Hockey Puck Bench Block

Somewhere in my jewelry making tool reading, I saw a hockey puck bench block. It is a nice handy thing to have for holding small items while filing, sanding or sawing. The rubber puck allows a semi sticky surface to hold things. I choose to mount my puck on a tapered piece of wood, which can be clamped to the workbench. Either laying on the workbench or hanging off, this is a very versatile tool fixture to have. The puck takes a lot of punishment and is quickly replaceable.

Items
Hockey puck – I used a real traditional rubber hockey puck. 1 inch thick by 3 inch diameter
Wood – 8 inch long by 3 ½ wide by ¾ thick. Wood should be larger than dimensions for ease of sawing
Screws - 1 ¼ length general purpose phillip heads – I used three
Phillips - screw driver
Drill and drill bits - 1/8 inch diameter bit for the wood through-hole. I used a ½ inch diameter bit to chamfer the holes edge, to recess the head of screw.
Saw – coping saw, power band saw
Sand paper and files
C-clamp or ratchet clamp
Household scissors

Optional – I use 110 pound card stock to put my patterns on. This provides a thicker piece of paper to trace around.

Design
The design of the base is my idea of having the block hang off a bench; to allow ease of sawing and filing.
With using a wood extension in my design; I wanted the puck close to the edge of the wood as possible. Even with the height of the puck, during sawing or filing; very little wood around the puck is needed (I added only a ¼ inch). If you want, cutting the wood the same size as the puck would be ok. I am stuck on the rule of three, well not that rule of three; but my rule of three. My rule of three, is it is easier to balance things with 3 items. I am in constant pursuit to stay balanced. Therefore, I used three screws to hold the puck to the wood base. The screws are approximately 1 inch from the edge of the puck and 1 inch apart from each other.

I made a copy of my sketch design on 110 pound card stock to make a template/pattern. I cut out the template/pattern with standard household scissors. Using a standard pencil, I traced around the template/pattern on to my piece of wood.
I am fortunate to have a power band saw. Using the band saw, I cut out the base. Using files, then sandpaper I soften the edges of the fresh cut wood - to avoid splinters.

I poked through the template/pattern for marking the hole locations.
I used a hand drill and 1/8 inch diameter drill bit to create the through-holes. A hole larger than the screws makes it so the puck can be drawn down (tighten) to the wood. So depending on what type screw you are using, go with a bigger drill bit. The screw should drop in the drilled hole.
Then I used a ½ inch diameter drill bit to chamfer the holes; to recess the head of screw.

Well anyway - plainly - I drilled some holes.

Note: I did not drill into the rubber puck. The pucks are soft enough to just screw into.

I made several hockey puck bench blocks.

I gave some away, I kept a few.

I keep a few extra pucks for replacement.

On one of my bench blocks - I added my wire forming fixture.