ScoFF Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Workbench: Should I run my doghole strip through my jointer? I'm building my workbench and have most of the top slab glued up. It's all handplaned nice and flat so now I'm at the point where I'm making the dog hole strip. I have four 8/4 maple boards that I'll be soon gluing to the existing top. I used a router jig to but square dog holes in the face of one of the boards so when I glue that to the other board I'll have nice square holes. The boards were pretty flat before, or so I thought. I notice when I had them stacked on top of my bench next to each other they weren't exactly the same hight, maybe 1/8" difference? I think one wasn't perfectly straight either, kind of curved. Not sure why, I jointed and used the table saw before I started making the dog holes. My plan was to fix them up before gluing so I would hand plane less. What if I re-jointed then and ran them through the table saw again? What would running dog holes over a jointer blade do to the holes, tearout or would they survive, I'm thinking they would be okay since nothign is end grain. The blade would just skim off the hole to the next? Same question with hand planing. What if I ran the hand plane over my dog holes, would it be okay as long as I don't plan crosswise? I could also glue all four boards up and then run it through the planer but I should joint them first so the bottom is flat. This photo isn't mine but basically what I did, I would be jointing the top, bottom of the dog holes, not the face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon003 Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 If you want to joint them, I suggest putting a small bevel or roundover around the dog holes. That should help eat the tearout, and also make inserting dogs easier. (Assuming you mean round dog holes here) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhelart Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Honestly, I'd wait until after you glue the dog strip to the rest of the top and flatten the whole thing at once. Assuming your dog boards are sized to the near final dimension I'd suggest gluing them together paying special attention to the alignment of the top then glue the assembly to the remainder of the top again paying attention to alignment then use a jack plane to level the whole top with one final pass. I'd be concerned about tearout in the dogholes although Jonathon's suggestion of beveling the edges would help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon003 Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 Ah. I was picturing round dog holes and worried about the top not being flat. Somehow I missed the photo before... My solution: don't do anything. (yet) When you cut into that dog hole strip you released stress, which allowed some additional wood movement. However, you also added a great deal of flexibility to that board. (A large scale version of I would take this dog hole strip, and the very next board that covers that strip, and do a separate glue-up of those two only. Use a clamp on each section in between the dog holes. That way, with the flex you've induced, you'll get a nice neat mesh between that strip and its neighbor on the dog hole side. Then, when you're done, take the glue-up, and check that for flatness and co-planarity. I bet you'll find it's neighbor has helped make it a bit flatter. With that combined glue-up, you can then decide if you want to take a light pass or passes on your jointer and planer to return it to fully square. If the board is _really_ out of whack, I still wouldn't hit it with a power jointer. Maybe a very light pass if you have a spiral head. I'd set the longest hand plane you have for a light shaving, and some winding sticks, and work it by hand until you're satisfied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoFF Posted March 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2011 I ended up gluing up the doghole strip by gluing four 8/4 maple boards on the bench one at a time and in the end were semi flush. It took a while but a jack plane made the whole thong level. One issue though... when I but on the front large vise from lee valley the vise doesn't close perfectly flush with the edge of the vise. The holes were drilled well but when I take a square to the edge I see it's a little angled. I'm sure they were jointed well before gluing. Maybe from all the glued up boards one at a time a small error turned into a larger error? Its off maybe 2 mm at the bottom from the top, not sure what angle that is. I need to demoing the edge of my bench. Any suggestions? It's 4.5" thick onthe doghole strip and I don't own a jointed plane or plane with a fence, just a jack plane. Here are some pictures to show what I mean, I don't have the outside jaws made yet so it's just the metal vise closing on the front of the bench to see how everything fit so far. Since the right side closes flush to the front of the workbench and makes contact first the left side has a bit of a gap and can't fully close. What would you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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