Work bench dog hole spacing

[Dave Lehnert]

How far apart should you drill holes for bench dogs. Looking at Lee Valley Veritas wonder dogs and they don't say what the travail length is.

[Jamie Buxton]

Consider how far your end vise can open. You want the dog holes closer together than that. Otherwise you can have boards which are too short to clamp at one dog position, but too long for the next one.

[Greg Hines, MD]

Wonder dogs are about 6" long. Ideally, your dog holes should be less than that. If not, however, you can always use blocks of different widths to make up the difference.

Doc

[Danny Thompson]

Chris Schwarz, in his Workbench book, recommends 3" - 4" on center. According to him, any farther apart requires too much cranking.

[Andy Pratt]

I would definitely go much closer for spacing than the maximum travel of whatever you're using for vise/clamps etc. I made the bench holes on my temp bench only 2" closer (apart) than the max travel in my end vise and it's always annoying to me. This would be especially true for wonder dogs, where the cranking is even slower and more annoying to do. I think a good rule of thumb should be to have holes a minimum of every 1/3-1/2 distance of the max opening of your clamping mechanism. It's a pain to drill them one time, then you'll be happy about it every time you use it for the rest of your life.

[Rob Luter]

I went with 4 1/2" on my new bench. So far it's working out well.

[Frank Drew]

I didn't make mine ultra close and never found the cranking especially onerous, but, whatever... as Jamie says, something less than your tail vise's travel.

[Jim Becker]

I spaced mine at 6" overall, with 3" for the last 3 near the end of the bench for more flexibility. This has worked well for me. I use the Veritas Pups and Wonder Pups as well as a couple of Gramercy hold-fasts with this spacing.

[glenn bradley]

My vises open 12", my dogs are spaced at 6".

[Jim McFarland]

I used the Veritas Wonder Pup/Bench Pup combination on a Festool MFT and really liked the 96mm hole spacing. I used this spacing on my "wanna-be" workbench top (MDF on top of base cabinet with two MDF plys on the front 6").

Drill holes any way you can but really easy if you have, or have access to, a Festool LR32 hole drilling system using a 3/4" HSS upcut spiral bit.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I like Jims idea about having dog holes that are closer together at one end. That would make it a lot easier to find the right distance for using Wonder Dogs. Then, even if you spaced your regular holes every 6-8", you could still have an easy adjustment for a workpiece.

I think I will do that for my bench sometime.

Doc

[Wayne Wheeling]

My bench has a 3" thick Hard Maple top. I am wanting to put some holes for bench dogs. Can I use the veritas regular bench dog (4 3/8") or do I need the pups? Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top? Thought I would try 2 and then figure out where to go from there. My patternmakers front vise has dogs built into it.

[glenn bradley]

My bench has a 3" thick Hard Maple top. I am wanting to put some holes for bench dogs. Can I use the veritas regular bench dog (4 3/8") or do I need the pups? Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top? Thought I would try 2 and then figure out where to go from there. My patternmakers front vise has dogs built into it.

All the way through. Otherwise you will forever be blowing sawdust out of them to use them. My top is 3" thick and my dogs are a bit over that. From the shoulder to the top is about 7/16". (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=65688&d=1180753957)

[Greg Hines, MD]

My bench has a 3" thick Hard Maple top. I am wanting to put some holes for bench dogs. Can I use the veritas regular bench dog (4 3/8") or do I need the pups? Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top? Thought I would try 2 and then figure out where to go from there. My patternmakers front vise has dogs built into it.

Definitely go all the way through. My bench has a 3" top too, and the full sized dogs work great in it. The extra part just projects below the benchtop.

Doc

[Jim Becker]

I have mine spaced at 6" until I get near the end of the bench and drop to 3" for the last few.

[Tom Esh]

...Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top?

Through holes with the possible exception of any that are directly over your vise screw. Debris that sticks to the screw can find its way into the quick release and jamb it up.

[Steve Sawyer]

My end vise opens about 10", and my bench dog holes are spaced at 4". Been using it for about three months and haven't had any problems with that combination.

[David Price]

I spaced mine at 6" overall, with 3" for the last 3 near the end of the bench for more flexibility. This has worked well for me. I use the Veritas Pups and Wonder Pups as well as a couple of Gramercy hold-fasts with this spacing.

I understand the spacing going away from the vice, but how closely spaced should they be in the other direction (along the length of the bench parallel to the vice)? How many holes are recommended in that direction? Just the width of the vice faces, or going on down the bench?

[Matthew Hills]

I've got two rows of holes.
The front row at 2.5" from front edge of bench. Spacing is at 3.5", starting at 8" from end vise.
The back row is at 11" from front edge of bench. These holes are lined up with the front row, but at doubled spacing (e.g., every 7").


The front row was intended to be for round bench dogs. ideally these are close to the edge of the bench for some operations, but not too far off-center for my 7" end vise. (As an aside, I don't really recommend the jorgensen quick-release vise as an end vise, but I had it available after swapping it out for the larger jorgensen as my front vise.)

Oh, I did put in a pretty thick chop on my end vise, and mounted a wooden dog in that.

I was originally planning to use the back row primarily for gramercy holdfasts (https://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/MS-HOLDFAST.XX/Holdfasts_by_Gramercy_Tools). You will want through-holes in your bench for these.

I found that pinching the ends of a board worked all that well when flattening a board, where lots of the planing is across or diagonal to the grain. I find that I prefer using Veritas planing stops (http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/Page.aspx?p=69837&cat=1,41637). I use a short one at the end of the board, and a long one along the length of the board.

I haven't tried using the holdfast+birdsmouth batten for planing, but do want to try it out. May need to add some holes for that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNrof3cd1cA

Matt

[Tom Trees]

Has anyone experience with a bench that had too many dog holes in it ? ..
On a more than likely wrong presumption that......
having fewer dog holes means you would be working on larger pieces

I think it might be helpful to mention what size pieces you guys normally work on with
these lovely closely spaced dog holes .

Not wanting to start a fight with myself ,or anyone else for the matter
I'm liking the idea of having dog holes gradually closer together
but I worry i might have possible ascetic ocd issues with the non-uniformity of the holes .
Then again, a lot of the time real beauty is what is functional and actually looks nicer in the end .

Too many dog holes ? well if i go over the top maybe i could make a different dog design that would
sit flush and not sink below the bench top
Not ever seeing /feeling how stiff those dogs actually are when sunk in the bench ...
Can this be an annoyance or do they actually stay put ?

Planning dog hole spacing in conjunction with tail vice max opening ?
I took advice to consider vice sag when opening to max
....then again their must be a way around that scenario too which i probably will find out .

Hope I can spark some more discussion
thanks
Tom

[Jim Becker]

I understand the spacing going away from the vice, but how closely spaced should they be in the other direction (along the length of the bench parallel to the vice)? How many holes are recommended in that direction? Just the width of the vice faces, or going on down the bench?

Per my old post, my dog holes are spaced at 6" intervals along the entire length of the bench (three rows for me) with those at the vice end also at 3" spacing. These spacings are parallel to the side vice face.