I have been subcontracted out a job, by the guy I work for. Since I don’t have a morise machine and we are on a limited time frame, he wants me to use a dowel jig to put the face frames together. Problem is, one, there are no instructions to use this thing and two he’s out of the country and can’t give me advice. It’s a small jig, looks like a “U” and the side has the different sizes of dowels on it. Am I correct in assuming that you just line it up with the edge of the board and drill? And then register the other end the same way? I’m probably not being very clear but not sure where else to turn. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Robin
Replies
Most doweling jigs are self centering, meaning that the dowel bushing will stay in the center of the work piece you clamp it to. There are also alignment marks that correspond to the center of the various bushings. You mark your work for the position that you want the dowels placed, generally two are used at each intersection, align the jig, clamp it and drill. There are often variations in actual size between the drill and the dowel. Run some samples to make sure you have a good fitting combination. Rather than using straight dowels, many use dowel pins. These are manufactured with grooves of some type and are often compressed. The grooves allow better glue distribution and eliminate the hydrostatic action of a plain dowel with the glue. You can get dowel pins at HD made by Wolfcraft(?). I prefer FF biscuits for most face frame work but you need a biscuit machine that will cut the smaller slots. There are size limitations in the face frame material but it is so much faster than dowels. Some like pocket holes like the Kreg jig does, but I don't.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
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