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I remember joking with other woodworkers at guild meeting about "wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of a machine or jig that can give you perfect joints without a lot of fuss, that are super strong and precisely located" then I discovered the Dowelmax and it became my only joint-making tool for all the reasons I just listed.
I made this article and video to use as a reference for those new woodworkers who to know more about this tool can do, and for those experienced woodworkers as a reminder for new things they may not have thought about.
Pro-Level Wood Joinery: This Tool Changes Everything!
I often talk about this jig as the tool that changed my life in woodworking, and it's the truth. Before discovering this jig, like everyone else I made mostly mortise and tenon joints ... and hated it, I could never seem to get them to fit perfectly, the reveals were frequently not different thicknesses and they are tedious to make ... especially for something nobody ever sees except the woodworker because the mortise and tenon joints are buried and glued deep into the wood.
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This inexpensive and jig (that can often be made with off-cuts of wood) is the handiest jig you might have in your shop for aligning all sorts of woodworking projects and keeping them square, which of course makes them that much easier to work with.
Getting Horrible Woodwork Corner Joints? Make This for $6
Wood projects that are out of square and hard to work with, and for the woodworker, often disappointing to continue to work with or sell and there are only 2 things that contribute to out-of-square projects ....
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It's always easier to carry on doing things the way we always do, and only when things go wrong or when we get fed-up with things that aren't working right, are awkward or dysfunctional ... do we make changes, such is so with my Table Saw Sled.
STOP Making Out-Dated Table Saw Sleds, Do This Instead
I loved to hate my table saw sled, it was well built, and accommodated a variety of attachments (which I seldom used) and the main thing I needed it for was cross cutting wide boards that my sliding mitre saw could not cut. The problem with this, is just the weight of the sled would make me cringe at even the thought of dragging it out... 26 pounds of raw wood and plastic ...
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Not every suggestion I receive ends up in a video, often because I just don't have the capacity, but sometimes because what was sent, for some reason it may look like I would need to make a prototype of it before I video that tip, jig, or project. Such was the case with the wood router clamp.
Make Your Own Wood Router Clamp!
I can't take credit for this idea, it was sent to me compliments of the nice folks at the Sunflower Woodworking Guild in the Wichita, Kansas region, who have so kindly kept me on their member's list and send me newsletters and other club notices. What I received were some pictures and some plans from which to get started ...