Skip to main content

Making a Bench Dog

This little craft work is the result of a moderate-sized screw-up;
I unwittingly positioned one dog-hole such that the dog will hit the bench leg when the dog is in retracted position. As a matter of fact, it cannot retract flush to the bench at all.

The solution is to make a shorter dog out of hardwood. I like Krenov's idea of using a springy wood and a ballpoint pen's spring to hold the dog in position. What I do not like is the seemingly fragile nature of the contraption.

In terms of spring mechanism, I've decided to follow an old European design:
I would always prefer the spring force to be exerted in the same axis as the long grain of my bench. My bench is not glued up, but held together with threaded rods.
 
So where can I find a piece of metal for a spring?
 
 I believe the bowsaw blade's main body is at least spring hardened, even though the teeth are impulse hardened. This worked to my advantage, since the hard teeth can be broken off easily at the impulse hardening line with a plier. As you can see, woodworking involves some metalworking, and elementary Dentistry.

Using the bowsaw blade also saves me from drilling the 2 holes in spring steel. I saved at least $2 in drill bits and a chockfull of hair.
 I know two things about the wood in this bench dog; It came from a chopping board, and it is bloody tough and hard, almost like rosewood. Besides being easy to shape, using wood allows you to constantly trim the dog's protrusion above the bench as your bench goes through periodical  flattening or shrinkage.

The quintessential shape. No need to reinvent the wheel.
 Notice below: I've blued the screws for rust resistance, but mainly for vanity.
Notice also the shallow trough I've cut at the end of the dog. This will give the spring an erection, so it can do its job. It also ensures the screw heads stay below the width of the dog.
 I made two dogs because a bowsaw blade has two ends. So I have two springs. Waste not.
 No, I did not face one of the dogs with scrap rosewood for durability. I did that because of inaccuracy in my layout. The rosewood facing will fill the dog hole nicely, keeping out saw dust and shavings.
 Well,.... almost.
I forgot that I have to deal will inconsistent hand cut dog holes too.
 The long and short of it.
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SHARPENING WITH ARKANSAS STONES

What on earth are they? A user made box of assorted Arkansas stones. They are America's answer to: The Wales' Welsh Slate (Dragon's Tongue); The Scotch Tam O'Shanter; The English Charnley Forest stone; The Japanese Tenin Toishi; The German Thuringian Hone; The Chinese Guangzhou River bedrock; The Belgian Coticule; You get the idea. Local rocks that you use to sharpen mama's kitchen knives.   A collection of smaller pocket-sized Arkansas stones  In this entry, I will not try to tell you what you probably already know. What is the point of describing that oily rock you already have under your bench, in your drawer, in a can of kerosene? Note also, that the sharpening I describe here is best applied to woodworking in general. I am an amateur handtool woodworker. Sharpening a straight razor would be entirely another branch of science. I do not profess to know all there is to know about sharpening or Arkansas stones; I simply failed ...
31 comments
Read more

The prolific & seemingly mundane Stanley 110 block plane..

R eally?   Well, it's everywhere, check Granpa or uncle Tim's shack ( if you include copies of it by lesser tool makers) For something so abundant (well, Stanley sold them by truckloads), so common and so relatively inexpensive, I will attempt to wax some lyrical on them. By "them" I mean their design, their construction. The plane pictured above was purchased off ebay for $4.90. It looked like Joe Meatball (to borrow Patrick Leach's character) bought it, used it on some hardwood (pre silicon valley micro chipping at the edge)without first fettling the plane(unsharpened factory bevel), and put it away (in some dry place), and totally forgot about it. First off, at Five Bucks, how can you go wrong? Five bucks don't buy you a door wedge these days.   STANLEY'S SUPERIOR ADJUSTABLE HEIGHT DOOR WEDGE, TYPE 16.  1) The lever cap also serves as an ergonomic palm-rest to push the plane forward, and the oval shaped  cut-out serves as a hanging h...
20 comments
Read more

10 Things I learnt about Arkansas Stones

10 things I learned about Arkansas stones Stones should be kept in their own box, or in a segregated box. This keeps out saw dust, and protects from stones knocking on each other, causing chips. 1)  Not for sharpening tools: Not a typing error too. I'm sure everyone has a dull knife or two in the kitchen. The type that will not cut meat or slice bread. You may be able to push-cut an apple, but that's all it'll do. Or that vintage ebay Marples chisel or that plane iron off a vintage Bailey. The edges on these tools will need to be dressed (chips ground-out, skew-edge squared, rolled-edge removed) and re-profiled (irregular and multiple bevel angles corrected) on a bench grinder or a coarse diamond plate, carborundum stones etc. All the above before it even touches an Arkansas stone. I have never met an Arkansas stone that can remove chips or correct bevel in less than 2 hours. Use Arkansas stones for honing and polishing. Old timers call it ...
Post a Comment
Read more