How close is too close - dog holes to the edge

[Chris Fournier]

I have two benches with dog holes 0.75" and 1.0" from the face of the top. Benches are 15 and 20 years old.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Looks exceptionally nice. Makes want to build another bench.

[Dale Murray]

Thank you.

Last night I started the twin screw install and see the vise came with a couple 5" hex bolts and barrel nuts - usually used to mount the rear face to the bench rails. In my case the rear face is held in place via dovetails, rabbet, and two tenons (an absurd amount of glue surface); I wonder if I should use those too?

I could drill through the rear face and through the tenon, thus going nowhere near the dovetails. They would be insurance against glue failure (very unlikely) and act as a clamp during glue up. Something tells me this would be superfluous, however.

It should be noted, I will be installing removable faces on the vise so the bolts would be completely hidden.

[Dale Murray]

Yesterday I assembled the top - everything glued in place. I will not flatten the top or clean up any of the joints until after the base is completed, until then this is what i have.

I used hard maple with a layer of leopard wood to minimize any sag from the twin screw vise. Paper shims were used to fine tune the fit.
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