Wood type for bench dogs?

[Bobby Newsom]

For those of you who've made your own bench dogs, what type(s) of wood did you use and why? And would you use the same type again?

[Derek Cohen]

I used Jarrah ... use whatever hardwood you have.



One for each dog hole ...



Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Eisenhauer]

I built my bench out of Southern Yellow Pine (construction grade lumber - soft) and had plenty of drop offs to cut up into square dogs. They work just fine with no issues at all. Mine look like DC's, but the spring clamp piece is glued on rather than screwed and I have not applied leather to the grip face.

[Josko Catipovic]

My bench is maple, and I've made dogs out of black locust. The two woods seem to work well with each other. I've also made them out of (1/4") laminated white oak, but it's more trouble and doesn't work any better.

[Andrew Seemann]

I tend to make them out of whatever scrap of maple or birch or beech that is handy, although I suspect that any wood probably would be fine. I had some that were pine for a while. Mine aren't as fancy as Derek's I usually skip the spring and just make them so that they rest on the overhang. My dogs (as in the Lab and the Poodle) tend to chew them up if they get hold of them, so I avoid using glue or screws (or effort) in making them. I specifically sized the dog holes to use 3/4 wide stock, so that they could be made quickly and easily with scrap.

[Rob Luter]

I used 3/4" oak dowels. Low budget but they work.

[Jim Becker]

Straight grained and dense hardwood "wood" be my choice for this application...

[johnny means]

I'm going to go against the grain here. Pun intended. I prefer a soft wood like pine. That way I know my dog is never harder than my workpiece.

[Jim Becker]

Johnny, that's a valid reason to do what you want. The corresponding downside is that the benefit of the softness relative to your workpiece is a liability relative to the dog, itself...wear at the corners in particular which could make them slopping relatively quickly, depending on the work you do with them. Having some hardwood dogs with leather faces can be an alternative to the software wood for when there's concern for marking the workpiece on something that's "close to finished".

[Derek Cohen]

Note that bench dogs are designed to pull the work piece down and onto the bench top. To do this, the faces need to angle down at 3 degrees. Generally, this is done by building the bench dog holes at an angle facing the rear of the bench. The dog at the rear will also face 3 degrees to the front.



Here is a different type of bench dog. I made this from unhardened O1 steel, which was then filed into teeth. You can now purchase these from BenchCrafted and Tools for Working Wood ...






Use one on both sides of the work piece for maximum grip..



Regards from Perth

Derek

[David M Peters]

I used 3/4" oak dowels (from the big box store) fitted with springs - they work great and would build them the same way next time.

[Dave Mount]

3/4 inch dowels turned from whatever is in the scrap bin, a flat jointed on one side and a ball catch put in it. Kind of like the one in the pics (pics are from the web, not mine) except I didn't screw around with the discrete flat for the catch, I just made a flat the whole length. You can add an angled face if you choose. The ball catches are cheap, fast, hold the dog in place fine, and can just be press fit (where are they going to go?), so you can pop them out and reuse them if a dog gets damaged.

Commercial dowels would be faster than bothering to turn them, but in my experience, many are not actually round.

Best,

Dave

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[Frederick Skelly]

I have 3/4" round dog holes. I use a pine dowel glued into 1 1/2" squares of plywood of various thicknesses. These, plus some LV planing stops, do everything I need. YMMV.

[Phil Gaudio]

Maple works just fine:

[Matt Day]

I used ball catches on mine too. Ash cutoffs since my bench is (mostly) ash.