Dowelmax vs. Self Centering Doweling Jigs

[Luis Oliveira]

Hi all, I saw a thread for dowelmax vs domino.
but for some of us that can not afford then can anyone share your experience with woodcraft Premium Doweling Jig?
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=782&mode=details#tabs
at 59.99.


How does it compare with dowelmax?

Thanks

[Phil Thien]

Gladly. I have the premium model that I purchased using a 25% off coupon (I think) some time ago, so about $44. I purchased two extra sets of bushings on sale (one when I found it on the returns/specials table).

I had previously owned (for probably twenty years) a model identical to the Woodcraft "economy" version (made by another vendor) and was very happy with it. However, I never used it for real fine doweling. I mostly used it for things like making workbenches.

A few complaints about these designs: (1) A little hard to tighten enough for them to stay put w/o making it kinda difficult to loosen. They would be nicer with a longer handle so you could get more leverage. I have put the self-stick non-slip stair tread tape on the faces so I don't have to tighten mine so much, but still.

[NOTE: I once saw a neat readers tip to some magazine that had a great wooden handle you could add to this type of design to provide more leverage--if anyone has a copy I'd love to see it].

(2) The center drill guide can wiggle a little. Out at the edges it can move probably 1/64" or maybe a little less. You wouldn't think 1/64" is much, but when you're trying to align dowel holes, it may as well be off by a mile.

(3) Not much allowance for doing "T" style joints. Great for drilling dowel holes in the edges of wood, though.

I've often thought of making my own poor-man's DowelIt jig by using the center drilling guide from one of these self-centering doweling jigs. I'd disassemble the jig and make some fences using some Baltic birch. I could make some spacers of various thicknesses and hold the assembly together with carriage bolts and wing nuts.

The upside of doing this is I could make fences I could use on flat surfaces for making "T" joints. It would allow for quite a bit of flexibility.

[Matt Meiser]

Since I started the other thread...The biggest difference is that the Dowelmax references off the front of your workpieces instead of being centered. If there are any thickness variations this would put all of the difference in the back. It also lets you do things like put a row of dowels so that one workpiece will be exactly 1/8" offset from the other using a 1/8" spacer, like you would do on a table apron. The Dowelmax also has the ability to do what they call tee joints where dowels need to go in the middle of the piece. Other than that I can tell you more about it when it arrives next week.