MT vs doweling

[chris spierings]

Hi,
I working on a project that uses some MT's . It's a small bedside table.

I don't have the required router bits to do the mortice and my tablesaw doesn't have a daddo blade. I could do the MT the old fashioned way but I was wondering on you opinions on just using dowels in place the the MT, it seems a lot less pain for the same end result.

Just out of curiosity, I noticed a distinct lack of dowels in most plans I have seen in the internet. Any reason for this.

Thanks.

[Dean]

Dowels would be fine for that project I would imagine.
They don't seem to be used as much these days. Probably because they are percieved as being more time consuming or difficult to get right.

There are a couple good doweling jigs out there that help though.

[chris spierings]

Thanks Dean, I'll use dowels instead.

[silentC]

Hi Chris,

I think the reason dowels have fallen from favour is that they are actually quite difficult to align properly, especially when joining different sized sections. There are a few other options available these days that people find easier to use and that last longer, eg. biscuits.

Also, they have a tendency to fail after a while because the dowels are prone to shrinking which can break the join. Eventually you may end up with loose joints, even though the item may not actually fall apart. I had some old dining chairs that had been put together with dowels and even though all of the dowels were loose, we still used to sit on them.

For a bedside table, as Dean says they'll probably be fine.

[chris spierings]

This is the plan I'm using. I think a dowel will be OK. I'll be using biscuit joins for everything else anyway.
http://popularmechanics.com/home_improvement/furniture/2002/11/bedside_table/index.phtml

I'm a bit curious about dowels coming loose. Is it a common problem?

[Dean]

I think if you use a good glue and some of those fluted dowels, you will be fine. An item like that takes a much different load than a chair might. Chairs tend to be subjected to shearing forces which wreak havoc on joints.