Work bench dog hole spacing

[Dave Lehnert]

How far apart should you drill holes for bench dogs. Looking at Lee Valley Veritas wonder dogs and they don't say what the travail length is.

[Jamie Buxton]

Consider how far your end vise can open. You want the dog holes closer together than that. Otherwise you can have boards which are too short to clamp at one dog position, but too long for the next one.

[Greg Hines, MD]

Wonder dogs are about 6" long. Ideally, your dog holes should be less than that. If not, however, you can always use blocks of different widths to make up the difference.

Doc

[Danny Thompson]

Chris Schwarz, in his Workbench book, recommends 3" - 4" on center. According to him, any farther apart requires too much cranking.

[Andy Pratt]

I would definitely go much closer for spacing than the maximum travel of whatever you're using for vise/clamps etc. I made the bench holes on my temp bench only 2" closer (apart) than the max travel in my end vise and it's always annoying to me. This would be especially true for wonder dogs, where the cranking is even slower and more annoying to do. I think a good rule of thumb should be to have holes a minimum of every 1/3-1/2 distance of the max opening of your clamping mechanism. It's a pain to drill them one time, then you'll be happy about it every time you use it for the rest of your life.

[Rob Luter]

I went with 4 1/2" on my new bench. So far it's working out well.

[Frank Drew]

I didn't make mine ultra close and never found the cranking especially onerous, but, whatever... as Jamie says, something less than your tail vise's travel.

[Jim Becker]

I spaced mine at 6" overall, with 3" for the last 3 near the end of the bench for more flexibility. This has worked well for me. I use the Veritas Pups and Wonder Pups as well as a couple of Gramercy hold-fasts with this spacing.

[glenn bradley]

My vises open 12", my dogs are spaced at 6".

[Jim McFarland]

I used the Veritas Wonder Pup/Bench Pup combination on a Festool MFT and really liked the 96mm hole spacing. I used this spacing on my "wanna-be" workbench top (MDF on top of base cabinet with two MDF plys on the front 6").

Drill holes any way you can but really easy if you have, or have access to, a Festool LR32 hole drilling system using a 3/4" HSS upcut spiral bit.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I like Jims idea about having dog holes that are closer together at one end. That would make it a lot easier to find the right distance for using Wonder Dogs. Then, even if you spaced your regular holes every 6-8", you could still have an easy adjustment for a workpiece.

I think I will do that for my bench sometime.

Doc

[Wayne Wheeling]

My bench has a 3" thick Hard Maple top. I am wanting to put some holes for bench dogs. Can I use the veritas regular bench dog (4 3/8") or do I need the pups? Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top? Thought I would try 2 and then figure out where to go from there. My patternmakers front vise has dogs built into it.

[glenn bradley]

My bench has a 3" thick Hard Maple top. I am wanting to put some holes for bench dogs. Can I use the veritas regular bench dog (4 3/8") or do I need the pups? Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top? Thought I would try 2 and then figure out where to go from there. My patternmakers front vise has dogs built into it.

All the way through. Otherwise you will forever be blowing sawdust out of them to use them. My top is 3" thick and my dogs are a bit over that. From the shoulder to the top is about 7/16".

[Greg Hines, MD]

My bench has a 3" thick Hard Maple top. I am wanting to put some holes for bench dogs. Can I use the veritas regular bench dog (4 3/8") or do I need the pups? Do I drill the 3/4" holes all the way through my top? Thought I would try 2 and then figure out where to go from there. My patternmakers front vise has dogs built into it.

Definitely go all the way through. My bench has a 3" top too, and the full sized dogs work great in it. The extra part just projects below the benchtop.

Doc

[Jim Becker]

I have mine spaced at 6" until I get near the end of the bench and drop to 3" for the last few.