(05-27-2020, 01:34 PM)FS7 Wrote: Interesting idea. I had thought about this, but as an initial construction idea. Mine look like this, but the dowels are only glued to the counterbore and sanded flush while the screws do the holding.
Do you use a hand drill or some sort of jig to drill for the dowels? I am not sure I could drill a straight enough hole for that.
When I do doweled drawers I just butt glue the joints first. After the glue dries I drill the holes on my drill press, then glue in the dowels. Trim with a flush cut saw and sand smooth. It's a very nice look with contrasting dowels (at least to me), strong, and simple and fast to do.
05-27-2020, 02:32 PM (This post was last modified: 05-27-2020, 02:34 PM by Cooler.)
(05-27-2020, 01:34 PM)FS7 Wrote: Interesting idea. I had thought about this, but as an initial construction idea. Mine look like this, but the dowels are only glued to the counterbore and sanded flush while the screws do the holding.
Do you use a hand drill or some sort of jig to drill for the dowels? I am not sure I could drill a straight enough hole for that.
For through drilling you only need to drill perpendicular. There is no alignment issues like blind dowels have.
I have a jig but it is not suited to narrow items like a drawer front.
I use a drilling guide that I bought from Amazon.com. (If you have a good eye and are confident that you can drill straight you can just use an electric dill and no jig).
I just draw a line and drill the holes. A a pilot hole for the screw. Back it out. And then I use a drill guide. It comes with 6 different size bushings and costs $17.00.
(05-27-2020, 02:08 PM)jteneyck Wrote: When I do doweled drawers I just butt glue the joints first. After the glue dries I drill the holes on my drill press, then glue in the dowels. Trim with a flush cut saw and sand smooth. It's a very nice look with contrasting dowels (at least to me), strong, and simple and fast to do.
John
I only use the screws so I can assemble more boxes at a time. They take the place of clamps. If I am just doing one box, I would skip the screws also and just glue and clamp and then add the dowels afterwards.
If I am assembling melamine clad panels, where the glue will not hold, then I would have to use screws first.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
I always make my carcase before I make my drawers. Then I dry fit the drawers and check fit with the carcase before I commit to glue-up. For shop drawers, I use a locking rabbet joint. One time, for fun, I used pocket hole screws (which work fine, but the screws can't interfere with the drawer slides). I've never had a drawer joint fail using those methods. I hate dowels. I don't have a fancy doweling jig, and that makes alignment difficult.
(05-27-2020, 04:49 PM)AHill Wrote: I always make my carcase before I make my drawers. Then I dry fit the drawers and check fit with the carcase before I commit to glue-up. For shop drawers, I use a locking rabbet joint. One time, for fun, I used pocket hole screws (which work fine, but the screws can't interfere with the drawer slides). I've never had a drawer joint fail using those methods. I hate dowels. I don't have a fancy doweling jig, and that makes alignment difficult.
There is no alignment to deal with on through dowels. You drill through the assembled carcass and then insert the dowels. It looks better than pocket screws, or through screws and makes a very strong joint. It is faster and easier than other joints.
If you have a lot of drawers to make then two dovetail fixtures and a dedicated router solves that issue. One fixture is set for the tails and one setup for the pins. The router remains setup all the time.
Then any time you want to make a drawer you only have to cut the pieces and start your router. Very fast.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
(05-27-2020, 02:32 PM)Cooler Wrote: For through drilling you only need to drill perpendicular. There is no alignment issues like blind dowels have.
I have a jig but it is not suited to narrow items like a drawer front.
I use a drilling guide that I bought from Amazon.com. (If you have a good eye and are confident that you can drill straight you can just use an electric dill and no jig).
I just draw a line and drill the holes. A a pilot hole for the screw. Back it out. And then I use a drill guide. It comes with 6 different size bushings and costs $17.00.
Home Depot also sells bushings I bought three for about $3.00 each. I made my own drill guide, but the commercial one is easier to use.
I have a similar jig. It works pretty well for smaller things. It came with bushings and I have matching brad point bits. I'd like to use Forstner bits for the initial clean cut but they don't work well for that. Honestly though a dab of glue around the dowel when sanding and any tearout is usually taken care of.
I was thinking drill press but I couldn't see a good way to get the whole box on there, at least not after construction. It would be pretty simple though to drill the first dowel holes before assembly and then use those as a guide.
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