Horizontal dowel holes on legs?

[Spencer Ofelt]

This forum has been very helpful in my questions and I'm hoping I can find some more help on this question. Ok so I have a Jessem dowel jig which works fine. This was my first project using it. I build a dresser joining my frame with dowels, and then joining the separate frame members to the leg/sides I built. Ok so i had no problem getting my frame together that's easy. What was difficult and I hope there is a better way was when I tried to get the frame to the legs. The jig was terrible for this purpose. So I ended up doing it by eye. I hope everyone understands what I am talking about and can either show me a jig that is made for horizontal drilling or a better mouse trap besides a domino.

Thanks!

[Mike Henderson]

A picture would help quite a bit.

Mike

[John Lankers]

I'm not sure I understand your question, I also have the Jessem jig and as long as I can start from a common reference point (top of leg and top of stretcher/stile?) on the mating pieces I don't run into issues. Would it be possible to post a picture?

[Bruce Wrenn]

For dowel holes like this, I use a plunge router, with guide bushing and up spiral bit. Make a template with holes for guide bushing to fit into out of 1/2" stock.

[Spencer Ofelt]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/webkit-fake-url://685c78f3-17d8-4bcc-977e-94fab3b9a7ce/imagejpeg

[Spencer Ofelt]

Did the picture post? If so you can see the dowels sticking out showing you how I attached the frame to the sides

[Spencer Ofelt]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/webkit-fake-url://76d01b6b-b30e-4087-9cd2-4d6843cec0fe/imagejpeg

[Matt Day]

No pic. Instead of linking from another site try the SMC image uploaded ("manage attachments" button below the reply box), it works quite well.

Regarding the Jessem, i have it (the bigger older paralign) and never had that problem. I attached washers to the sides using the holes for the rods which act as a reference stop.

[George Bokros]

A pic would really help. I am starting a project where some rails will be attached to the sides of a step stool using dowels and I am in the process of figuring out how to make the holes in the sides align with the holes in the rails.

[Jerry Wright]

Don't forget dowel centering pin inserts. They make quick work of accurately positioning where matching dowel holes are placed.

[Matt Day]

Don't forget to check out Bill Huber's posts about the Jessem jig, lots of great ideas.

[Spencer Ofelt]

it just says failed to upload every time so never mind I suppose. Thanks for the responses.

[Mike Henderson]

it just says failed to upload every time so never mind I suppose. Thanks for the responses.

Your picture is probably too big. Scale it down to maybe 1000 across and see if that will upload.

Mike

[Spencer Ofelt]

Thanks Mike!

Ok so in the picture the dowels are sticking out of the sides and the frame has two holes on all corners. The part that I found so annoyingly difficult was drilling the holes into the sides. I know you are supposed to be able to do it with the jessem, but it wasnt nearly as accurate as the other applications.

[Glenn de Souza]

Hi,
I have the Jessem jig and will try to help. If I understand your issue properly, you are having trouble drilling the holes accurately in the sides. I presume the inaccuracy is in the holes being the in the same plane (i.e. the same distance from the top, or bottom if you will). I am thinking you are taking the jig apart and using it the way the Jessem recommends for face drilling as in you might do in the sides of a case to join a fixed shelf.

This is not the way I would do your holes. In your case, I would register the jig against the face of your dresser using a wood spacer to located it the distance you need from the top to the centerline of the hole. So imagine the spacer flush with the top of your carcase on the one side and flush with the edge of the jig on the other. Set the jig offset to drill your first hole where you want it, let's say 3/4" or maybe 1", then without unclamping the jig from the frame, loosen the knob and make the offset deeper to match where you want your second hole in line. I think the jig will go up to 3" deep which looks to be enough for your project. This ability to change the offset without moving the jig is one of the clever features of the Jessem jig design. Do the same procedure from the back for the back corners, using the same spacer(s). You would need to cut four spacers for the four frames. These spacers are merely strips of wood representing each of the four heights. The only difference would be the top frame where it is so close to the top, I would register the jig from the top, not the face.

For the mating holes in the frames, I would drill them all using the same offsetting technique, but locating them all at the centerline of the thickness of the frame, registering from the face and the back of the frame. The registration fence on the jig has a centerline mark you can use to line up to a centerline mark you can make on your frame.

I hope I've understood your issue correctly, and I hope my explanation makes sense. It feels like it is much more difficult to explain in a post than to show in person. Bottom line, I am confident the jig will do what you want accurately and quite easily.

By the way, if I'm right and you were using the jig in a face drilling mode on the dresser case, even then it should work so long as you keep the jig square and use spacers for consistency like I've tried to describe above.

[Joe A Faulkner]

So is the problem that you have already glued some of the sub assemblies together such as the the web frame component is glued togeher and side panels are also together and how you need to drill the holes into the end grain of stretcher of the web frame running from side to side and cannot easily register off the face of the stretcher for proper offset and also can't use the jig on the side panel? If so, then I suppose one option moving forward is to not glue anything together until you've completed a dry fit of the entire piece. It may be I'm not understanding the problem.

I don't own the Jessem jig, but in similar situations in an effort to increase accuracy I've made "just in time" jigs. Get a piece of scrap that is wide enough to be a template for the hole(s) you want to drill. Note what edge of the scrap you want to register off of. Mark centering lines for your holes around the scrap, drill the hole(s). Nail or screw a piece of 1/4" scrap on to the registering edge to make a fence, mark center lines on your piece. Clamp the jig to the piece lining up the centering marks on the jig with the centering marks on your piece. This is not going to be as accurate as using a jig with metal sleeves to guide the drill but for me its an improvement over free hand drilling.

[Jim Dwight]

I make dressers like that from Woodsmith plans. I'm working from memory but I am confident the joints are not dowels. Dowels alone seem a bit weak for this. A shallow dado would help align the horizontal frames to support the drawers. Glue alone in the dados would secure them but it could be more convenient to put a screw in too as a clamp for the joint. My favorite way to cut this type of dado these days is using my track saw track and a router. But you could do it on a table saw.