Joinery has been the woodworkers quest since the dawn of working with wood. Since that time woodworkers and carpenters have discovered many many different ways of putting wood together through a combination of joints, glues and mechanical fasteners. The quest as often been for the easiest and or the strongest.
When I first discovered the "Dowelmax" doweling jig, it has literally changed my live in woodworking by giving me a joinery system that is quite easy to use, super strong, but most of all VERY accurate and with easily repeatable results. And for these features I have come up with some jigs and modifications that making using the Dowelmax even better.
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First of all, for those new, below left is the most standard configuration of the jig, on the right is the same jig but with the clamping component switched around, primarily used for drilling holes along the edges of wood where there is less space. The blue tape on my jigs signifies a quick check of face side to face side, by this I mean that all my wood for joining is marked with small chunk of blue tape to easily identify the face (and/or side) edge of a board, which will almost always be used to align to the dowelmax for drilling dowel holes.
While Stocks Last- Dowelmax Cosmetic - B stock available HERE (or click image below)
Dry Fit
Every experienced woodworker will make a dry fit of their piece before gluing and final assembly. The dowel size I use most frequent is 3/8" diameter and either 1-1/2" or 2 inches long. For this I have prepared 3 different drill bits either configured for 1-1/2" of 2", I also have slightly undersized dowels that match my color coded drill bits, Red for 1-1/2" and blue for 2".
The yellow bit is for edge holes, such as drilling into 3/4" thick wood where the dowel hole needs to be only about 1/2" to 5/8" deep so it doesn't penetrate the 3/4" board.
User Friendly Drill Bits
All of the drill bits for every doweling jig require the use of "stop collars" to allow the drill bits to go a certain depth into the wood. These collars, as you can see in the picture above use Grub or Set screws. These set screws are almost always "proud" or protruding from the collars and when you attach them to your drill using a had grip, the protruding set screws can actually cut the skin if your are not careful. For all of my set screws, I have removed them and carefully slightly ground them so when inserted into the collars they are flush with the outside of collar, and now much safer to install into the drill.
Dowelmax Spare Parts and Drill bits - HERE
Dry Fit and Color Coding
Dowels which are used for final assembly are often tight when inserted into the dowel holes. This is perfect for gluing and final assebly but is not so much so for dry fits, which is why I slightly undersize dowels by driving them through holes in a 1/4 plate steel, then color coding them and now the slide easily in dowel holes for more convenient dry fitting.
Plan Your Work
I and others have found that on rare occasions drilling so many dowel holes in wood pieces, it can sometimes be confusing as to which holes should go where. For this, I developed what I call the "Dowel Planner" they are simple to make. I first made mine out of clear Plexi but found it hard to see on the workbench so remade more in wood and colored them black and red.
All you need to is get a scrap 3/4" board, long enough to rip in your table saw, drill 5 deep holes with your dowelmax jig, then take that wood to your table saw and rip off as many as you want, 1/4" strips, then cut them by hand the correct length and presto you have your own Planning Jig.
The jig is not used for alignment, it is only used to help remind you where holes (and maybe how many) holes need to be made in certain piece of wood. In the picture below a mock-up table leg shows how this would look.
Dowel Hole Depth Jig
Like anything in woodworking, things can go wrong and the first time I did NOT do a complete dry fit, during glue up and final assembly, I found that I could not put the 2 pieces of wood together because one dowel hole was slightly more shallow than the others, and this of course after gluing up and inserting all the dowels. Sometimes as the woodworker we may not notice the drill did not go all the way done, OR, more likely, we didn't notice a small chunk of wood from the drilling process was left in the hole and may even by a little bit "wedged" in the hole so will not easily drop out.
For this I developed and super easy to make and very quick to use, adjustable depth gauge for quickly checking EVERY dowel hole before you assemble.
Mine is made from 1/4" ready rod and all is uses are one T-bold, one locking washer and one threaded nut. It is quick and easy to make and very easy to adjust by hand and with the locking washer it holds very well.
Positioning Pins
Again with the accuracy (one of the things I like most about the Dowelmax) if you need to re-drill holes and add holes it is super easy to do. Position the dowelmax over holes already drilled then use the Positioning Pin to lock the dowelmax in to position and re-drill or add holes. This works well most of the time .. Except, when you need to drill a hole -right beside an existing hole- using the 3/8 drill size.
What happens here is the collar is blocked from going the final depth by the knurled top of the positioning pin.
Go through your old drill bits and find an old dull 3/8 drill bit, cut most of the bottom cutting side off, make sure you make it long enough, and now you have a shop made positioning pin with no knurled top that is perfect for those close by drill holes.
Additional Dowelmax Jigs
I have both the jigs below, which are handy, but the depth gauge setting tool is super handy for checking and setting your drill bit dept.
The 45 degree jig makes the most accurate and super strong picture frame sides I have ever worked with.
Spacers and 45 Degree adapeters HERE
The End ...
Colin Knecht
