the end at 1/2 inch and eyeballed a pencil line. Then I test-fit them with a screw, adding a little more angle until the spring held the dog well at any height.

I don't have any particular reference for this method, it's just how I did it...

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Joshua

I asked the same question when I built mine. My choice was to place the spring on the front ..

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/GoneToTheDogs_html_59b7fcdc.jpg

The reason that meant the most to me was that this preserved their maximum width.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Neeley]

*Mighty* nice dawg you got there, Derek!! <g>

Are your dog-springs of constant thickness, or tapered?

Jim in Alaska

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Jim

The "springs" are a constant thickness. Here is how they were made ...

1. The 6 1/2" long (in my case) blank is sized to fit the dog hole, which angles at 2 degrees, and is dropped in as far as possible. The angle is marked ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Making%20dogs/dogs2.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Making%20dogs/dogs3.jpg

2. The outline is transferred from the template (which was used to build the router jig when the dog hole strip was built) ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Making%20dogs/dogs4.jpg

3. The spring was sliced off on the bandsaw.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Making%20dogs/dogs5.jpg

4. Returning to the bandsaw, the blade was aligned with the marked line, then the spring was placed behind the dog-to-be, and the cut made. This ensured that the spring thickness fills the space to the line ..

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Making%20dogs/dogs6.jpg

5. Mark off and taper the shaft of the dog. The amount really depends on the springiness of the wood you are using. This is hard Jarrah, so I probably took off less than others. I have glued and screwed the spring to the shaft.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Workbench%20and%20Workshop/Making%20dogs/dogs7.jpg

I also glued on suede leather to the faces.

The entire bench of dogs took about 2 hours from start to build.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Neeley]

Thanks, Derek. I was following the pictures without reading carefully and first missed the taper at the end. Got it on the re-read though!

[Adam Cherubini]

Never put them on the face. If you put them on the face, when you push on the dog, it can rock in the hole. This results in a spongey stop which is completely unacceptable.

Dogs should fit tightly front to back to react the force of planing or clamping. The springs are there to provide the friction to hold them in place vertically.

More:
In my experience those springs are never strong enough. If you are hand planing stock and the bottom of the board is slightly convex, the up and down motion of the board will ratchet the dogs down. Very frustrating. So make your springs SUPER stiff. My favorite planing stop is a 2" square block of beech with a saw kerf in it. It is height adjustable only with mallet blows. It's an excellent planing stop.

Adam

[Frank Drew]

I like Derek's design. I don't like metal dogs on a wood working bench.

For my own bench, I went the completely simple route and made a number of L-shaped dogs with the long leg fitting the dog hole and varying amount of the short leg stop sticking above the dog hole, say from 1/8" to 3/4" (the short leg is longer than the dog hole so it doesn't fall through). Just grab the appropriate one for the piece you're working on. With all the pieces of scrap in the typical shop you'll never want for dog material when you need to make some new ones with about a minute's work on the band saw.