What do you all use for dowel guides?

It doesn’t handle thicker woods, but this is my favorite tool for that.

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

My Stanley Dowelling Jig. Nothing better IMHO.

Cheers!

-- Dave; Lansing, Kansas

I’ve used one like this for 20years. I think they can be found much cheaper though.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

I thought about one of those Don, but the holes I need to drill on on a corner so I need something hand held or that I can clamp on, even though a clamp gets in the way of at least one hole making it twice the job it should be.

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

That is why I like the jig I posted Russ. It clamps both boards at the same time and misalignment in tricky places is virtually impossible.

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

If you need flush corners in 3/4” stock for cabinets
and things like that, the jigs like the Jessem and the
Dowelmax are good investments.

I have the Jessem and while it is kind of slow going
compared to biscuits or pocket screws, the
flush corner tolerances are way tighter.

Lots of jigs can do a decent job with frames but
cannot do carcase joinery well.

David, here is the application I need it for and why I don’t think it’s the right one.

I need a jig that can get me three dowels into the corner coming from the front or the side.

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

Loren, Ideally I’d love to see a corner clamp that has doweling jigs built in. Wouldn’t that be a cool thing?

-- Failure does not stop me, it makes me try harder..... because I'm crazy.

Why not just make a custom block out of scrap hardwood?

Drill it out straight on a drill press. Then add a fence for the appropriate setback. Clamp it on with bar or pipe clamps.

Cheers!

-- Dave; Lansing, Kansas

The guide can be used for 90 degree joints as well as T joints. It is pretty versatile.

-- There is little that is simple when it comes to making a simple box.

Make a jig from any wood, even a 2×4. Drill the holes in a drill press. size will be to accomodate hardened steel drill bushings for the drill size you want to use. http://www.mcmaster.com/#cadinlnord/8492a242/=klvox0

Russel- I have used Firehouse’s method and it works great!

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

Are you trying to put dowels in to an existing piece from
the outside?

Doweling frames is one thing, but doweling panels
is a different application.

If you want to dowel with flush corners within .5mm tolerances
for casework, you are not going to get it by going with
a cheap solution. The Jessem is pretty good and the
build of the jig is very robust.

I may not know something though…. perhaps there is a
decent sub-$100 doweling jig that can make flush
joints in carcase corners I don’t know about.

You say you can wait until after the glue dries and then put dowels in from the outside – so why couldn’t you just drill through the face of one panel into the edge of the other, apply glue to the hole and the dowel, and drive it in – no jig necessary? You’d only need something to make sure the drill goes in squarely. Or am I not understanding?

-- My broker promised me he would treat my money as if it were his own. Trouble is, he did.

This is where only $ increases performance. The cheap dowel jigs work but the expensive ones do so much better and at places where the cheap ones won’t fit.

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings