Thread: doweling jig

Not sure if there is any set rule of thumb on this, I just space them evenly over the length of timber I am using.

Hi Mart1896,

There is no golden rule for dowel spacings. The function of the dowels is to accurately register the boards in the one plane when they are being cramped up after gluing. Prior to this the board edges should be straightened and squared accurately. If you do the timber preparation job well and bore the dowel holes with a quality jig and quality bit held in a drill operated by a quality operator then you should expect to have the panel at a standard where you can remove the glue squeeze out with one swipe of a very sharp Stanley 80 scraper followed by sanding with 150 grit.

I place a dowel ( actually I use domino loose tenons but same difference) at 50 mm from the finished panel end and in between I usually place at about 250mm intervals depending on panel length. I don't regard the fastener as having any strength adding characteristic: it's there to register the boards and stop them waltzing around during cramping. You should be able to clean up your panel with a single pass each side through a panel sander: that's an out of true limit of +/- 0.3mm. That's quite achievable if you set out to make it happen. Good Luck Old pete

thanks for the advice as you can see i a complete newbie to woodwork