Bench dogs are indispensible accessories for holding a board in place on a workbench. And wood dogs won’t damage your tools if you accidentally strike them. I figured out a simple way to make my own bench dogs in the shop.
I just cut an extralong workpiece to thickness and width to match the diameter of my workbench’s dog holes (3⁄4"). Then, I rounded over a portion of all four edges of the piece using the router table technique shown in the illustrations at right. After that, it was a simple matter of trimming the flat, squared off section at each end of the workpiece down to size. Then I just cut the piece in half to create two bench dogs. You can repeat the process to create as many bench dogs as you need.
