Replies

1. 
   MikeHennessy | May 24, 2006 08:50pm | #1

   Three ways:

   1: Fabricate a fence and stop setup for your drill press or router table (kind of problematic for anything but applications where you need to dreill LOTS of these since it's tough to line the jig up accurately since you need to get the piece EXACTLY centered under the bit or you end up with a joint mis-match).
   2: Use a good-quality dowling jig (easier since you can almost always register off the same face of the two pieces, but still relies on precisely lining up with a mark manually).
   3: Use dowel points (small metal plugs, with a sharp point sticking out of the center, that go in the first hole then you use the point to mark where hole #2 goes by lining up the pieces and pressing them together).

   That said, a dowel joint is probably the last resort for me. I'd use biscuts, pocket screws or some form of M&T first, depending on the application, with biscuts and pocket screws being the easiest/fastest and M&T being the strongest.

   Mike Hennessy
   Pittsburgh, PA

1. 
   ramblinwreck | May 24, 2006 09:12pm | #2

   good thoughts and thanks.  Gave me some new ideas on how to 'improvise'. 

    

   also found this related article:

    

   http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/ToolGuide/ToolGuidePDF.aspx?id=25259

2. 
   PeteBradley | May 25, 2006 06:43am | #3

   Neanderthals close your ears now. We're gonna talk machining.

   A drill press is not the first tool that I think of for doweling, but you won't regret owning it. As with a lot of machines, you need to be aware of what surfaces you're indexing from and use them consistently. Using your tabletop boards as an example, you could do something like the following:
   1. build yourself a fence that's dead square to the table (which hoopefully is parallel to the spindle) and about the same height as the board width. Clamp the fence to the table so that your brad point drill is about 1/2 the thickness of a board away from the fence. The distance doesn't have to be perfect.
   2. lay the boards down flat on a bench side by side in the orientation that you want to join them in.
   3. "Fold" the two boards together top to top so the joint to be is facing down and clamp them together so the joint edges are perfectly lined up. This would also be a good time to take a pass down both edges at once with a plane
   4. Mark the "bottom" sides of each board. These are the sides facing out.
   5. With the boards still clamped together,use a square to draw a line across both edges wherever you want to put a dowel (so the line is perp to the board edge) If you're going to join more than 2 boards, it would be a good idea to also put matching letters on each edge so you don't confuse the edges.
   6. For each board, put the "top" side facing your fence (you can see your "bottom" mark if it's oriented right) and the edge to be joined facing up.
   7. Carefully line up the drill bit with one of the lines that you drew with the square and bore the hole. Do this for each line.
   8. Repeat the process for the other board, once again being careful to put the "top" side against the fence.

   Note that since you always indexed from the top surface, the boards could even be different thicknesses and the top side would still be a perfect match.

   Pete

1. 
   ramblinwreck | May 25, 2006 04:15pm | #4

   You're right.  I didn't buy it for doweling purposes.  Rather, I bought it, then got in to repairing an old table that my wife's uncle gave her and thought the drill press could help me.

    

   Thanks for the tips.