I have recently upgraded my workbench with some dog holes and now it's time to find some cheap stop dogs and dog toggle clamps solutions! This tutorial will show you how to build these to fit your MFT style workbench. It's a cheap and functional solution that works brilliantly together.
Check out my video for more details and don't forget to subscribe!
Step 1: Select your materials
To make the stop dogs you're going to need 20mm aluminium bar, few pieces of hardwood - these will be attached to the aluminium rod (size depends on your needs). You will also need some two part 5 minute epoxy, that would combine together the aluminium rod and wooden parts together.
For toggle clamps we're going to need push toggle clamps, threaded rod (about 6 cm long each), to extend the reach of the clamps, small rubber furniture feet and 20mm thick aluminium rod.
I got my push toggle clamps from Amazon and the aluminium rod I have found on eBay.
Step 2: Let's start with stop dogs and cut aluminium rod to correct size (I went for about 30 mm in length).
Step 3: Use hacksaw to cut out aluminium part that will allow for a piece of wood to rest on. The thickness of wood that I've used was about 1 cm.
Step 4: Cut your wooden parts to the right size; then mix 2 part 5-minute epoxy to glue wood with aluminium. Once the epoxy is mixed applied it onto the aluminium and attach the wooden piece into it. Alternatively instead of using epoxy you can pre-drill the wood and aluminium and connect it with the screw.
Step 5: As the stop dogs are now drying we can now move to the toggle clamps. The clamps that I used in the video are very tiny, the threaded rod is short so the first thing I needed to do was to extend it and change the original rubber foot to something larger. I have started with disassembling the clamp and then cutting the threaded rod to the desired size ( 6 cm ) and then you just need to put everything together (threaded rod, washer & rubber).
Step 6: Now we have to attach the clamp to the aluminium dog. To do that, I have drilled the holes in the foot of the toggle clamp and aluminium dog and then connect them with screws.
Step 7: Once the stop dogs dried I have sanded them and applied danish oil to finish it off.
And that's it! Hope you enjoyed the video and you can use this idea in your workshop.