"Tim Hurd" wrote in message
...
So, which should I go with? The dogs or the clamps?


Both. They do different things. Bench dogs are used as stops to hold
things on their edges. Common uses are when hand-planing or other work,
often in combination with a vise, which either has a pop-up dog or holes for
loose bench dogs.

A hold-down does what it sounds like - holds work down against the bench,
and does so by applying the clamping force to the face or veritcally on the
piece. There are a lot of uses for this as well, one being to hold a piece
for routing operations, drilling holes, etc. etc.

The hold-down I prefer is actually a clamping hold-down sold by Lee Valley.
It's not cheap, but I find it extremely useful the more I have it. Here it
is:

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...1637&ccurrency
=2&SID=

The type you showed from Harbor Freight is pretty common and useful, but to
seat the work you have to wack the holddown with a mallet, and again to
loosen it, so over time you can get wear on the dog hole of the bench.
They've been used for a long time, though, so there's nothing wrong with
them.

Mike