In my one-man cabinet shop I used a doweling jig to drill holes for dowel joints in cabinet door frames and the like. Although I found this procedure too slow, when I went shopping for horizontal boring machines I found them too expensive. Basing my design on a few sketches I made on my shopping trip, I built the machine shown above for about $260, which included $120 of machine shop expense.

The machine consists of two opposed 4×6 steel angle iron sections bridged by two 3/4-in.-dia. steel shaft-stock rails. Boring is accomplished by a 1/2-HP, 1725-RPM motor that slides down the rails on pillow blocks. The sliding action is provided by a low-tech (but effective) pulley, cable and foot-pedal arrangement. A strong coil spring attached to the back of the motor base pulls the motor back out of the hole when the foot-pedal is released. The work table is adjustable vertically, as shown in the sketch, to accommodate different stock thicknesses.

Since the rails must be perfectly parallel I had a machine shop drill the critical rail holes in the angle iron pieces. The machine shop also threaded the rail ends and reworked the motor shaft to accept a chuck.

Hjardar Bruun, Ferndale, Wash.

Fine Woodworking Magazine, February 1986 No. 56

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