Bench Dogs That Don't Bite

Bench Dogs That Don't Bite When clamping a workpiece in my workbench vise with bench dogs, I find that the small, metal dogs can leave marks on the edges of the piece that are tough to sand out.

Bench Dogs That Don't Bite So, to solve this problem, I made some big, plywood bench dogs that slip over the regular dogs, as shown in the photo at right. The benefit is that the wide surface makes it easy to get a firm grip on the material being worked without leaving a mark.

The big dogs are made from squares of ¾″ plywood, as illustrated in the drawing at left. A hole cut in the middle of each dog is sized to fit over the metal bench dog. Then I cut a wide, shallow rabbet along the front edge of each dog. As you can see in the photo, this allows you to work right up to the edge of the workpiece. Or you can even clamp the workpiece in the rabbets to raise it above the dogs.

Have a nice weekend,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

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Bench Dogs That Don't Bite