Holdfast holes -- recommendations

Re: Holdfast holes -- recommendations

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>Dave -

So far, I've drilled one holdfast hole in my benchtop since constructing it 3 years ago. It's near the front vise. I use it infrequently. I'll drill additional holes on an 'as needed' basis. It's so easy to drill a hole I don't think it is necessary to preplan their location.

Ed

Thanks, Ed

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Hi Ed -

Wow, that was quick. Thanks! I had wondered about taking your approach. I tend to work on the right hand side of my work bench (near the tail vise)...I'm not sure why. So, I had thought about putting a hole there. That would have the added advantage of allowing me to place it near/(almost) over a leg of my workbench so the leg could support any chopping I might do. The only downside I can see is that I have a row of dogholes running down the front (-ish) of my bench, and I was a bit concerned about putting a holdfast hole too close to them. And since I am not sure the holdfasts would grip in my dogholes and because - even if they do - they might deform the doghole because my workbench top is a softwood (spruce), I haven't thought I could/should use my dogholes for the holdfasts.

Anyway....again, thanks, Ed. These kind of comments are very helpful to help me think through what might work best for me...knowing that I might change my mind as time goes on and I get used to working with them.

Regards -

Dave

Yo Ed !

Michael Stadulis, in rainy Gloucester County, NJ

>...did you guys get at leat the lower end of that Maine snow storm about which we heard so little ?

Happy New Year,

-Mike

Re: Holdfast holes -- recommendations

Michael Recchione

>I hate responses like this, but it's really true: it depends what you're going to do with them. If you're going to use them to hold battens that serve as stops for face work, then you want a couple of holes kind of towards the back of the bench (to give room for the board you're working on plus the batten). If you use your tail vise to hold work while you do stuff like that, then holes towards the back of the bench may not add a lot of value.

If you intend to use them to hold things like rails that you're chopping mortises in or other stuff that you do towards the front face of the bench, then you need to position them so that the pads are closer to the front of the bench. A good way to approach this would be to make the hole as far back from the front of the bench so that the pad comes to about an inch or two in from the front of the bench when the holdfast is perpendicular to the bench front. (This was actually the recommendation that came with my Record holdfasts.)

I just checked my brand new Grammercy Park holdfasts, and this turns out to be about 9 inches from the front face of the bench.

In all cases, these things work better in pairs. The two holdfasts in the pair should be a little farther apart than would allow them to touch (maybe an inch or two, but you could go more). I checked mine, and 15 inches is about as close as I would go.

The wonderful thing about these holdfasts is that it's really easy to put them wherever you need them, at the cost of drilling a hole. If I were you, I'd probably start out by drilling two holes about 9" in from the face of the bench, about 15" apart, positioned where you like to work. You can always make more holes.

Weather report

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>Happy New Year Mr. S!

Just rain here and that suits me fine :)

too bad....

Michael Stadulis, in rainy Gloucester County, NJ

>....'cause rain is for sissies.... ;o)

Mike.....not a white Christmas....not even a cold Christmas.

Thanks, Michael

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Hi Michael -

I don't hate these kind of responses, I expect them....and appreciate them. I know that what works for one, will not necessarily work for another -- for many different reasons.

As to how I plan to use the holdfasts, I am not yet certain. I have always planed holding the work between a bench dog in the tail vice and one on the bench. But the idea of using a batten so the work can easily be shifted appeals to me, and I want to give it a try. However, this makes me wonder if I will need multiple holes depending on the size of the board I am working. I have also thought of working some kind of hybrid with a batten, where part of it is "held" by a bench dog and the other by a holdfast directly on the batten. I did get a pair of the holdfasts in case that idea doesn't work or is less efficient.

One of the reasons I was looking for advice on this was the hope of preventing my workbench from acquiring a "swiss cheese" look - with holes (seemingly) randomly place everywhere :-)

I especially appreciated you suggestions on spacing. I was hoping someone had experience with that. What you say makes sense.

Again, thanks for the post.

Regards -

Dave

No need for swiss cheese

Michael Recchione

>Dave,

If you want to do face planing using the bench stop and batten method, you don't need to drill holes in a bunch of different places. Just drill them to accomodate the widest board/panel you'd imagine working this way. That already gives you a certain amount of leeway assuming you use a similar batten for everything. But if you need to get the batten closer to the face of the bench, you can just use a wider plank as the batten.

If I were starting from scratch, I'd probably go with 4 holes: Two, spaced 15-18" apart 9" in from the front face, and two maybe 3-5" from the back of the bench (assuming about a 2' wide bench), spaced about the same.

- Mike

Now last year ...

Ed Mulligan, Cape Cod

>... on the Cape we broke a 100 year old record for snowfall for the season and had a blizzard which also broke a 100 year record. If being a sissy means no more snow, SIGN ME UP! ;~)

Ed, who used to enjoy snow

Re: No need for swiss cheese

Matti Kuikka

>It's not very difficult to fill unneeded holes with a suitable dovel (whittled from spruce and just hammered in and planed level with the benchtop).

Just my 0.02�

Matti Kuikka