The Best Dogs Are Mutts
It's easy to get carried away with the things we need for woodworking. We don't have to look far to find someone with a better mousetrap for sale. I did a quick Google search on bench dogs and found a bunch of variations, including some that I own. When I built my bench about a year ago, I meant to make a set of these, but didn't get around to it until the other day. And I've been kicking myself for not doing it sooner.
The dog holes in my bench are 3/4" in diameter, and the brass dogs I've been using can be difficult to remove at times. These wood ones are made from a dowel I turned from scrap to 11/16" so they drop right in and come right out. When you push against them, however they work well.
After turning, I cut the dowel into pieces about 2-1/2" long. The other part is about 1/2" thick, 1-1/2" wide and about 2" long. I installed the holes at the drill press and glued in the short lengths of dowel. I let the glue dry overnight, and leveled off the tops with a block plane. I made four in less than an hour, and the raw material came from the scrap bin. One or two make a great planing stop, and I can also use them with either of my vises to hold things between two or four dogs.
– Robert W. Lang
Read other entries by Robert W. Lang
Monday, July 27, 2009 4:25:36 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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