Bench Pin

[Tin Falcon]

While reading The fine build log of a Upshur farm engine build http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=18840.0 I mentioned bench pins as a tool to work on debur file etc small parts. I decided to explain the tool here. It is simly a extention or protusion from the front of a work bench that allows a place to hold a part against . The bench pin is a handy aid for small to tiny bench work. filing, sawing,rotary tool etc. it is an intergral part of a jewelers work bench. and a handy tool for model engineers and model engine builders. they are comercial available iin at least a couple styles.
The first one has a small flat anvil as a mount for the wooden pin. it does not have the notch and hole for sawing with a jewelers saw. but easily added.

The second style is a piece of 1 x 4 pine with a couple of holes drilled through a slot in one end for a clamp and a v notch in the business end. the hole is to allow room for the blade of a jewelers saw. again another handy tool for the home shop.

Bench pins as I mentioned above can be purchased and certainly shop fabricated. they can be cut and filled into as needed and when the cut and file marks get too bad make or buy a new one.


And the handy jewelers saw

Another version of a bench pin I have seen that is usefull for fileing is one made from a hockey puck glue or screw a hockey puck to a piece of wood or plastic and fasten to the front edge of the work bench. I would round the front end of the mounting material about a 1/2 inch bigger than the hocky puck.

Analternative to mounting a bench pin with a clamp is simply scewing or bolting to the work bench with carriage bolts.

A related tool is the bench block. I have seen steel ones in various qality from import to starrett. but in my research for this thread I came across this jem that I must include a Hockey puck bench block
http://rick.sparber.org/hpbb.pdf looks easy enough to make.

Another handy item is a hand vise

$4 bucks or so from amazon

http://www.amazon.com/HAND-VISE-WOOD-HDL-1-2/dp/B0017QKZLA/ref=pd_sbs_indust_5
Hold this against the bench pin.
I hope this helps folks.
Tin

 

[tvoght]

That was fast! Ask and ye shall receive. I've seen the bench blocks in the catalogs, and thought they were surely useful, but couldn't visualize that much how they might be used. Thanks.

--Tim

 

[mklotz]

A real bench block

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Round-Bench-Block/T10089

(gosh, even the copy writers at Grizzly can't spell 'loose' correctly)

is not solid. Its base is hollowed out. This is done so pins can be driven out through the holes in the top of the block. They fall into the space underneath the block and are thus captured.

 

[Tin Falcon]

Tim to be honest I started writing up the bench pin thread probably before you asked. Hows that for service. I have a bench pin I made for the jewelers bench . And I have a jewelers saw the bench block and hand vise have been on the wish list. for a while. I need to get out in the shop more and make stuff. !!!
tin