Holy Utility

When I first drilled ¾” holdfast holes in my bench top, I had no idea how much I would use them. Besides the inevitable workholding revelation holdfasts were to me, I quickly found other purposes for these holes. In my conservation work, I am often holding small pieces like chair stretchers and need to pare scarfed grafts flush to the original surface. Among the various ways I hold/clamp these pieces for shaping, one of the most common is to place the end of the piece into the holdfast hole as a stop. I then can quickly rotate or tilt the piece in the blink of an eye. It’s so simple it’s almost obvious… or in the words of a friend of mine, “donkey dumb”.

I also use the ½” holes which the bench top bolts are countersink into. Having these two hole sizes as stops are great for filing round tenons to final thickness, beveling the ends of tenons, and paring grafts flush.

 

What other workholding methods do you use 

that aren't commonly talked about?