Another view of the hold-fast

 

For years I clamped the seat blanks of my miniature chairs directly to the top of the bench using the existing bench dogs. This had several draw-backs. The face of the dog could easily mar the sides of the blank. Requiring more effort on my part to sand out. The dogs themselves were in the way, both of my hands as I worked, and the chisel I carved with. I also had to reclamp the seat blank between the dogs repeatedly as I rotated the seat to carve it. So I came up with the clamping jig shown in these photos. The long lower platen secures the jig to the bench top, while at the same time keeping the bench-dogs well out of the work area around the seat. The upper block holds the seat with small L-shaped buttons that can be tightened or loosened as neccessary. The upper plate turns like a lazy-susan, so I don't have to keep unclamping, turning and then reclamping the seat blank as I carve. This clamp works great with only two drawbacks. The first has to do with working height. When clamped to the bench the saddle being carved was to low for me to carve comfortably.  I either have to bend over. Stooping over the work. Or squat uncomfortably in front of the bench. The need to raise the work up to a comfortable height is the main reason I decided that it made sense for me to build the mini-bench. I am still working on one thing. When I carve, I rest my hand next to the work-piece. In the course of carving, the side of my left hand or one of the knuckles repeatedly rubs against one or another of the buttons. By the end of a day of carving a batch of seats, I usually have a blister or raw spot on my hand. I'm still looking for a tweak to elimenate this problem. Good night.