Flexible and accurate dowel work.

I’m quite enamored of dowels as joinery, especially in cabinet construction. Fast, accurate and plenty strong enough if used with good technique, tooling and materials, they also allow me flexibility in appearance of the finished case without too much fuss.

However, I do not own a doweling jig. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a Dowel Max, but with all its accessories to be more costly than the price of a used motorcycle, well, no thanks. Besides, all doweling jigs are somewhat limited in their scope. Using bushings I can do anything they can, albeit somewhat slower because of the setup time. As hobbyists though, we have a fair bit of free time.

Having said that, once you’re set it is faster than any commercial jig, especially when doing multiples.

In use:
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Cabinet end frame

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Cabinet bottom

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Short apron for cabinet stand

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At work, setting up to drill for a mitred & doweled joint in a 20” wide solid wood credenza.

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A tip if using them for bi-directional drilling. Tighten the insert into the bushing with two pairs of pliers, for any binding of the drill working from the opposite side, or even reversing to clear the muff will cause the insert to unwind.

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I use 3/4” MDF for my jig pieces as it allows accuracy without splitting when the bushings are driven in (I usually use a clamp or a vise to be sure of a perpendicular alignment). When a row of bushings is needed close to an edge they are inserted in a much wider piece (to avoid bulging and breakage) and then the strip is trimmed on the saw

When extreme angular accuracy is required you may double up the bushings inline on a thicker piece of wood. Holding a drill exactly square in both directions takes some practice.
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Lee Valley markets these bushings primarily for hardware installations and they are great for those things as well. They are probably available from many other sources though I haven’t checked.
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A full range of sizes.

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Up close and personal with my 3/8” favourite.

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Reasonably priced and well made in usa, by non outsourced usan’s.
So six stars for the high quality and low price sweet spot.

gene

-- gene@toronto.ontario.canada : dovetail free since '53, critiques always welcome.