Adding dog holes to the bench

I finally got around to something I’ve been meaning to try out for ages last weekend. I added 3/4 inch holes for bench dogs to my workbench. I’m sure they will come in handy for many things, but the primary thing I want them for planing against. We’ll see just how well MDF holds up once I start using them, if there’s problems I can add some scrap hardwood underneath to strength the holes.

Here’s the bench before work started

First step was to work out where I wanted the holes and how many I wanted. I decided to start with two rows of four, in line with the vice. Note that I still have to replace the vice face with something thicker that can have dog holes in it as well. Below you can see the pencil marks, the crosses are where I wanted the center of the holes

I drilled them with a 3/4 inch forstner bit and my hand drill mounted in a cheap drill guide, it actually did a pretty decent job. I marked the centrepoint of the hole with a nail before drilling each hole so the bit didn’t wander, not that forstner bits tend to anyway.

and here it is completed. Now all I need to do is make some bench dogs…