Cross cutting at your bench

[overland]

I've just got a new holdfast and want to to start boring a few holes in my benchtop for it. Of course I want to think carefully about where I do this. One operation I sometimes do at the bench is to cross cut a piece of lumber off the left end of the bench. I do this by clamping the board down (somewhere near the vise) and using my left hand to hold the waste. It would make sense for me to put a holdfast in a place where I could use it to hold down a board for cross cutting here, but in discussions about where to put holdfast holes, I never see a hold fast hole at this point--somewhere in front of the vise and about halfway into the bench. This makes me wonder if there's another place on the bench that's better for cross cutting. I'm not thinking here of using a bench hook and back saw for small stuff, but cutting larger boards where they hang off the edge. Any thoughts?

[Strokes77]

I either cross cut in the face vise, or off the edge of the bench as you say.  I drilled way too many dog holes when I built the bench, so I have plenty to choose from.  Be careful of trying to position them above the face vise tough... don't drill into it. 

damhikt.

What your considering is perfectly logical.

[Joe Bailey]

I have seen the setup you describe many times -- my current bench is setup in this way.

Naturally, you can't drop a holdfast down into the vise mechanism below the benchtop, but I use that hole for a dog, in conjunction with the pop-up dog in the face of my vise.

[bandit571]

I use 1 dog to keep the board from sliding around.    I also clamp the board to the bench.    I try to open the endvise all the way.    Adds a bit of support. 

   

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Well I have a sawbench just under my end vise and I use that for crosscutting. Doing it on the bench makes the workpiece too high for me. On the sawbench, I can hold the workpiece with my foot.