I referred to “special features” in my earlier ‘Basics‘ blog posting. Well, we’ve waited long enough so here we go!
These features fall into three groups: clamping, alignment, and safety.
Clamping provides a means to more easily hold your materials. Alignment allows you to more easily align the work to ensure you have good angles. Safety protects you from splinters.
A sample shopping list:
- Kreg KBCIC In-Line Clamp: Low-Profile surface clamp (use with ‘bench dogs’).
- Requires holes (grid recommended) through the workbenchch surface. HINT: Use a forstner bit and take your time.
- Be sure to offset the grid from any workbench cross-members below the surface!
- Kreg Bench Dogs: Pegs for bench through-holes used as a stop for clamps.
- See above for in-line clamps.
- White Pegboard: Placed on bench-top to eliminate splinters and provide quick measurement / alignment.
- I discovered this accidentally: I was tired of getting splinters from my rough surface so I just slapped scrap pegboard on top. Bingo! No more splinters, and it includes a 1×1 grid allowing for quick, rough measurement. Highly recommended!
- Another option is to use sanded plywood for your surface.
- Steel Angles: Used at rear and side(s) of bench to provide quick 90-degree alignment.
- Each angle is a long, steel 90-degree bracket cut to length.
- Attach the bottom angle to the bottom or outside edge of the surface, if possible.
- Align the rear / side(s) at a true 90-degrees so pieces (drawers, etc) can be pushed into the corner to check their alignment.
- Wood Vise: You may need to order the handle and/or make the wooden portions yourself (or just buy a fully- assembled vise if you’d rather not).
- Be sure to reinforce your bench for the weight of the vise in this area.
- 2×4 or similar: Serve as a backstop to your workbench to aid in alignment (and keep things from rolling off!
Photos demonstrating their use are below…
Pegboard &Backstop
White pegboard gridded surface and raised 2×4 at rear to prevent spillage and facilitate alignment.
Kreg In-line Clamp and Bench Dog
Holding a block of wood that’s ready for sanding. The low profile will prevent the sander for making contact with the clamp.
Note additional holes in the rear for placement flexiblity.
Build-it-yourself Wood Vise
Not the best choice of materials, but it works and the softer wood is protecting materials.
Steel Angle Brackets (Corner)
90-degrees in the corner to allow builds to be pushed in place to easily check alignment.
Steel Angle Brackets (Edge View)
Demonstrates attachment to the table. Mount on the outside of the bracket to keep the material from making contact.
WidgetWood 
hate to say it, but this was interesting……. thanks
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