Rockler’s Bench Cookies are hugely popular, as are the Bench Dog ones you can find online at at major home improvement stores. These little guys are hockey puck-sized discs faced with an incredibly grippy material. Quite a few imitators have hit the market, such as these Loc-Blocks, and many DIYers and woodworkers have made their own.
But there’s one big difference that usually separates home-built project spacers from Rockler’s version – the high-friction rubbery padding. Rockler uses thick high-quality material on their Bench Cookies, similar to the backing that used to be found on the best mouse pads.
Lee Valley has come out with their own Bench Pucks, which is a DIY-kit solution. Bench Pucks consist of separately-purchased 3″ wide x 1″ thick hockey pucks and 2-3/4″ x 1/8″ grip discs with self-adhesive backing. The pucks cost $1 each, and the grip discs $2.95 for 8. Four Bench Pucks will cost $6.95, total. Or, you can add grip discs to scrap wooden blocks for an even lower price point.
Lee Valley also offers huge 12″ x 36″ and 24″ x 36″ sheets of the same material for $9.50 and $17.50, respectively, in case you want to make larger or non-circular blocks.
The pucks are made in Slovakia, the grippy material is made in the USA.
Purchase via Lee Valley
or You can still Purchase Bench Cookies via Amazon for $10-12 with free super saver shipping options.
Gotta love hockey pucks. We bought a piece of farm machinery made in Canada, and were amused to find that the rubber spacers keeping parts from rattling were in fact regulation hockey pucks with holes drilled in them.
That’s somewhat odd, but hey, it’s cost effective!