PVC bench dogs

Svar

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Jul 22, 2012
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You can easily make bench dogs to fit your MFT or anything else for that matter on a router table as shown. I used PVC pipe with outer diameter 21.5 mm and reduced it to 20.0 mm. Flat bottom (surfacing) bit works best. Simply hold the pipe with feather boards or whatever, rotate and advance toward the bit. I don’t recommend pressing the pipe with your hand because it is hard to keep it steady. Bit height adjustments took a minute and even on crude plywood table like this achieving 0.03 mm tolerance and repeatability was trivial. The spiral marks are probably due to the bit not being exactly in one plane with the table, but the surface feels pretty smooth. I bet you could cobble together more robust jig and achieve greater tolerance and better finish.
Chop it up to any length you want and you could make a bucket full of these in half hour. These bench dogs fit tight, are pretty rigid and will not bend under pressure when inserted into the bench.
These could be made from solid rod, drilled, tapped etc. Aluminum can also be easily machined in the same manner using wood router at slow speed with small diameter bit, although I do recommend end mill instead of woodworking bit.

P.S. It seems to be customary to name bench dogs after yourself on this forum   [poke], so you could refer to these as Svardogs (just kidding)   [laughing].
 
Instead of naming them after yourself, how about Rover, Fido, Spot and Lassie?  [big grin]

Oh, and you can call me "Rip"...

Great idea, simple and easy for anyone to replicate.

RMW
 
RMW said:
Instead of naming them after yourself, how about Rover, Fido, Spot and Lassie?  [big grin]

PeeVee dogs? Poor man's dogs? Quick dogs? Pipe dogs? ... Bench cats?
 
If you are in Europe (or know someone there that can ship some to you) you can use 20 mm electrical CPVC conduit. The belled ends make nice heads. The actual diameter was 19.86 mm on this batch from 2008.

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It was never my intention to have the dogs named after me. The first appearance of my dogs was at a tool store open house. The dogs had been discussed on the forums but never named. I was told during the open house everyone was asking "where are the Qwas dogs" or Have you seen the Qwas dogs yet". Afterwards the tool store owner told me I could name the dogs whatever I want but they were already named Qwas Dogs and that name would stick.
  [smile]
 
An old idea is revived ...

when Qwas started to mention the MFT hole pattern was perfectly aligned and square, and ideal to use along with 20mm dogs, I bought a few 20mm PVC 2 meter long pipes readily available from DIY stores in France (and other metrics oriented countries).  Qwas expressed his interest in me shipping about 40 meters of them (cut into 50cm sections) to him ... Later on he rapidly came up with this idea of making more sophisticated metal dogs in which threaded holes could be created.

I'm still using 20mm PVC dogs in addition to the RIP dogs I bought from RMW ... They work great but they may flex a tiny bit (the PVC dogs I mean)
 
What a great tip! Thanks.

The 20mm pvc shown in one of the others replies appears be quite thin-walled compared to stuff you used, so I would guess yours would not flex nearly as much.

Here in the USA, you can also buy what's called Schedule 80 PVC, which is thicker walled, but has the same outside diameter as Schedule 40 of the same nominal pipe size.

For example, the pipe you used appears to be 1/2" nominal pipe, with an O.D of .840" or about 21.4mm. Schedule 40 wall thickness is .109", but Schedule 80 wall thickness is  .147".
 
Hey, Qwas, I was just teasing.
I’ve seen 20 mm aluminum rod on e-bay (shipped from UK) pretty cheap. I wonder how that would work.
Rdesigns, yes I used ½” nominal pipe and I think it was Sch 40.  I just looked it up and there are also Schedule 120 pipes!
 
No problem Svar. Others may not know it but middle earthers are known for teasing and joking.  [big grin] I don't think the story of how the dogs were named has ever been told on this forum, so this made a great opportunity to do so.

Shipping to/from Europe is expensive and the price keeps going up. Be sure you know the exact shipping cost first and if there will be duties added to it by Customs. Normally aluminum rods are measured by their outside diameter and can be just a hair smaller so that size should work. To be safe I would contact the seller first and ask if can measure the exact diameter. You could drill a hole in the tubing and add a wooden or steel dowel pin (or perhaps a small hex head bolt and nut) to make a support to hold a portion above the table top.

mhch said:
Qwas and I replied simultaneously !!

Great minds think alike.  [big grin] I hope all is well with you and the lovely family.  [smile] For those that don't know, mhch was very helpful in getting the holes concept working and coming up with ideas for dogs. He's had some great ideas for using the holes and the dogs.
 
An easy way to get rid of any flexing of thin-walled pipe dogs was to pour some appropriate liquid material into the dogs and let it dry and harden (plaster, resin ... whatever is at hand)

Great minds think alike.  [big grin] I hope all is well with you and the lovely family.  [smile] For those that don't know, mhch was very helpful in getting the holes concept working and coming up with ideas for dogs. He's had some great ideas for using the holes and the dogs.

I'm well thanks Steve, and I now restarted my wordworking hobby which I stopped for a while when I moved home.
 
Lol and i spent over €100 on mft dogs last month, while i have lost of these 20mm pvc laying around.
It's an interesting idea and i will use it for mft top jigs!
 
Most of my PVC dogs stay inserted in place, just pushed down so that their top is not emerging. And I just push them up from below or remove them according to the need.

I can use many together for instance to keep a flexing piece very straigth. They can also be used with thin material to be cut or sanded, or even inserted under the rail since they can be pushed down just as needed.

Expensive metal dogs are complementary, mostly because of the threaded holes in them on top, underneath, or on the side, which can be used to screw things firmly.
 
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