Popular Woodworking 2007-10 № 164, страница 17
Lie^Nielsen TOOLWORKS*1-800-327-2520 www. lie-nielsen. com P.O. Box 9 • Warren, ME 04864 I'm I m Small Shoulder Plane CIRCLE #129 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD. We walk the talk. 1 Mr^ Hand tools for the serious woodworker 800.426.4613 - 27 W. 20th St., #507 New York City wmr.toolsfomortingwood.c. CIRCLE #145 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD. Over 4000 fine hardware essentials 315-PAGE COLOR CATALOG $5.00 1-307-739-9478 whitechapel-ltd.com CIRCLE #149 ON FREE INFORMATION CARD. Tricks of the Trade CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 8 Better Shop-made Dowels I have to admit that I'm not very fond of dowel joinery. I've repaired too many old dowel joints over the years to trust them. Part of the problem is that a dowel hole in face grain offers only about 50 percent long-grain-to-long-grain contact, which a strong joint requires. The remaining long-grain-to-end-grain contact provides only minimal strength. Dowel joints can also be fussy to align, even with a jig. As a result, I don't use dowels often enough to justify buying quantities of pre-cut, grooved, chamfered dowels. When necessary, I just make my own dowels from long hardware-store stock, which I like to keep on hand for a number of general shop applications. When making dowels for j oinery, I groove them on the table saw to create escape passages for air and glue during insertion. To prevent cutting a groove that's as wide as the saw teeth (which minimizes the glue surface on the dowel), I tilt the blade to 45° and raise it to cut only about 1/32" deep into the dowel. A zero-clearance throat plate prevents the dowel from sinking into the wide opening on a stock plate. I make the cut for a new zero-clearance insert using the 8"-diameter blade from my stack dado set because a 10"-diameter blade, when set in the lowest position, prohibits proper seating of the insert into the throat. For efficiency and control, I cut the grooves on lengths of dowel that approximately match the length of the sole on my shoe-style push stick. Afterward, I cut the individual dowels to length, then chamfer the ends for easy insertion. A quick way to chamfer the ends is to lightly chuck a dowel into a drill and touch it to a belt or disk sander, with the two tools rotating against each other. — Paul Anthony, PW contributor Tilted blade creates small V-groove END VIEW QF grooved dowel Weak end-grain contact at top and bottom Strong long-grain contact on sides Shoe-style push stick Dowel 20 ■ Popular Woodworking October 2007 |
