Not a Parf Dog in Sight

Small workbenches are a continuing theme.
This bench is a commission.
The brief prescribed 1000mm x 500mm with dog holes that are not obstructed by objects beneath them. For instance, it is not uncommon for a dog hole to be installed directly above the screw of a vice and long hold downs become useless. There was also a demand for two vices. 
Dog holes are cut on a 100mm grid with omissions wherever a hole would bump into a piece of vice or table leg.

The bench top is a sandwich of recycled hardwood stair treads and old verandah posts. Being small but with large vices, there is not a lot of room left to install dog holes, any notion of creating something like a parf dog system has to be abandoned.
Bench thickness of 130mm also created some problems. Creating holes that deep on a drill press that only travels 75mm generated some gymnastic efforts.

Installing the vices in the middle of the sandwich left a short 45mm high jaw that doesn’t put too much stress on the screws holding it to the casting. Edges on the bench are 35mm hardwood studs recycled from a demolition. They are screwed and not glued. Removing them gives access to the vices.

Even though the bench is only 1000mm long it can hold over 1200mm.
It has become my habit to create little auxiliary jaws for the vice into which I drill dog holes. This maintains the integrity of the jaw and increases the life of a consumable part.

By using hold downs, really long pieces can be fixed to the bench and it has sufficient inertia to maintain stability. Visible here is the recycled lathe stand I used for legs.

Across the bench it can hold 620mm.
It was difficult to pass this to the customer who bought it.
This project was fun to make, fulfilling to finish and I just wanted to keep it for myself.