Lee Valley Bench Dog Bushing

RedBeard

Burns
Corporate Member
Plunge router with a 3/4” bit. Or oversize a template hole and offset with guide bushing. That’s what I did. This probably wouldn’t work if your top is really thick. You are limited by the length of router bit you have/can find.
 
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NOTW

Notw
Senior User
top is 3-3/4" thick, i'll have to look and see how long i can get a 3/4" router bit
 

zdorsch

Zach
Corporate Member
Not exactly the same, but I wonder if you could find a pipe that has an ID of 3/4” and make into a bushing. This is basically what doweling jigs often do.
 

creasman

Jim
Staff member
Corporate Member
Why not make your own? Find a 2"-3" thick block of a reasonable hard wood with a solid knot -- maybe oak or yellow pine. Put the 3/4" bit in the drill press and bore through the knot to make a clean, straight, perpendicular hole. Now you have your own guide to clamp on the bench wherever you want a hole. I think you will find the knot makes a decent bushing to keep the bit going straight.

Of course, I'd practice on something that didn't matter before drilling a hole in my bench ;-). Worse case is you've wasted a few minutes time and a block of wood you probably weren't going to use anyway.
 

NOTW

Notw
Senior User
Why not make your own? Find a 2"-3" thick block of a reasonable hard wood with a solid knot -- maybe oak or yellow pine. Put the 3/4" bit in the drill press and bore through the knot to make a clean, straight, perpendicular hole. Now you have your own guide to clamp on the bench wherever you want a hole. I think you will find the knot makes a decent bushing to keep the bit going straight.

Of course, I'd practice on something that didn't matter before drilling a hole in my bench ;-). Worse case is you've wasted a few minutes time and a block of wood you probably weren't going to use anyway.

I thought about this and it would probably work for the first couple but I would worry there would an increasing amount of slop after a few holes, but it is a good idea if I can’t find anything else
 

Martin Roper

Martin
Senior User
Has anyone tried something like this?

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I'm thinking of getting one of these.
 

mkepke

Mark
Senior User
You can buy a 3/4" drill bushing from any industrial supply store. McMaster-Carr has hundreds of them. McMaster-Carr

MSC, Enco and Reid Supply should have them as well.

-Mark
 

KenOfCary

Ken
Staff member
Corporate Member
My workbench is 4" thick. I used a plunge router to lay out the pattern and start the holes - Made them about 1" deep. I then switched to a brace and 3/4" bit to finish the holes. My avatar is me doing just that. Stop when you feel the point of the bit just breaking through the underside and use the tiny hole it made to finish the hole from the bottom of the bench to avoid any tearout. Worked great. It helps if you have a brace with a 10" or better swing like the one I used. Takes a lot of effort to get through 4" of hard maple. But was worth the effort. It was easy to keep the holes straight when starting with the router bit.
 

Yelverton

Mitch
Corporate Member
Plunge router with a 3/4” bit. Or oversize a template hole and offset with guide bushing. That’s what I did. This probably wouldn’t work if your top is really thick. You are limited by the length of router bit you have/can find.
This is what I did, as well. I got a 3/4" spiral upcut router bit from Amazon and finished the holes with a 3/4" Irwin speed bore drill bit. Worked out just fine.
 

RedBeard

Burns
Corporate Member
I have one similar to this and never feel confident with it, that being said apparently Rockler has created one that is supposed to be very sturdy, it got the Andy Klein seal of approval

Ive seen the Rockler one as well and looks really nice. I’ll get it eventually because it would be really helpful onsite. But at $150 it’ll probably be a little while before I pull the trigger. I’ve almost bought the Milescraft version more times than I can count but the reviews are horrible. Some people say it works ok but when reading reviews from people who use it like I would, it just doesn’t sound like it would last very long.
 

NOTW

Notw
Senior User
Kind of torn between trying the router method to start the holes and trying to do it on the drill press. My top is in two halves and each half weighs around 70lbs. so i could possibly build a support to hold one end while i drill the other on the drill press...but if i dropped it that would sucks....hmmm
 

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