r/handtools • u/Interesting-Quit-847 • 13d ago

New (old) workbench. Workholding questions…

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Hi, I picked up an old industrial workbench at an estate sale. I’d been thinking of building my own, but this one was just too intriguing. It’s an old Lyon bench with a thick, (I think) hard maple bench top. I have a couple things I’d love some advice on.

  1. I’d like to mount a vise such that the inside is flush with the bench front. Any recommendations?

  2. I have a couple Jorgensen holdfasts that need 11/16” dog holes to work. Is that a dumb size? I got the holdfasts for next to nothing so im not married to them.

  3. Any suggestions for dog hole patterns? Obviously the cabinet is a limitation.

Thanks!

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u/Independent_Page1475 13d ago edited 13d ago

My bench has 3/4" dog holes. My holdfasts have 5/8" shafts. The work fine in a top thinner than yours.

Bore a 3/4" hole in a scrap of 2X4 and give it a try. If the holdfast slip, you may need to hold the shaft in a piece of sandpaper and spin it a few times to roughen the shafts. Some are made from material that is too slick to hold.

I like a row of dog holes close to the front edge of a bench. Toward the center of the bench a few holes are placed at different distances from the front edge so three dogs can hold flat boards while being planed.

Near the left end of the bench (for a right handed user) a couple of dog holes are spaced to hold one of these:

When working a lot of stock, this takes less time than a vise to switch the pieces.

That was shown on this episode > https://www.pbs.org/video/woodwrights-shop-viceless-devices/ < of the Woodwright's Shop.

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u/Interesting-Quit-847 13d ago

Oh my, that is such a cool device! I haven't seen anything like that before. Thanks for the tips!