vises, dogs, etc.

[Mike Steinhilper]

I have been rigging up all kinds of bench stops and clamping arrangements for planing and various other tasks. Right now I don't want to invest in an expensive vise and drill holes for dogs and/or hold downs. Does anyone use any other system -- bought or improvised -- for holding material on the bench? I'm eventually going to invest in a proper vise, but any ideas in the mean time?

[Harold Beck]

If you get the chance, read Chris Schwarz Workbench book. He goes into great detail on the type of holding mechanisms for various types of work. He also dexcribes alternatives. I got several good ideas from there.

HB

[Pedro Reyes]

Mike,

Any sort of wedge thing works in some circumstances. I have these 3 boards, a straight one (fence) and two right triangles. The fence and one of the triangles are fixed using the dog holes (you could always glue them to a board). The third triangle moves (hypothenuse against hypothenuse) to wedge things. I can wedge boards on face and on edge (width limit is probably around 6" when face planing).

I use them for small boards and I don't want to use my vise. Just some simple boards with some dowels coming out of them to go into the dog holes, easy to take in and out.

/p

[Mike Steinhilper]

do you happen to have a pic of the setup you're talking about? that sounds like something that would work well for me.

[harry strasil]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=38637&highlight=bench

[Hank Knight]

Mike,

I bought a pair of these form Lee Valley for my bench, but I never used them:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=31148&cat=1,41637

You can have them if you're interested (and if I can find them). Give me a call.

Hank

[Bob Smalser]

A Workmate, two sawhorses and a few clamps can do almost any job.

[Jim Becker]

I went with the Veritas pups and super-pups for my bench. Simple and easy. Those and a couple of hold-downs (Gramercy in my case) get a lot of use, even though I'm not a major Neander. I'm actually very surprised at how much I use the hold-downs. A LOT!

[Pedro Reyes]

No pics here, I can take one at home, but a simple sketch is this..

80877

The gray pieces are pine boards with dowels sticking out their faces, and these dowels go into dog holes. The white one moves in order to trap a board between it and the gray fence board. You can always glue the gray boards to a base if you don't want to drill dog holes, you'll still have to figure out how to hold the whole thing.

/p

[Peter Quadarella]

How about drilling a hole through your bench and sticking a pipe clamp through it?

[Mike Steinhilper]

Harry, I like the bench a lot. Why is the center row of holes offset from the row above?

[harry strasil]

look at 4th picturee

[Bill White]

I use an old time "hold fast" for a lot of stuff. Look it up. So simple, and SOOOOO effective.
Bill