Dog Hole Positions

[glenn bradley]

To those of you who have benches with dog holes - Considering a 9" front vise with a 12" wood face and a duplicate of this serving as an end vise; would you put a row of dog holes leading away from the center of the vises only? Have you or would you find that a second or third row parallel to the center row useful? This would assume dogs in the end positions of the vise face (center dog already exists).

As always, thanks in advance,

Kinda like . . .

[Andrew Williams]

I have not felt the need for offcenter dog holes. I wish I had spaced my dogs a bit closer together (I think they are 12 or 11 inches) , and also wish I had put a dog nearer the end. There are round holes there for the vise mounts, so I had to make a round insert for them to plane really long boards. That works fine. I don't think I would want dog holes for my face vise, since I usually just use it for edge jointing or put a board in it for a bench stop.

[Steve Milito]

I have a Sjobergs bench. The end vise spans the depth of the bench. The dog holes are in pairs running the length of the bench. I fine them very useful for clamping panels and face frames.

[glenn bradley]

"I wish I had spaced my dogs a bit closer together (I think they are 12 or 11 inches)"

Sorry for the side discussion; I was planning on about 6" spacing starting 2" from the vise. Any comments on this are very welcome.

Here's a modified approach on the info so far:

[Andrew Williams]

If I could do it over again I would choose 8" spacing. That way I'd have less chance of having to haul that vise way out to fit some boards. I did not put the first dogs in close since that part of the bench was going to be drilled out for mounting bolts for the vise. The vise screw gets in the way of the dogs anyway. For a little board, I usually just use one dog or a drop-down stop. I haven't found they need two dogs.

[Jim Becker]

The extra rows would give you flexiblity with hold-fasts, etc.

[Bruce Page]

Glenn, I put a series of three holes in my bench. I’m sure that you could get by with just the center row, but I wouldn’t want to. The extra holes give me more options, particularly when using hold down clamps.

[mark page]

Hi Bruce,

Nice bench. Did you make it yourself by your own design or use plans. Wouldn't mind making a copy myself if plans are available. One of the best I have seen yet.
thanks,
Mark

[glenn bradley]

Bruce, your pattern is like what I am considering. Jim's comments are appreciated too (as always). This along with the responses from the other folks, are just the kind of thing that makes this forum so valuable. I look forward to other comments as they come in. Thanks to all so far.

[Bruce Page]

Hi Bruce,

Nice bench. Did you make it yourself by your own design or use plans. Wouldn't mind making a copy myself if plans are available. One of the best I have seen yet.
thanks,
Mark
Thanks Mark. It’s pretty much my own design based on a conglomerate of ideas from other benches. I wanted lots of storage. The 14 drawers are 27” deep and the larger bulk section lets me store cases and such. I do have a few Acad drawings but lost a lot of the detail drawings when my hard drive crashed a few years ago.

There's more pics along with some other good info in this thread:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=37174

[Jeff Wright]

At the risk of straying a bit from the original intent of this thread, what methods have you all found works best to bore the dog holes? Any that you tried that you regretted (e.g., brace bit, brad point, forstner, etc)?

[John Schreiber]

Two questions:

Square dog holes are traditionally tilted 2° - 5° so that the pinching action presses the work piece down to the bench. Are round holes ever tilted like that?

When a bench dog would bump into the vise screw, do you just use shorter dogs, or is there another trick?

[Bruce Page]

Two questions:

Square dog holes are traditionally tilted 2° - 5° so that the pinching action presses the work piece down to the bench. Are round holes ever tilted like that?

When a bench dog would bump into the vise screw, do you just use shorter dogs, or is there another trick?
John, my holes are perpendicular to the top. I put a 5° cant on the dog faces.
The dogs are short enough that they don't interfear with the vice.

[glenn bradley]

I'll be using round dogs so, plunge router, edge guide, stop blocks for consistent spacing.

[Andrew Williams]

i cut dados into a lamination of two pieces before adding it to the whole lamination. Easy to cut dog holes that way.

[Jim Becker]

I used a fresh/new Irwin 3/4" spade bit with the nice cutter wings and got very clean entry for my dog holes. While I didn't bother, exit could have been controlled by clamping a board under the bench while drilling.

[Gary Keedwell]

It has been awhile but I remember ordering a 3/4 carbide bit for my holes. I still use it and it hasn't been sharpened. I did 2 rows the long way on my table (60")
Gary K.:o

[John Schreiber]

John, my holes are perpendicular to the top. I put a 5° cant on the dog faces.
Is the 5° cant like the one on the Lee Valley Bench Dogs? (Picture below.) If so, it looks to me like that would have the effect of putting the pressure on a small spot at the top of the dog and not really encouraging the dog to move down.


62075
From Lee Valley Page (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31127&cat=1,41637)


If instead, they were shaped like below, I would think the force of the vise would push the dog down like a square dog usually does. I haven't seen any designed like this, so I figure there is a problem with my reasoning.


62076

[Bruce Page]

John, they’re similar to the LV. There is a little bit of play between the hole & dog. It works just fine.