I get a lot of questions about the cutting mat bench hook, especially about how to make one.
So I thought I'd just do a quick video on how I make them.
I think they're a really useful tool, especially useful for people that don't have a dedicated bookbinding place.
Of course, at my bench, my whole bench is essentially one of these bench hooks.
And I just use the straight piece of wood at the back of my bench.
But I do use the bench hook in my videos a lot, just to demonstrate the environment I expect most of the people
watching my videos to be using.
There's only four materials used in the bench hook.
There's the MDF, they dressed pine - or whatever timber you want to use, the screws, and the cutting mat.
So the first thing to do is to go to the hardware store and get the materials, or at least three of them.
The most important thing is to get a straight piece of timber for the front and the back.
You can see that piece was very crooked.
I went through the whole batch and picked out the straightest piece, which is that one there.
In the description, I'll put the list of materials and all the dimensions, but I'm just going through, I'm going, here
I have got the pine, the MDF, the screws, and the cutting mat.
It's probably a good idea to buy the cutting mat before you buy the other materials, so that you make sure that you get
the the MDF large enough.
So I'm doing a 15 by 20 inch base.
In the description I'll use metric as well.
Now I'm going to cut these up on my sliding compound miter saw.
I would normally buy a larger sheet than this and cut it on my table saw.
But unless you're comfortable with the saws and have them, then you can just get the hardware store to cut the
materials to size.
Most hardware stores, the big ones, both in the U.S.
and Australia, do two cuts for free.
So you can get this all cut at the hardware store.
Of course, this bench hook isn't my invention.
It's been around a long time and widely used.
It's very good for teaching classes where you, because it's portable and you can go somewhere and just work at normal
tables and not worry about damaging the tables.
The cutting mat I use is an all-for-one, which is sort of at the top end price-wise.
You don't need to use such an expensive cutting mat, but it does match my favorite snap off knife.
I'm going to use clamps to hold everything in place.
But if you don't have clamps, then maybe just get a friend to help and get them to hold the timber in place for you
while you drill the holes. If you do the two end holes first and get the timber in place, then you can do the extra holes
after that. It's good if the MDA is square.
Well, not square as in square shape, but in right angle corners.
Just for aesthetic reasons.
The only thing that's critical is that the back stop, the back piece of timber, is straight because that's what you
put the square against to cut your right angle boards.
The packet of screws will tell you what size pilot hole to drill.
It's probably best to drill a pilot hole.
It's not necessary, but there is a small risk of splitting the timber.
Two and a half millimeters, for these I think they're 6 g screws.
The piece of tape is just to stop, so I know how deep to make the hole without going all the way through the timber.
I'm going to put in 5 screws, which may seem like overkill, but it will stop the piece of timber from warping either
from its natural growth shape, or from changes in humidity , or a combination of both.
You don't want the screws sitting above the surface.
And we're using countersunk screws, so we should countersink the top of the holes.
Now, if you don't have a countersink, you can just use a larger drill size and just be careful, not drill too deep.
And if you don't have or don't like power tools, you can also go old school.
That's the end of this week's little project.
I think it's well within the capabilities of anyone to do it, especially if you get the hardware store to cut the
timber up for you.
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And until next time, cheerio.