Dowelmax purchase may have to wait.

[Floyd Cox]

Dowelmax


I was ready to buy the Dowelmax until I ran across a new doweling jig from JessEm (For half the price) I saw on a Canadian forum.

http://www.jessem.com/DOWELING_JIG.html

I think I will wait and see if they put out a video on its use. It was scheduled to be released in February.
It will probably be farmed out to China and doesn't look as well made as the Dowelmax.

I have waited this long to make the Dowelmax purchase, I guess waiting a little longer wont hurt to be able to save about $250.00 being that JessEm also includes the 1/4" guides as well as the 3/8".

[John Michaels]

I bought my Dowelmax back in January and couldn't be happier. The Jessem does look good, but my gut feeling is it won't have the precision of the Dowelmax.

[richard poitras]

Dowelmax.....

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks for the info.
The dowel max is a great tool by all who own it. But for the $$$ it's not worth it TO ME. I would not use it enough to justify the expense.
This jig at a MSRP of $149 ( Sale of $99 possible???) may be worth a place in my shop. But only if it works.
Keep us up to date if you get one.

[Clint Schlosser]

I own a Dowelmax and I have been happy with it. It seems some of the basic concepts are in place with the jessem model. The one thing I do not like about the Dowelmax are the threaded studs just above where you tighten. I always come away from a project with sore hands.

[Steve Roxberg]

I bought my Dowelmax back in January and couldn't be happier. The Jessem does look good, but my gut feeling is it won't have the precision of the Dowelmax.

Why would it not have the precision of a Dowelmax?

Doweling isn't that complicated. You need to have a reliable reference from two faces, and guides to ensure that the holes are then spaced identically. The new Jessem looks to have all those features.

[Phil Thien]

That thing looks outstanding. I can see several advantages over the DowelMax.

[Bill Huber]

Looks like a really good tool for the money. Now would I trade my DowelMax for it, from the looks of it I don't think I would. Yes it is much cheaper and it does come with the 1/4" bushings but.....

With the DowelMax both ends are the same so.
When say doing a face frame or a panel you can just slide it from one end to the other and you will get the registration on both ends no matter how thick the wood is.

The DowelMax has a really nice indexing rod that is great for long boards.

With this one I could see a problem when making a panel, you would have to pull the reference pin off to make holes in the center of a long board.

The DowelMax has 5 holes where this one only has 3 and I like the 5 because I can skip the first one and still have 4 holes for dowels.

It is also nice to have the 5 holes when you are spacing out the holes and use the pin that comes with the DowelMax.

I don't like the rods sticking out, that looks like something that could get bent when it is dropped and I have dropped the DowelMax before.

I think a lot would depend on how much doweling you do, I do a lot and I use the DowelMax for all of them, I never dreamed how much I would use it when I got it. I could use M&T but for what I have done so far I like the dowels, they are fast and strong.

[John Michaels]

Why would it not have the precision of a Dowelmax?

Doweling isn't that complicated. You need to have a reliable reference from two faces, and guides to ensure that the holes are then spaced identically. The new Jessem looks to have all those features.

The Dowelmax is machined to .001 if I recall correctly. I've used several cheaper doweling jigs and they don't work that great. The dowels end up being positioned close but not perfect sometimes. Spent 3 hours once tweaking a table base to get the dowels to line up so I could dry fit the table together. Moving from cheap doweling jigs to the Dowelmax was like upgrading from a cheap contractor table saw to a Powermatic cabinet saw. The Jessem might work fine, but until I read some great reviews or tried it out I'd be somewhat skeptical. Then again it could be a great jig for a decent price.

[Phil Thien]

Looks like a really good tool for the money. Now would I trade my DowelMax for it, from the looks of it I don't think I would. Yes it is much cheaper and it does come with the 1/4" bushings but.....

With the DowelMax both ends are the same so.
When say doing a face frame or a panel you can just slide it from one end to the other and you will get the registration on both ends no matter how thick the wood is.

I may be missing something, but I think the JessEm is four holes equally spaced. I think you could perform the same side-to-side operation w/ the JessEm and get eight holes instead of the Dowel Max ten.


The DowelMax has a really nice indexing rod that is great for long boards.

With this one I could see a problem when making a panel, you would have to pull the reference pin off to make holes in the center of a long board.

How does the indexing rod on a DowelMax work any differently? Are you just saying the DowelMax rod is longer than the JessEm?


The DowelMax has 5 holes where this one only has 3 and I like the 5 because I can skip the first one and still have 4 holes for dowels.

It is also nice to have the 5 holes when you are spacing out the holes and use the pin that comes with the DowelMax.

I don't like the rods sticking out, that looks like something that could get bent when it is dropped and I have dropped the DowelMax before.


The JessEm sample joints show three holes, but the jig looks to have four holes.

And the rods sticking out appear to be the indexing rod, I would imagine that is removable.


I think a lot would depend on how much doweling you do, I do a lot and I use the DowelMax for all of them, I never dreamed how much I would use it when I got it. I could use M&T but for what I have done so far I like the dowels, they are fast and strong.

I do a boatload of doweling with lots of different jigs.

I think the JessEm has one neat feature that some have overlooked.

And that is the adjustable fence that allows you to create offset joints w/o having to screw around with adding spacers.

I'll get one and test it out and post the results here, just as soon as they're available.

[Phil Thien]

The Dowelmax is machined to .001 if I recall correctly.

.001" isn't required for doweling. And yet, if they're using CNC machinery, I'd imagine the JessEm would be better than .001"

[Charles Green]

I am a huge Dowelmax lover but I don't think we can make any opinions of the Jessem until it is out and some people on the forums have used it.

I would not trust it because of my personal problems with my sliding table from them. I love it but it took several months for them to make it right so it would be a tough sell to make me buy anything from them again. When you have bad quality control and customer service you lose my business pretty fast.
Why can't Lee Valley make/sell everything?

[John Nielsen]

The JessEm jig is being redesigned. The owner decided to change the design to have 5 holes. They will probably have them available for sale in a few weeks and will run $199.

[James Manning]

Get a joint genie........:)

[Tri Hoang]

A little friendly competition is healthy for the market...Dowelmax, SuperFMT, Domino, and now Jessem jig - I like choices.

[Brian Penning]

The JessEm jig is being redesigned. The owner decided to change the design to have 5 holes. They will probably have them available for sale in a few weeks and will run $199.

Darn! They musta read Bill's critique...:D