Fixing dog holes.

grind off the dog?

Adam Cherubini

>

Re: Fixing dog holes.

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Not a complete hand tool fix but a router and collar then hand chisel the last little bit out. Pick a collar and bit that are very close to the same size.

Re: Fixing dog holes.

Todd Stock

>Chisel a series of cross-grain cuts to the desired depth, then lever the chips out with chisel. Anternate (justifying another useful tool), use a router plane to achieve uniform depth of cut. I don't think that this is critical, provided you can get the dog below the surface.

Re: Fixing dog holes.

R.J.Whelan

>Tony ... can you remove 1/16" of material from the underside of the dog lip?

rj

Re: Fixing dog holes.

Alan Bierbaum

>Just chisel it out by about 1/8". The top edge of the insert does not have to look good; it only stops the dog from going in too far. It is necessary as the dog body bears against it when the dog head is all the way up. When I did my bench (same dogs); I cut the strips and glued them in after the bench was flattened.

Re: Fixing dog holes.

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Tony,

I have the same setup on my bench. Only difference is I built my own dogs out of oak.However,my dog holes are made like yours so I tried an experiment. I took a 3/4" marples blue chip chisel that is sharp at 30 deg and scraped the top of the spacer block in one hole. It was end grain maple and scraping off 1/32 took a matter of seconds.I could go further if necessary easily but it's not.---Jack

Re: Fixing dog holes.

Paul Benton

>Tony, good advice from Alan & Jack, a sharp chisel and a bit of care and you will take off the 1/32 easily. I also have the LV dogs and followed the instructions regarding clearance but beware, after you have flatten the bench top once or twice you may run into the clearance issue again, I did!

Paul

Do nothing

Jim Reed @ Tallahassee

>Dogs are a pita to remove when they are flush. Do nothing and just store them in a box when not in use. Most of the time I only use two anyway--one on the end vise and one somewhere on the bench. I leave the end vise one proud and am constantly moving the bench one. Good luck with your new bench.

Thanks, folks.

Tony Sade (Charleston, WV)

>I have to admit I like Jim Reed's "do nothing" approach the best-generally consistent with my work ethic. ;>) Next best was R.J's suggestion to remove a bit from the bottom of the dog face. The face on the LV dog, which is held in place by two small bolts, is soft brass and it should be very easy to sand it down. The bottom hole is close to the bottom of the face though, so there's a limit to how much can be taken off (after subsequent bench flattenings.)

A 71 won't work because the blade is too large to fit in the hole and address the shoulder that needs to be taken down. The 271 fits but I'm not sure I can get enough leverage on the thing to remove much. If I decide to proceed, I'll probably try either Jack's suggestion to just scrape some off with a chisel, or try making some cross-hatched cuts, then finishing up with either a chisel or the 271.

I have to admit my first inclination was to run out and find a pattern bit and use my laminate trimmer. (A perfectly good idea, Jim, but the local borgs don't carry much in the way of router bits, and I would have had to order one online and lay out a bunch of cash, when I have all the hand tools mentioned.) I'm glad I waited for more suggestions-procrastination occasionally is a virtue.

Thanks for all the help. Tony

Change the plan...

Paul M. in San Diego

>to use wood dogs! Then you can make the dogs whatever size you need to fit the holes you have. Believe me, the first time you hit the brass face of the dog, and see the gouge in the bottom of the plane and the chunk taken out of the blade you will do as I did and pitch those metal dogs and make wood ones. I had a chunk of brass wedge itself under my chip breaker and seriously damaged that too.

Wood dogs only take a few minutes to make, and are easily replaceable. Your planes will thank you!