Popular Woodworking 2006-02 № 153, страница 59

to more efficiently hide the plug.

Another visible option that crosses the wood/metal fastener concept is a dowel. While dowels have been used as fasteners for many years, there is a product on the market now that uses a stepped dowel designed to be used essential like a nail. By building the look of the dowel head into your design you can save time, build a solid joint and add a decorative element to your project.

To use these dowels you simply clamp the pieces to be joined in their final

The best use of nails is an invisible application. For a complicated chest of drawers (as shown at left) the drawer dividers can be tricky. Rather than use complicated joinery, a well-placed (meaning hidden) nail is driven at an angle through the vertical divider and up into the web frame divider. This angled nailing is called toenailing and works with or without pneumatic tools (but it's hard to swing a hammer in this tight a space).

position, adding glue if required. Next, a stepped drill bit (see below) is used to drill through both pieces of the project. Glue is added to the stepped dowel and then it is tapped into place with a hammer. The stepped design of the dowel is slightly larger than the diameter of the hole and the dowel compresses into the space making a tight fit.

It's still a good idea to leave the clamps on the piece long enough to give the glue time to set up, but once that's done the dowel is cut flush to the surface and lightly sanded.

While the old joints are still very effective, we continue to devise new and useful methods to improve and simplify the process. PW

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Miller dowels can be used as accents to your piece, or the dowels' wood species can be matched to the project's to hide this useful joinery option.

Popular Woodworking