Questions about dowels

[Brian Eaton]

I'm working on this small shelving unit for my wife's essential oils (or voodoo as I call it)...It is approximately 13" tall by 18" wide with the sides being just shy of 3/4 thick (dimensioned from 1x4 pine) and the shelves just shy of 1/2" thick (dimensioned from .5"x3" stock).

I've done the glue up in three steps - first the three full length shelves, then the half length shelf and vertical support, and still to be done is an arched 3/8 thick piece of wood to go under the top shelf to provide a bit more strength and somewhere to mount the shelf to the wall (I added this after the original idea because I liked the idea of that arch and decided I needed a better way to mount the shelf to the wall.

So far I've enjoyed this project and have used it to learn more techniques - dados, stopped dados, making curves (I used a diy trammel of sorts to draw the curves). I even took some of the advice I was given in a previous thread about getting more consistent results when dimensioning wood and had more success with that this time. My question is...

Considering that the shelves will be pretty light duty (even as many little bottles of essential oils as the shelf will hold won't be that heavy) would dowels be worth it considering the joints are just glued up dados? I think aesthetically they would look nice (maybe two per shelf) but as well as this project has gone so far I hesitate to add them unless it is really necessary. I used draw bore dowel joints on a saw bench I just built and for whatever reason the dowels (1/2") didn't fill the 1/2" holes I drilled (I tried to be very careful but I don't have a drill press so it was done by hand).

Also, is thickness of the shelves too thin for dowels? Last I was at the store I remember seeing 3/16th - not sure if they had 1/8th. Am I guessing that one of those sizes would be appropriate if I were to use dowels?

Your advice would be greatly appreciated!

Test fit:
382949


Glue up part 1:
382950

Glue up part 2:
382951

1

[Patrick Chase]

w.r.t. dowel fit, off-the-shelf dowels tend to run skinny in my experience, while basically every imperfection in your drill bits or drilling will end up making the hole wider. Even with a drill press I find that I often need to undersize the hole by ~1/100" or so (this sort of thing is where a full set of bits with wire gauge and A-Z sizes can come in handy). Sometimes you get lucky and stepping down by 1/64" does the trick.

[Jim Koepke]

If the shelves in my cabinets are wide enough to accept a dowel, they usually get dowels to help strengthen the whole construction.

Most auger bits are made ~1/64" (~0.015") over their listed size. Some bits are made to dowel sizes. So far most of my Jennings pattern Stanley Handyman bits are right on size, ymmv.

My kit must have a half dozen 3/8" and 1/2" bits. When purchasing dowels my first selection is for ones with straight grain and then the fattest ones are chosen. Before use they are measured and then my closest bit is chosen to bore the holes. Most of the time my boring is done after the preliminary glue up of the case and shelves. In the past some of my shelves were held in by screws with a wooden plug glued in over them.

jtk

[Thomas L Carpenter]

When I need to by dowels I drill a hole in some scrap using the bit the dowel needs to fit in and take it to the store with me to make sure the dowels are correctly sized. Fortunately, I have several possible sources for dowels so I can shop around.

[John Gornall]

For small projects I like the Lee Valley micro dowels - 1/8" or 1/12"

[Brian Eaton]

Good idea - thank you!