Why do most MFT dogs have round heads?

[jamanjeval]

Why are the heads on dogs round where they contact the material being worked on? It seems as if it would be less accurate than the flat sided ones, like the dogs made by veritas, because the small contact area would indent into the material being worked not to mention putting dimples into it when clamping.

 

[Holmz]

Probable because it requires a special lathe to turn a square part?

 

[Svar]

They are mostly for positioning rather than clamping, where round works just fine. Besides, with the round one you can use two sides at a the same time. I.e. guide rail and stock registered against the same dog when cross cutting.

 

[jamanjeval]

They are mostly for positioning rather than clamping, where round works just fine. Besides, with the round one you can use two sides at a the same time. I.e. guide rail and stock registered against the same dog when cross cutting.

On the Veritas ones the flat side is less than 1/2 the diameter and there is full symmetry about the MFT hole. So, it could be used as you describe with the flat edge.

 

[Oldwood]

I think for alignment the round dogs are quicker because you don't need to make sure all the the dogs are turned to present the same face to the work. For clamping flat is obviously better.

 

[antss]

Hopefully Peter will find this thread and weigh in on the design decision /process his Parf Dogs .