Woodworker's Journal 1993-17-3, страница 21
In The Shop- Wilh ihe advent of the biscuii joiner, will dowel joinery soon go the way of the dinosaur? Probably not. Sure, biscuii joiners and their little football-shaped wooden biscuits beat dowels hands-down for speed, accuracy and joint sirength. Consequently, many production-oriented woodworkers ynd cabinetmakers have made the switch from dowels to biscuits. Several of the major woodworking catalog suppliers told me thai they've noticed a decline in the sales of birch dowel pins, doweling jigs, and related accessories, which they attribute to I he biscuit joiner. Even so, practically all the major catalog suppliers still carry a variety of doweling jigs and related items, so somebody must be buying them! The plain truth is, if you don't do much joinery that requires biscuits or dowels, it's hard to justify the expense of a biscuit joiner for the few times you might use it. A simple doweling jig and a few good drill bits arc a much cheaper investment (see Chart on page 24 for prices). And. w hile dowels may not have the reinforcing strength of biscuits, they still make a perfectly strong joint, when teamed w ith the proper adhesive. For more on making successful dowel joints, see Doweling Tips on page 25. Why Use A Jig? To make a tight, accurate doweled joint, you must drill straight, perfectly aligned holes in the mating pieces. There's no room for error. While you can accomplish this w ith a simple drill guide and steel dowel centers (sec Stone-Simple Doweling, page 26), a doweling jig enables you to do the job with greater speed and accuracy. While any doweling jig is better than no doweling jig. some are more versatile and easier to use than others. The belter ones command a higher price, of course, but all cost considerably less than a biscuii joiner. How They Work For this article. 1 called in as many doweling jigs as I could find and tried them out. While all of the jigs are designed to do the same thing—drill perfectly straight, aligned holes in mai- May/Junc 1W3 Doweling Jigs Handy Devices for Making Perfect Joints in a Jiffy ing boards—each uses a slightly different approach; that is. no two jigs operate in quite the same way. The Dowl-lt. General 841. and the Wolfcrafl Dowel Master and Dowel Quick jigs are self-centering', thai is, they automatically center ihe holes on the stock. (The self-centering feature is handy because, in niosl cases, you'll want lo center the dowel holes on stock under I in. thick). All of these jigs except the Dowel Quick will also make off-center holes if you place a wood shim between die stock and one of the clamp jaws, although this is a time-consuming process. With most of (he other jigs, you can make on- or off-center holes simply by adjusting the position of ihe drill-guide bushings. Once you've made this initial adjustment. you needn't reset the jig for each board, as long as all boards are the same thickness. The Dowel-Crafter, Kaufman's and Veritas jigs enable you to join boards of unequal thickness with the face side of the joint flush. All of the jigs I tested come with drill-guide bushings for the three most popular dowel sizes: 'A, Via. and -'/» in. A few of them also have standard or optional bushings for larger dowels and By Jim Barrett metric sizes. None of the jigs provide any means for controlling the depth of ihe hole you drill; to do this, you'll need lo attach a depth-stop collar lo the drill bit (or wrap a bit of tape around the bit, as 1 usually do). The follow ing is a brief description of how each jig works and what they'll do. The one you eventually choose depends on what types of joints you want to make and what size stock you'll be using. Some jigs make only two or ihree different types of joints: others are considerably more versatile: The chart on page 24 shows the various types of joints each jig can do. Also consider the minimum and maximum slock thickness each jig will handle, how easy they are lo use, and how many holes they can do without repositioning ihe jig. Arco Model 581 This jig makes edge-to-edge and edge-to-face (corner and T) joints with 5/if>, and in. dowels, and will join boards from Ui in. to 1 in. thick. The jig is noi self-centering and the guide-bushing positions are not adjustable, although it does center dowels on [/i. 5/s, and 3/a in. thick boards (for other sizes, 21 |
