square dogs

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thetyreman

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does anyone have any plans to make some square dogs? I'm going to make a couple for my workbench, they are in line with the main vice and need to be able to be pushed underneath the top when not in use.
 
Presuming you've seen this spring loaded version before


Seems possibly easier to me to make this from laminated stock instead.
Just happened to spot a plastic clothes peg lying around, and thought it may be suitable, must look before it disappears....
rather than making them from pens, which doesn't seem that great, although not seen him mention having to swap the springs for something else,
I wonder how many of these he made, if all are still in good shape, and whether they give enough
stability, or does the slightest bit pressure move them?

I think I made mine 2 degrees tilted towards the stock,
Thinking back, I wonder if I could have made them 90 and put some sort of cap on them when needed,
i.e no bevels on them, possibly with a striking pad on them, so they would be flush with no
nooks for carp to get stuck in.
Just tossing some ideas around.

Tom
 
I have an original Sjobergs from the 1960s and acquired a Lervad top to use with a workmate outdoors. For this I had to make rectangular dogs. Like the original Sjobergs these have a larger rectangular top so as not to drop through the 2 step holes in the tops. I found with a tight taper fit there was no need for any springs. I will post some pics shortly
 
I have photographed the dogs in the directions the vice and bench would face each other. Now I did not need to cut the holes for these, and merely established the shape with cardboard templates, It would appear that the holes are set off from vertical by about 10 degrees. The Lervad steel originals in their spares catalogue do have springs.
2022-06-08 (2).png
 
It is easier to make round holes and so unless your bench has square holes then use round holes, make square pegs but with a round hole through them so they fit over the round pegs and now you have either a round or square peg. I think this was shown by Mr Parfit on one of his videos.

I liked the video showing the guy using a plane, it looks like a handy tool and something I often think of getting even if I am mainly a power tool user so something more to investigate.
 
There are dozens of recipes for cooking this cake.


From my own experience, I made this bench about 25 years ago inspired by plans in Scott Landis’ Workbench book of a style of bench attributed to Frank Klausz. It’s till in use with me , though not as clean as this picture. Unfortunately, all the in-progress pictures pre-dated digital cameras. But I hope that this lot can inspire…… I don’t have any plans of dogs other than pictures of it all.

Bench.JPG


I had a quantity of waney Beech at the time and it yielded a stack of 4 inch wide boards, mostly a little under 2 ½ inches thick after a trip through the thicknesser and these made the top joined along the edges, though some were about 2 inches thick and went face-to-face into a front beam in line with a tail vice. I made a jig and used a power router to cut out a suitable row of recesses on one face of the front beam, then glued the lot together.

I decided that I wanted square dogs, though I also incorporated some holes for a couple of round Veritas dogs. Bench hooks came later.

The dogs were made from a small stock of Apple wood that I had, inspired by a trip to a restored windmill where the teeth in the drive wheels were made from Apple as it is hard wearing.

Dog.JPG


They are inclined a couple of degrees, face to face and have a shoulder that allows the dog to sit inside its recess in the front beam. I made this section separate with the intention that it could be renewed if it wore out.

The tensioner that keeps the dog in place is not shown well, but it is a recessed spring from a cheapo biro pen under that thin bit of wood. Later sets of spare dogs use recessed ball rollers which work very well on a flat side of square dogs, though not on round ones.

Here's an up-skirt picture of the tail-vice end showing the holes and the dog in place....

Underside.JPG




Hope that this helps. with some inspiration.
 
Nothing special - just a square hole with a tight fitting square peg in it. Totally traditional - most benches just had one near the left hand end (if you are right handed). 30 to 35mm square.
Knock the peg up from underneath, knock it back from above. Make it long so that when the top end gets knackered you can trim a bit off.
No need for inspired clever solutions for such an easy problem!
 
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