Tom Bussey
03-10-2022, 11:51 AM
Doing or cutting hand cut dovetails is considered the apex of hand tool woodworking.. Frank Klausz is in the minority in that he cuts by eye, But Rob Cosman and a host of others on You tube all want to show you how to layout dovetails so that they are uniform and are of equal distance for a specific with of board .
The same holds true for work benches and it concerns the hole spacing and includes the layout for vises. Whether you want square dog holes or round dog holes is a matter of personal preference. I put square holes in my bench pictured in building my work bench. But I have two other benches under construction that will get round holes instead of square. I built a lot of square dogs so I didn't have to change my dogs location every time I changed position. It was a lot cheaper than buying that many metal dogs. The same argument holds true for round dogs. My disclaimer is no matter what kind of vise, vises. round holes or square holes or what ever you decide to do is personal preference for your bench not mine. mine.
Again in my first post ( building a work bench ) I showed the temporary frame I used to find the correct height for me. I also placed a piece of plywood over the top and made a temporary bench to work form. I also stated that one needs to build their bench to the size allotted to it, That piece of plywood is 8 ft. long and 2 foot wide. This is a copy of what I wrote: I have the room for a big bench. I wanted to build a workbench just big enough so I could put the top into the bed my pick up truck. I can put a full sized sheet of plywood in-between the wheel wells and still close the tail gate. Also I prefer to glue up panels on my bench and the clamps of choice are Bessey K clamps 24 inches long. So I wanted to be able to place the clamps a crossed the top and have every part of the clamp completely on the top. For the time being 24 works fine and width is also an open dimension. Which is determined by the width and the number of pieces glued up. I have the room for that large of a bench.
Please stay with me here.
People, who have some experience, will tell you that you should have you hardware in hand before starting a build. I agree with that and you will seen now why. Also I do not make very detailed drawing and I don't have any cad on my computer so I use a marking knife to do all my layout on my bench. I did every thing full sized and as prefect as I could so than when ever I needed to know anything it was right there on my bench top and all I needed to do was take my steel rule ( I never use a tape measure unless I absolutely have to.}
These 2 pictures are of the tail vise and wagon vise. The piece at the end, is the the end cap.
475582 475583
Before I go any farther I want to tell you about my mistake. I had laid out the entire 8 foot length of the ply wood and then my wife asked , How are you going to close your tail gate if the bench is 8 foot long and the handles for your bench will stick out beyond that? I had to add a piece to the end of the plywood for the end piece, and I thought I would just cut off a piece at the other end and the layout for my spacing of my dog holes would remain the same. Well it did work but then it didn't work. It is easier to do it right the first time. Tt is hard to change you layout because you can't erase knifed lines but you can include knifed lines, but 3 weeks down the line confusion set end and causes you trouble. I am including a finished picture of my tail vise so that you can see how much the end cap and tail vise, with the handle at the end effected my eight foot length.
475584
On my bench I wanted the dog holes in my bench, for the tail vise and the wagon vise to be in alignment. It is had to see how thing are on a can drawing for even a sketch. So good good layout on the plywood is really worth you time. I will have a lot to say about the bench layout in my next post. So if this is the first of my posts that you red please go back and read or reread my posts building a work bench part one 1 @ 2.
The same holds true for work benches and it concerns the hole spacing and includes the layout for vises. Whether you want square dog holes or round dog holes is a matter of personal preference. I put square holes in my bench pictured in building my work bench. But I have two other benches under construction that will get round holes instead of square. I built a lot of square dogs so I didn't have to change my dogs location every time I changed position. It was a lot cheaper than buying that many metal dogs. The same argument holds true for round dogs. My disclaimer is no matter what kind of vise, vises. round holes or square holes or what ever you decide to do is personal preference for your bench not mine. mine.
Again in my first post ( building a work bench ) I showed the temporary frame I used to find the correct height for me. I also placed a piece of plywood over the top and made a temporary bench to work form. I also stated that one needs to build their bench to the size allotted to it, That piece of plywood is 8 ft. long and 2 foot wide. This is a copy of what I wrote: I have the room for a big bench. I wanted to build a workbench just big enough so I could put the top into the bed my pick up truck. I can put a full sized sheet of plywood in-between the wheel wells and still close the tail gate. Also I prefer to glue up panels on my bench and the clamps of choice are Bessey K clamps 24 inches long. So I wanted to be able to place the clamps a crossed the top and have every part of the clamp completely on the top. For the time being 24 works fine and width is also an open dimension. Which is determined by the width and the number of pieces glued up. I have the room for that large of a bench.
Please stay with me here.
People, who have some experience, will tell you that you should have you hardware in hand before starting a build. I agree with that and you will seen now why. Also I do not make very detailed drawing and I don't have any cad on my computer so I use a marking knife to do all my layout on my bench. I did every thing full sized and as prefect as I could so than when ever I needed to know anything it was right there on my bench top and all I needed to do was take my steel rule ( I never use a tape measure unless I absolutely have to.}
These 2 pictures are of the tail vise and wagon vise. The piece at the end, is the the end cap.
475582 475583
Before I go any farther I want to tell you about my mistake. I had laid out the entire 8 foot length of the ply wood and then my wife asked , How are you going to close your tail gate if the bench is 8 foot long and the handles for your bench will stick out beyond that? I had to add a piece to the end of the plywood for the end piece, and I thought I would just cut off a piece at the other end and the layout for my spacing of my dog holes would remain the same. Well it did work but then it didn't work. It is easier to do it right the first time. Tt is hard to change you layout because you can't erase knifed lines but you can include knifed lines, but 3 weeks down the line confusion set end and causes you trouble. I am including a finished picture of my tail vise so that you can see how much the end cap and tail vise, with the handle at the end effected my eight foot length.
475584
On my bench I wanted the dog holes in my bench, for the tail vise and the wagon vise to be in alignment. It is had to see how thing are on a can drawing for even a sketch. So good good layout on the plywood is really worth you time. I will have a lot to say about the bench layout in my next post. So if this is the first of my posts that you red please go back and read or reread my posts building a work bench part one 1 @ 2.