Thin Stock and the Vanishing Dog

[Jim Koepke]

Often when planing thin stock when using a dog as a stop the piece may flex or the plane can cause the dog to lower and then there is no stop.

Then an idea came my way to hold the dog up. First the the dog needed a kerf:

Sawing a Kerf.jpg

This was cut into the dog so it would end up shorter than the piece being worked.

The shim stock was so thin it needed to be folded over to stay in the kerf:

Piece os Shim in Kerf.jpg

It actually worked quite well:

Shimmed Dog in Use.jpg

The shim was still too thin. When the dog was going to be put away, the shim fell out into a bunch of shavings on the floor. Maybe next time it well get folded over an additional time or maybe some thicker shim stock is hiding in my scrap box.

jtk

[William Fretwell]

A simple solution, the more contact with the thin stock edge the better.
My solution can be set in the bench top or held in the tail vise. It does require a long tail vise to be effective like this.
5991989B-810E-45C9-B3DB-972903FF1A75.jpg
It is a simple solution also. The stop uses zinc I believe, very soft so as not to damage a plane blade. The teeth provide a good grip and are adjustable. Bought mine many years back, not sure if they are still available.

[Ben Ellenberger]

A simple solution, the more contact with the thin stock edge the better.
My solution can be set in the bench top or held in the tail vise. It does require a long tail vise to be effective like this.
5991989B-810E-45C9-B3DB-972903FF1A75.jpg
It is a simple solution also. The stop uses zinc I believe, very soft so as not to damage a plane blade. The teeth provide a good grip and are adjustable. Bought mine many years back, not sure if they are still available.

I have one of those set into my bench. It does work well with thin pieces. I like your solution. My biggest complaint with mine is it gets packed up with sawdust and you have to remove it every few months to clean out the hole so it can close fully.

Also, I believe Lee Vally sells them.

[Cameron Wood]

Good idea. Maybe a piece of credit card...

I mostly use japanese planes, & just clamp a scrap in the vice for a stop. Have a couple of pieces that stand on the vice rails, sticking up useful amounts.

[Brian Ward]

I had this same problem years ago, and solved it by... well, it's probably best just to link to my dumb blog post:

http://galoototron.com/2010/07/03/ma...le-bench-dogs/

I'm not imploring anyone to go out and do this (a normal metal planing stop probably works as well), but I still use those things on a fairly regular basis and they've always seemed to do the job.

[Rob Luter]

I had this same problem years ago, and solved it by... well, it's probably best just to link to my dumb blog post:

http://galoototron.com/2010/07/03/ma...le-bench-dogs/

I'm not imploring anyone to go out and do this (a normal metal planing stop probably works as well), but I still use those things on a fairly regular basis and they've always seemed to do the job.

Brilliant. I use both brass and shop made round oak dogs with a flat and adding a single "tooth" with a brad to the oak versions makes way too much sense.

[Prashun Patel]

For thin, flexible / long stock (e.g., planing sides for an acoustic guitar) , planing against a stop can sometimes cause buckling for me. In this case, I use the common technique of applying blue tape to both the bench and the bottom of the stock, and then ca-gluing the stock to the bench.

[Mark Rainey]

For thin, flexible / long stock (e.g., planing sides for an acoustic guitar) , planing against a stop can sometimes cause buckling for me. In this case, I use the common technique of applying blue tape to both the bench and the bottom of the stock, and then ca-gluing the stock to the bench.

Interesting approach. A bit easier to remove than double stick tape that can cause a thin board to crack upon removal sometimes

[Prashun Patel]

Just beware with the blue tape to support the piece completely to minimize flex.

[Rob Luter]

I hacked together a sticking board today using a scrap piece of melamine, an offcut, and a hacksaw blade on a small riser as a toothed stop. The second iteration will incorporate Derek's adjustable fence. I've been looking for a workholding solution for cutting grooves with my small plow plane and his setup looks like the ticket.

It works really nice with thin stock and is good down to about 1/8 thickness. The hacksaw blade grips the wood very securely but doesn't mark it up. I may try to come up with a full width stop bar that's height adjustable.

I just screwed a little cleat to the bottom to hook the bench

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks, Jim. Pretty elegant solution. I might just super glue the one I'm going to make.

[Jim Koepke]

A simple solution, the more contact with the thin stock edge the better.
…
The teeth provide a good grip and are adjustable. Bought mine many years back, not sure if they are still available.

Yes, as Ben posted Lee Valley recently had them on sale. It was very tempting.

Good idea. Maybe a piece of credit card...

A piece of a credit card would be great. A lot of the promotional cards sent in the mail have been saved. They haven't sent me any in a long time now.

I had this same problem years ago, and solved it by... well, it's probably best just to link to my dumb blog post:

http://galoototron.com/2010/07/03/ma...le-bench-dogs/

I have done that in the past Brian. The piece of stock is so thin on this project I would have had to use a toothpick. Not wanting to run in the house or making on the first thing that came to mind was to use some shim stock.

Thanks, Jim. Pretty elegant solution. I might just super glue the one I'm going to make.

Thanks Prashun, That may happen to mine today.

Another unintended benefit of this is with a slightly loose dog, any flexing of the stock will tend to lift the dog. Then it falls back down to where it was. With a tighter dog, sometime the stock would end up riding over the dog during a forward plane stroke.

jtk

[Ben Ellenberger]

Of course, you can also just knock a nail or a screw into your bench for an extra low profile stop!

[Jim Koepke]

Of course, you can also just knock a nail or a screw into your bench for an extra low profile stop!

Yes, though even with my bench being old and scruffy I just can not bring my self to doing such a thing.

jtk

[Richard Verwoest]

Or even a couple brass wood screws. And adjustable.

Richard