End vise wood thickness to hold bench dogs?

I used 8/4 maple for my vise chop and it’s held up fine.

-- John, BC, Canada

I would agree with nwbusa – anything under 8/4 is asking for trouble.

-- -=Pride is not a sin=-

technically I’d aspire to go 3x the width of the dogs which would be 9/4 (or 8/4 to simplify the math).
if you only have 1 3/4 you can definitely try that without having to laminate, or just look around for a cutoff piece from some local shop that will be thicker.

you can also always laminate sideways.

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

I could face laminate up two pieces to make something 9/4 thick. I would just need to make another trip to pick up some more maple.

PurpLev, I not sure what you mean by laminate sideways. Would you elaborate?

Also, a follow up question. Should I center the bench dogs in the wood?

-- Jesse, Saint Louis, Missouri

one way to laminate (probably the most obvious) is to use 2 boards one in front, one in back (as in workbench->piece-1->piece-2->vice face) another way to laminate is the ‘other way’ (?) as in one board above the other, and use more boards (more smaller pieces) – think butcher block. that way looking at the vise from the top you only see 1 ‘wide’ board so to speak

and yes, you should center the dogs in the vise

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.