Q:

I’ve just started planning my first real woodworking bench. I want to use benchdogs, but don’t know if I should use round ones or square ones. Is one better than the other?

Art Gibson, Santa Fe, NM

A:

In my experience, round and square benchdogs hold stock equally well. That being said, there are some important differences.

Round dogs are easier to install: Simply drill a hole in your benchtop and send the dog home. They also can rotate to accept oddly shaped workpieces, and their round holes work with holdfasts and hold-downs. The biggest drawback to round dogs is getting round stock that’s the right diameter to press into place without falling through. Accurately sized hardwood dowels can be hard to find. You can turn them yourself if you have a lathe. You can buy round metal dogs, but be careful. They easily nick plane blades and router bits. An alternative is to make a dog with a square head on it, where the dowel doesn’t need to fit perfectly.

Drop-in stop. With round benchdogs, you can quickly make a planning stop, and easily match the stop’s thickness to the workpiece.

Square dogs are easier to make, but cutting square holes is difficult on a benchtop that’s already glued up. They don’t handle oddly shaped workpieces very well either. And you can’t use their holes for holdfasts and hold-downs.

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