when using my bench pin with a C clamp I am experiencing that the
C-clamp gets in the way often. Any suggestions on how to adjust the
clamp or where to set in on the pin?
Also, where it the best placment of the metal on the pin for sawing -
as deep in the v as possible? Metal never in mid air but always
resting as fully as possible on the wood?
thx
brenda
If I have to do a lot of saw piercing work I don’t use the bench
peg. I screw or clamp (a clamp at each end) a flat piece of wood
about 3" inches wide across the cut out in my bench and cut a V in
it. That way I know the work piece is held horizontal and there is
nothing in the way of the saw.
when using my bench pin with a C clamp I am experiencing that the C-clamp gets in the way often. Any suggestions on how to adjust the clamp or where to set in on the pin?
I’d suggest ditching the c-clamp type and get the one that screws
into the front of your bench like this:
And then lets debate about the fact that the bench pins in the
picture are shown upside down.
And then lets debate about the fact that the bench pins in the picture are shown upside down.
For me, flat side up works. Probably depends on your first teacher or
mentor, though.
Dave Arens makes an aluminum or steel plate with GRS type cleats on
the back. I take a new bench pin, cut off the narrow plug section,
screw on the plate, and then I have a stable, compact, and removable
bench pin.
Please excuse the shameless plug for Dave, but he has solved some
tooling problems for me.
Rick Hamilton
For me, flat side up works. Probably depends on your first teacher or mentor, though.
Actually, I was taught with the flat side down and found it
impossible to file a mirror flat surface that way and turned it
over. I’ve never looked back.
Actually, I was taught with the flat side down and found it impossible to file a mirror flat surface that way and turned it over. I've never looked back.
It depends how you sit at the bench. The slant is there to match your
natural motion. That is the bench pin should be aligned with with 4th
shirt button ( just above solar plexus if you work naked ). If you
sit higher than that, the flat side may be better, but that puts
your head far away from the pin, which introduces strain on your neck
muscles.
In detailed work which require magnification, your natural position
should put bench pin within focal distance of the optics that you are
using. That means bench pin / chest alignment as indicated above.
Leonid Surpin
I was told to use mine flat side down, but the design of my bench
and bench pin means that I can’t open a drawer underneath when the
pin is installed, so it’s flat side up for me too. You just get used
to whichever way you use it - plus the fact that things roll or slip
off it if used sloping side up, and I usually perch my files, etc on
it while using it, so flat side wins it for me.
Helen
UK
Hi Brenda,
You might consider getting a GRS bench pin and mounting plate.
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1kf
It is made to work with the BenchMate system, in which the plate has
tapered sides and is attached to the front of your bench.
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1kg
Different tools can then be mounted on the plate merely by sliding
them on. With the fixed plate setup you can use more than one bench
pin, one right side up the other upside down, using the upside down
one as a flat surface for piercing, the other one as a bench pin is
intended, for filing and holding work against. GRS also has a flat
metal bench pin specifically designed for piercing, and I heard
through the grapevine that Lee (The Saw Guy) Marshall may have been
toying with the idea as well. Can’t wait to see what he comes up
with!
Dave Phelps
... the bench pin should be aligned with with 4th shirt button ( just above solar plexus if you work naked ).
I’ve found that when I work naked I get metal shavings in places I’d
rather not get them, not to mention soldering.
It depends how you sit at the bench. The slant is there to match your natural motion. That is the bench pin should be aligned with with 4th shirt button....
My bench pin (and bench top) is level with right about my armpit & I
can move my chair up & down easily if the need presents. How do you
do pierce work with the top sloped down? Don’t you end up hitting
your bench with the end of the saw handle?
Doesn’t this just depend on the specific task? I was taught to use it
flat side down, but I switched the flat side up once I started doing
more piercing on flat sheet - for example, I’ve cut out an 8" disc
from 2mm brass, and I had to ensure that the top of the bench “pin”
(or peg as we call it in England) was level with the surface of the
bench itself, so that there was no wobble, and I could set my
physical position relative to the workpiece. I don’t see how you’d
pierce out something that large on the sloping side of the benchpeg,
at least not without a lot of breakages and inaccuracy. As some
people have said, an interchangable version is the best option of
all, but aside from piercing, I think you probably just adapt to
whatever you have. I made my current benchpeg from an old hemlock
ballustrade, and it’s much narrower than the ones you see
commercially, but I now wouldn’t want a wider one. One thing I have
noticed a wide variety of are the notches cut into the benchpeg -
some people have a tiny notch, just enough to hold a handvise
against, while others have them almost the whole length.
Jamie Hall
http://primitive.ganoksin.com
I was told to use mine flat side down, but the design of my bench and bench pin means that I can't open a drawer underneath when the pin is installed, so it's flat side up for me too.
That’s interesting I have mine so I can easily turn it. for filing
up things like ring shanks etc., sloping side up, saw piercing and
hole drillig flat side up.
Hamish UK
My bench pin is easily reversible, but I mostly use if flat side up,
IF you can even tell the difference. I cut so many grooves, notches,
and drill out a great many holes in the pin, to fit/hold particular
jobs, that it does not take long for a new pin to look like it went
through a war. They are a disposable, meant to be altered to hold
whatever I am working on, and easily replaced when the need arises.
How do you do pierce work with the top sloped down? Don't you end up hitting your bench with the end of the saw handle?
I use saw frame a lot. It is probably 50% of my technique. I cannot
remember the last time that I could use it in the book prescribed
manner. It is always the case that saw frame under some angle and the
piece has to be kind of balanced on the edge of the pin, and the
short answer is that one learns to do what has to be done.
Leonid Surpin
Leonid,
It depends how you sit at the bench. The slant is there to match your natural motion. That is the bench pin should be aligned with with 4th shirt button ( just above solar plexus if you work naked).
You must dress better than I do. 4th button ? Most of my shirts
would place that at my navel even if I got the shirts buttoned
properly. Often the two sides don’t line up It gave a former girl
friend great amusement how I miss buttoned shirts starting at the
middle.
Working naked is a hazard even I will admit. Besides my studio is
too damned cold.
Pin flat side up coplanar with the bench top and just adjust your
chair height.
jeffD
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modelling & Goldsmithing
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand
I am not using a fixed plate but rather a wood board piece that my
husband sawed the V shape out of the center for me. Very simple.
This is why I am ‘stuck’ using a C-clamp. The C-clamp is always
getting in the way of either the metal piece or the clamp or both.
What is the advantage to having a sloping side? Would I be better to
add this kind of bench pin with the homemade one I have now? This
site shows a flat clamp that looks like it would not interfere with
the work process but I don’t know what kind of clamp it is to begin
to look for one. Has anyone seen a clamp like this?I am curious
about using a ‘flat metal bench pin specifically designed for
piercing’ due to possibly damaging a blade.
thx!brenda
I have my bench peg /pin flat side up for piercing and bevel side up
for filing, I have a slot in my work bench for fitting the bench peg
/ pin and I have a few bench pegs with various shapes cut in them
for supporting different work. The most used one has a V cut in the
centre for piercing, this one is my general working peg, on the
reverse beveled side I have a few short line grooves filed up the
bevel, these are filed using a three square needle file, these I use
these grooves to support wires when filing tapers and points on the
wires for brooch pins and such like. I also have a bench peg that has
a large half round cut out in thecentre, this I use to support my
wooden ring clamps when setting rings. On some of my larger shaped
piercing jobs I actually support the shape against the underside of
my bench peg when piercing but that’s another story and I would not
like to go into too much detail and get comments from Leonid about
how wrong my piercing and working methods are. I do have a gallery on
Orchid if anyone is interested in seeing more of my type of work.
Peace, good health and early seasons greetings to all on Orchid.
James Miller FIPG
You must dress better than I do. 4th button ? Most of my shirts would place that at my navel even if I got the shirts buttoned properly. Often the two sides don't line up It gave a former girl friend great amusement how I miss buttoned shirts starting at the middle.
I anticipated that problem and that is why I indicated solar plexus
as a reference point. As far as buttons lining up, if you start
buttoning from the top, the problem goes away.
Leonid Surpin
I was in Tijuana many years ago, and watched a talented
street-craftsman ply his trade. His product was a hand pierced
pendant cut out of polished brass ( or silver, I forget which). His
“workbench” was a bench pin attached to the top of a short section of
broomstick. When he got a sale, he would sit down on the curb, sketch
the person’s name in a beautiful script lettering on the flat brass
sheet, and with the customer’s approval, hand-cut the name out of
brass. Sitting on the curb, he would clamp the broomstick/bench pin
between his knees, resting the bottom end of the stick in the gutter,
between his feet. He used his “bench pin-on-a-stick”, a hand drill,
and a jeweler’s saw to expertly saw out the customer’s name in brass.
So one way to use a bench pin, depending on where you do your work,
is just to put it on a stick and clamp it between your knees. How
simple can it get?
Jay Whaley
You can have two bench pegs as shown on my bench. The centre peg has
been changed since the photo was taken. Please excuse the bear
bottle it’s the only photo I could find :))
Chris