How thick is your bench top and what is it made of ? I ask because you can make some quickie bench dogs especially if you have a lathe.
There is also an active thread going on right now about a 'Bench Hook'. Between bench hooks, bench dogs and wedges, you can hold almost anything steady and solid.
I have an air brad nailer and I use it from time to time to nail scraps directly to my bench top to hold my work pieces.

Tony B

 

Hey Basser:
I would think you'd want your T-track to run longitudinally away from the face of your vise, wouldn't you? That way when you pull up the slack in your vice, the workpiece is held by the T-track at whatever dimension, and the vise can tighten against it....

If I'm reading you right, I say run it away from the face of the vice, centered on the vise's width.

smitty

 

bench

the bench started as a salveged heavy table on wheels. now the top is 2 layers of 3/4 ply with another layer of 3/4 hardwood boards which look like bucher block.... these were shelve boards which I glued up for the top.. edged around 3 sides with wide hardwood boards. The entire bench is on wheels but usually rests against a wall. I have not mounted the vise yet, but was actually thinking of putting it on the back side of the unit, since; 1. it is not trimmed out back there, & I could more easily cut into the frame to support it... and 2. it would be out of the way unless I needed to use it. Since I can easily rotate the bench... why not. the bench hook idea is great and I already have them on my next to do list. The tracks I ordered in and arrived so I was playing with an arrangment, hense the question.

 

bench question

ok, lets try rephrasing it... anyone have bench dogs, T tracks, or similar hold downs on their benches? if so where do they typically reside?
andy

 

Excellent question Basser. I too am looking for input on this one. I am in the process of planning a work bench roughly 30 inches to 36 inches by about 8 feet.
Gerry

 

hold down placment

Since no one responded I tried to find some picts of the placment of the hold down holes and found this one. Seems like the bench top is pretty much full of holes, which I really do not want to do... especially not experiment with placement. BUT they do seem to be grouped around the 2 vice locations. My probeem is, that my previous work benches were just big heavy tops with no real degisnated area for clamping, vise placment, etc...just a big open space... when I need to clamp something down, I just pushed aside junk to clear a space and clamped, usually with portable clamps

. On this new bench I am trying to plan slightly.

 

It looks like it would be pretty straight forward to replace all the bench dog holes with some runs of tee track. It would certainly look tidy. I wonder if there would be as much strength as bench dogs would have.
On the matter of having to clear the bench top to clamp anything, I find that every horizontal surface[including the floor] in my shop becomes a storage space aka clutter catcher. I think it is a common curse.
Gerry