Where to find a forged bench stop ?

[overland]

I'm building a Roubo-style bench and am looking for a forged iron bench stop. But I can't find one. Any suggestions?

[AUswimKC]

Peter Ross or black bear forge

[Derek Cohen]

Make your own:  http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeToo...gStop.html





Regards from Perth

Derek

[GeorgeV]

Bought mine from Lee Valley
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.as...at=1,41637

[Hank Knight]

Bought mine from Lee Valley
http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.as...at=1,41637

George,

How do you like those stops? I bought two from Lee Valley when I built my bench but I never installed them. Maybe I should give them a second look.

Hank

[ZachDillinger]

I'm building a Roubo-style bench and am looking for a forged iron bench stop. But I can't find one. Any suggestions?

Peter Ross or black bear forge

Having purchased my bench stop from Black Bear Forge, I can wholeheartedly recommend John's work. He has a bit of a wait list at this point but it's worth it.

[overland]

I don't see them on his website. How much are they?

[adamcherubini]

I'm building a Roubo-style bench and am looking for a forged iron bench stop. But I can't find one. Any suggestions?

Don't do it!  Those things can hurt you and damage tools and projects.  Just make a simple wooden stop. Here's how I made mine.

Get down on your hands and knees and crawl around your shop until you find a hunk of hardwood, oak, maple or beech, approx. 2" square and 6-8" long (at least longer than your bench is thick).

Plane a slight, maybe 1/8" at most, angle on one side to form a taper. 1/16" might be too small.

Place the stop on top of your bench, narrow end down.  Align the tapered surface to be the surface the board banks against when you plane. Scribe around.

Using any convenient tool, cut a hole in your bench for the stop. Traditionally, these are not very close to the front edge of the bench. That gives you some thin stock and edge work advantages, but you may need a sticking board to cut moldings. 

Now the fun part. Lightly tap the planning stop into the hole you just created until it won't go down any more. Just tap it in. Then, using a back saw, lay a kerf into the top of the stop all the way to the bench. The kerf should be perpendicular to the front face of the bench and roughly in the middle of the stop. Then tap the dog down until the kerf closes. Saw the kerf open again and repeat. Keep doing this until you have a stop that is tight at any height.

Done correctly, you will have a planning stop with a slight angle to the front face of it that will stay at any height and can only be adjusted by mallet blows. (make sure its longer than the bench is thick so you cab beat it up from underneath.) If the wood is hard and the kerf you sawed is in the center of the stop, the spring force will be the highest.  Move the kerf to the back face to lighter the spring tension.  Only experience can inform this. But I prefer to have a stop that really needs a mallet to move.

I've tried every sort of planning stop.  I think this one is the best. Be sure to lightly chamfer the top (and bottom) corners.

If your heart is set on iron, and authenticity, drive a rose head nail into your bench top. Leave the head proud by about 1/2-5/8".

[Derek Cohen]

Don't do it!  Those things can hurt you and damage tools and projects.  Just make a simple y are wooden stop.

I have found the planing stop, which I showed above, to be fantastic for work holding. However, Adam makes a relevant point ... that is, the points can damage the work piece. The planing stop I advocate is nothing more than a filed section of unhardened O1 steel which is bolted into the top of a wooden dog. The dog can be exchanged will any other dog on my bench (they are all identical), and the toothed dog may be replaced with a wooden-topped one.

I never use the toothed dog with long- or side grain, and only with end grain. End grain will not show teeth marks, but all other faces will be damaged. 

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Hank Knight]

I'm building a Roubo-style bench and am looking for a forged iron bench stop. But I can't find one. Any suggestions?

Here are some planing stops Peter Ross forged for the French Oak Roubo Project several years ago (see: http://benchcrafted.blogspot.com/p/the-f...oject.html).

IMG_0180 by Hank Knight, on Flickr