Thread: are dowels still used

The GMC doweller really works well, better choice than a bikkie joiner.

I've got the doweller & bikkie joiner, so I'm not justifying a tool purchase

Originally Posted by echnidna

The GMC doweller really works well, better choice than a bikkie joiner.

Poor mans Domino?

Originally Posted by zenwood

If you've already got a biscuit joining machine, wouldn't a few biscuits be cheaper than buying a new dowelling jig?

I'll take those sugar bags of dowels off your hands

I have the same jig as zen and will also offer to remove you from the problem of too many dowels and i'll bid $1 under zen's bid or $1 over
I also have a great makita biscuit joiner, both have their applications , with the biscuit joint yes you do have play to align as you will but how good are you at aligning and clamping , with a good dowel jig , and the best in my opinion is the aussie jig you dont need to worry about alignment only clamping.
A lot of talk on the forum is about mortice and tennon, biscuits, dominoes, dovetails, finger joints and very little about dowels.
Mortice and tennons and dovetails if hand cut you need some skills, dominoes you need some money Finger joints take a good jig and are time expensive, biscuits then need some skill for alignment when clamping but dowels with a GOOD jig produce IMO the best results for the least amount of expertise and $ outlayed espically when you have the dowels

Originally Posted by Ashore

Mortice and tennons and dovetails if hand cut you need some skills, dominoes you need some money Finger joints take a good jig and are time expensive, biscuits then need some skill for alignment when clamping but dowels with a GOOD jig produce IMO the best results for the least amount of expertise and $ outlayed

A nice succinct summary of joinery pros and cons. Agree completely.

I use both types & dont have a dowel jig but still like dowle's better ......simple tight strong joints ....have not let me down yet . have also found the 6mm dowle's the best to use.

what size are the bags of dowles ??

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

This makes sense.

For comparison, and other readers' information, I paid $160 for the dowelling machine. My logic is that I buy what I need for a job and consider it fully amortised. At the end of the job generally the machine ends somewhere in the shed, if I ever need it again it is there. In this case it was used only two hours and is still pristine in its original plastic case and cardboard box. It could be put on the shop shelf again. Let's say that we split the cost and the postage in half and you buy it for $90. That means that you have the machine and the consumables for $90 + cost of (n) dowels - sale price of biscuit machine.

The option suggested by zenwood results in cost of biscuit machine + cost of (n) biscuits +/- profit or loss on the sale of (n) dowels.

Your call. You do the maths.

mmm now my head hurts , I hate choices, that's why I got married, I no longer have any choices in life, I just do as I'm told . I need to time to think this through.

I've got a biscuit joiner but don't really like them. I've been thinking for a while that dowells would be better because they offer a tighter fit - or do I mean a more accurate fit?

People suggest using biscuits to help align boards when jointing flat boards. But in my experience, if you can clamp the boards properly, biscuits offer no help. The slight slop in the fit means you can still get your face boards out of alignment, even with biscuits. With dowells, I think would, this would not happen. I haven't tried dowells - just do this job with glue and clamps now. In other places m&t joints are the way to go.

I never used a hand held doweller or a jig but I have used a machine like this a fair amount and I would buy one if it was around at the right price. Nice and quiet and "industrial".

Originally Posted by jaspr

The slight slop in the fit means you can still get your face boards out of alignment, even with biscuits. With dowells, I think would, this would not happen.

The whole key to success is the accuracy of the holes you drill for the dowels. if they are accurate and the correct size then alignment is a shoe-in.
The best way to achieve this accuracy is to use a jig or dedicated machine, for the handy man that doesn't want to fork out for a machine then a jig is the way to go , as I have already said the aussie jig is in my opinion easy to use, accurate and coveres most dowel applications .
If you get the chance watch Des ( the designer) put it through all its paces at a wood show or demo .

Rgds

Usual Disclaimer

Wasn't he on The Inventors with it last week?

Yes he was , obviously only had a short time and only butted two boards, the jig does far more

Originally Posted by Ashore

The best way to achieve this accuracy is to use a jig or dedicated machine, for the handy man that doesn't want to fork out for a machine then a jig is the way to go , as I have already said the aussie jig

That's the way I'm leaning at the moment but I want to be sure as I love buying tools and sometimes, after the purchase, realise that I didn't really need it (but I imagine I'm not on my own on here ).

"doesn't want to fork out for a machine then a jig is the way to go?

That's an interesting comment from wha I have seenm the Ozzie jig is dearer??

Bob K

Yes Bob it is expensive about $220 for a basic 6-8mm jig and $360 for the 6-8mm package but every thing of quality costs , the gifkin dovetail jig total package is now $1000 and a domino system is about $1500 ?
The ozzie jig is a one of cost and will proberly out live us if looked after, so I guess its all relative how much you want to spend and will you use it enough to justify the cost

Originally Posted by notenoughtoys

sorry weisyboy, I paid more then I wanted to for the items I was after and need to offset this by selling off the bits I have no use for. I thought about getting myself a dowelling machine (I had previously seen one like a biscuit machine but they seem scarce now). But then I'm spending more money to save money if you know what I mean?? They may end up on Ebay. I'd imagine they'd be uneconomical to post too far??

Work out the price, and the cost of an express bag, and post it in the buy/sell section of this forum - you might get more takers than you have dowels