When I first started making furniture, I was intrigued by the simplicity of dowel joints, but I soon discovered that they have some serious limitations. First, a dowel joint is weak because it depends entirely on a small amount of glued surface, some of it end grain. Second, driving a dowel home can be very difficult because the glue can grab too fast and seize up before the dowel is fully seated.

With its new system, the Miller Dowel Co. has reinvented how a dowel joint is made. Their modified, stepped dowel preserves the simplicity of dowel joinery, without the drawbacks experienced with plain dowel joints. The secret is that it changes in diameter in three equal steps over its length. A specially made stepped drill bit creates a hole through both pieces being joined, to match the shape of the dowels. Because of the steps, the dowel drops by most of its length into the matching hole before there is any resistance, and driving the dowel home takes little effort with a light hammer-blow.

Once seated, because the full-diameter head of the dowel seats before the other portions do, it works just like a screw head, pulling the joint tight. And because of the larger glued surface, you get a stronger joint. In working with these dowels, I found that the glue grabbed and held the dowel solidly as soon as I drove it home, allowing quick assembly for projects. The finished joint resembled a traditional plugged screw hole.

To test the strength of the dowels, I used them to build a large clamp-storage rack made of 2×6 Douglas fir that was still fairly green. The joints in the rack were all butt joints that depended entirely on the dowels for their strength. As the assembled rack dried out in the shop, the wood visibly shrank and cupped, but the joints stayed tight despite the stresses on them. You can buy the dowels in three sizes and several wood species. They come in packs of 25 or 40, or in larger bulk quantities, and you can purchase the bits separately from most woodworking-supply catalogs. Price for starter kit is listed.

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