Building a workbench Part 2

Yesterday and today I got most of the workbench finished. The last time I wrote about the workbench I had the frame almost made (I had run out of threaded bar) and I had nothing at all done with the top. Also, I had no vise. Finding a normal woodworking vise wasn't all that easy. There is a lot of far eastern cheap stuff on the market, where the vise doesn't close properly or where you can't really expect it to last more that a few years at the most. I finally find what I was looking for on a website for carpenters. The vise is cast iron and built in the Czech Republic, using an english design.

On the same website that I found the vise on, I also found some bench dogs. These come from Canada, from a company called Veritas. They are really good. The issue was that they are 3/4, so I had to find a way of boring 3/4 inch holes. All of the bits in Germany seem to be metric. 20mm is too big - the dogs would fall through. I ended up getting a 19mm bit from Famag. They are about three times more expensive than their nearest competitor but after drilling one hole it is obvious why. They bore perfect holes, carry the dust and shavings easily upwards and don't get hot. Plus they are easy to sharpen. Anyway, I bored six holes near the vise, so it should be easy to plane on top of the table (using the dogs as stops) or to hold timber steady. I also bored horizontal holes in the frame to store the dogs when they are not in use.

Bench dogs in action

Bench dogs when not in action