Dowelmax Box Layout

[Ron Dunn]

I want to build a box to hold my Dowelmax bits and pieces, but I can't decide the best internal layout.

Has anyone else built such a box? If so, could you please share your design?

[Art Mulder]

Mine just arrived and I had the same thought!!

Anyone?

[Bill Huber]

Here is one from a post awhile back by Cary Swoveland.

Last post on this page.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=74540&highlight=dowelmax&page=3

[Glenn Clabo]

This is Cary Swovelands...I'm going steal some of his ideas.

[Matt P]

nice box - can you show "how to," Cary?


This is Cary Swovelands...I'm going steal some of his ideas.

[Dave MacArthur]

For the price of a Dowelmax, it should come with such a box, at least a good plastic one like that.

[Jim Lindsay]

The attached pictures are of a storage case by John And Colin of JM Woodworks in Vancouver, two of our earliest and dearest customers. The custom knobs are reportedly for "repetitive arthritic reduction".

Mike Lindsay.

[Jim Lindsay]

Here's a simpler one. I'm not sure whose this is.

ML.

[Brian Penning]

Dowelmax really should supply a case. Even a molded plastic one like the Kreg pocket hole kit would be good.

[J. Z. Guest]

Dowelmax really should supply a case. Even a molded plastic one like the Kreg pocket hole kit would be good.

SSSHHHH! Or they'll include it and mark up the price!

Better would be to include a plan for a case.

It would be SWEET if Jim designed it, and posted it here for DM's biggest fans. (which would be us)

[J. Z. Guest]

It would be SWEET if Jim designed it, and posted it here for DM's biggest fans. (which would be us)

...OR, he could host a competition for designing one.

We would design the cases, bulid them, and send them to him with drawings and whatnot.

The winner would get his choice of a free 1/4" upgrade kit or 1000 free dowels in the size of his choice. (and he'd get his DM case back, hehehe)

[Art Mulder]

Good idea, Jeremy, but incomplete... ;)

They need to sponsor *THREE* competitions.

1) design a case, as you suggested

But some of us don't want a case, we want to put it in a drawer, so I'd add:

2) design a layout/box/tray that fits in a shallow drawer -- make everything as flat as possible.
3) ditto, but for a tall drawer, stand the jig on end, and so on, going tall takes up less horizontal space.

Hmmm,
...art

[Art Mulder]

Hey folks,
thanks to the inspirations from this thread, I bashed together my FIRST dowelmax box/tray last night and it was quite a bit of fun.

I say "FIRST" on purpose. I treated this as "sketching" in three dimensions. I figure I'll use it for a while and then figure out what changes I might want to make to fine tune things.

At first I was just going to bash it together out of scrap plywood, but I decided that I might as well make use of some of my smaller too-big-to-throw-out bits of hardwood from the scrap bin. So I grabbed some cherry and quickly planed it down to 1/2" in thickness and went from there. The sides are 3" tall.
84469

I started with some 1/4" Baltic Birch cut to 13-1/2" by 13-1/2" and went from there. Dado's are pretty easy to cut in the sides with a couple runs through the TS with the blade lowered, so the bottom is hidden by the sides.

The jig itself sits in a compartment inn the lower/left corner. Right of that is a divider with holes in it for the allen key and the 3/8" index pin. Further right, the spacers rest on some 1/4 square strips towards the lower/right section. This leaves some space under them where I have stuffed a few of the smaller bits in a plastic bag (like the 1/16" thick washer spacers, and the 1/4" spacer plat + screws) so they don't get lost. Finally comes the Angle bracket in the lower/right corner - it's just sitting there, not in a groove or some other fitted arrangement.

In the upper/left is a block with 5 holes in it to hold the 1/4" drill guides. Above that, the distance gauge sits in a pair of notches. Beside it are the two drill bits.
I'm not really happy with the drill bits just sitting there loose. I may make some notched wood to cradle them, as I did for the distance gauge.

Finally, in the upper/right there is a large open area to hold some bags of dowels. I could leave the instruction manual there also, but I have that filed away. We'll see if I want it more handy than that.

There is no lid, I made this as a tray to sit on a shelf in a cabinet.

And that's it. In hindsight I could have made it quite a bit smaller -- that open area for the dowels is quite large. But it works for now.

The worst aspect of this box is that I did NOT build it with the dowelmax... :eek: Nope, just glue (and glue drips) and brads. It was a quick-n-dirty project. But I still think I'll wipe on some BLO to make the cherry look nice... ;)

[J. Z. Guest]

Art: AWESOME job. I think it is just the right size, at it allows some room for expansion or a goodly stock of dowels. (some folks talk of using up to 400 dowels for a project...)

It is the best knock-together I've seen.

I'd change two things when I do mine:

1) Make a lid of some sort

2) Arrange something so the drill bits aren't clinking around

However, I like yours the best so far. I may use yours as a starting point for mine. My wife doesn't want me to stop work on our nightstands to build a DM case, so mine's going to have to wait. Being honest with myself, it probably won't turn out as nicely as yours.

Another option, though I hate to admit it, would be to get one of those aluminum boxes that Home Depot sells with the removable cubes of foam. That would be portable, would provide impact protection, and wouldn't take time away from my "real" projects. I would almost be ashamed to do that after opening my mouth like I did a few posts back. :o

[Brian Penning]

;)What? You didn't use pocket holes to make it??

[Art Mulder]

;)What? You didn't use pocket holes to make it??

Nope. Biscuits neither.

(I have done projects with pocket holes in 1/2" thick stock, and it's not the ideal. 3/4" is really the thinnest I think you should use -- the problem is that the screw heads project just a smidgen from the sides in 1/2" stock.)

Jeremy, glad you like it, but I'm a bit bewildered, I didn't think it was anything that special. I do think it was a bit easier to put together than some of the previous ones. I'll post a photo here if/when I put in some drill bit holders.

[Cary Swoveland]

nice box - can you show "how to," Cary?

I was about to do that when I saw Art Mulder's box (below in thread), which I think is a better design. One piece of advice for anyone making such a box: leave room for the future addition of shop-made spacers, jigs, etc.

Cary

[Art Mulder]

Here, guys, looks better now with BLO on it. Also, I addressed the issue of the drill bit storage. Even put in some extra holes for other drill bits.
84499 84500

One thing still missing, is any sort of a drill bit depth-setting gauge. I'll see if/when I fabricate one of those.

And just for fun, here is an annotated image...
84501

ttfn
...art

[Bryan Berguson]

Very nice Art! I like the design.

I think when I build mine, I'll use dovetails on the corners. The Dowelmax is built to last so the box should be too! :)

[Douglas Krueger]

After receiving the package from Jim (10 days to Thailand) and becoming familiar with my new dMAX, I decided that this is a tool worthy of its own storage unit.

The box is made from solid rosewood except for the drawer box, the support base for the doweling storage boxes and the teakwood inlays. The dowel boxes are designed to be taken to the project and are removable. As in all my 'shop' projects I tried some new techniques; in this case it was the teak inlays and the green wood coloring, both of which turned out better than expected.

The end was result was a nice new home for dMAX although it did force me to stop procrastinating and do some reorganizing of my 'too small' shop just to have an accessable place to put the new box.

After a couple of projects I have found the dMAX to be even more virsatile that advertised as it can be also be used 'freehand' if care is taken and the basic rule of using the same reference points from start the first hole to the last.

The complete set of pics can be found here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diggrduggr/




http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3269/2405914448_aa053911e8.jpg?v=0


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2405137119_f949d94ffb.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3018/2405970344_03bef025dd.jpg?v=0


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2153/2405971814_b4386b83d4.jpg?v=0

[Ron Dunn]

Douglas, that is a beautiful piece of work.

I'm fascinated to imagine what you'd come up with if designing something for your living room!

[Bill Huber]

After receiving the package from Jim (10 days to Thailand) and becoming familiar with my new dMAX, I decided that this is a tool worthy of its own storage unit.

The box is made from solid rosewood except for the drawer box, the support base for the doweling storage boxes and the teakwood inlays. The dowel boxes are designed to be taken to the project and are removable. As in all my 'shop' projects I tried some new techniques; in this case it was the teak inlays and the green wood coloring, both of which turned out better than expected.

The end was result was a nice new home for dMAX although it did force me to stop procrastinating and do some reorganizing of my 'too small' shop just to have an accessable place to put the new box.

After a couple of projects I have found the dMAX to be even more virsatile that advertised as it can be also be used 'freehand' if care is taken and the basic rule of using the same reference points from start the first hole to the last.

The complete set of pics can be found here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/diggrduggr/


Now that is a box that a Dowelmax should be prod to stay in. I do have one question.
How did you connect the sides to the legs? :D

[Bruce Benjamin]

Now that is a box that a Dowelmax should be prod to stay in. I do have one question.
How did you connect the sides to the legs? :D

Obviously he either used the Kreg pocket hole jig or a domino. ;)

Bruce

[Cary Swoveland]

Wow! That's gorgeous, Douglas. I had planned to throw together a box for my chain saw, lube, cleaner, extra chains, etc. Now I'm thinking of a more elegant design, using some zebrawood and macassar ebony I've been saving for something special.

I presume the legs are teak. Is that the natural color, or did you dye the teak greenish? It looks like the inlay goes only half way across the top. Is that correct? One small thing: I would prefer brass hinges. The ones you have go well with the Dowelmax itself, but so would brass, and I think brass would look better with both the rosewood and teak.

Cary

[Art Mulder]

Looks nice, (now there is an understatement), but I think the dowels should be kept sealed in a ziploc.

[Douglas Krueger]

Wow! That's gorgeous, Douglas. I had planned to throw together a box for my chain saw, lube, cleaner, extra chains, etc. Now I'm thinking of a more elegant design, using some zebrawood and macassar ebony I've been saving for something special.

I presume the legs are teak. Is that the natural color, or did you dye the teak greenish? It looks like the inlay goes only half way across the top. Is that correct? One small thing: I would prefer brass hinges. The ones you have go well with the Dowelmax itself, but so would brass, and I think brass would look better with both the rosewood and teak.

Cary

Agree with you that brass would be a better fit with the color scheme but these hinges were free and hanging around the shop doing nothing so................

There are 2 strips of teak in the lids, a lighter band at the outer edge that are full length across the lid (the contrast is not there and hindsight says that I should have stained them a darker color)and the half length green strips up to the lid openers. The legs are rosewood and dyed green the same as the 2 short teak inlays and the lid pulls.

[Douglas Krueger]

Douglas, that is a beautiful piece of work.

I'm fascinated to imagine what you'd come up with if designing something for your living room!


Ron,

Long story but after 20+ years of being away from the wood hobby, the death of my father who was an avid woodworker rekindled a desire to get back into it again. This was my first project after getting a shop put together with adaquate tools.

It is solid teak with a teak handcut latticework back (no I did not do the lattice cutting, it was available on the local market for 20 bucks). The rest of the pics are on my Flickr site if you want to see the progress photos.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/diggrduggr/


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2099/2420011175_8def9c196d.jpg?v=0

[Douglas Krueger]

Looks nice, (now there is an understatement), but I think the dowels should be kept sealed in a ziploc.


Art,

Is there a trade secret regarding the dowels? to date I have had no problems with the dowels being outside the bags. These are Dmax dowels and they insert nicely with no issues. I always dry fit my pieces and then remove all dowels for glue application.

[Douglas Krueger]

Thanks for all the nice compliments, other than the self gratification of the finished project, this is about the only other venue to share our efforts. SC seems to be a great group of down to earth people sharing woodworking experiences and you have made me feel welcome.

Now back to the shop.....................

[Ron Dunn]

Douglas, it looks like you are still in Thailand ... what is it like working wood in that humidity?

[Art Mulder]

Art,

Is there a trade secret regarding the dowels? to date I have had no problems with the dowels being outside the bags. These are Dmax dowels and they insert nicely with no issues. I always dry fit my pieces and then remove all dowels for glue application.

The dowels are compressed, so I would treat them like biscuits and keep them sealed. Don't think that is a trade secret... but I also don't know that they say anything about that in the manual either.

[Douglas Krueger]

Douglas, it looks like you are still in Thailand ... what is it like working wood in that humidity?

Hi Ron,

Yes I am still in Thailand as that is where the paycheck is. As far as humidity problems, I grew up in northern WI where the humidity gets to 80-90% in the summer so this place is not near that bad. It is no more of a problem than shipping wood products from the more humid areas of the US to the dryer climates as it is the climate changes that raises havoc.

The biggest problem here is that the Thai's tend to sell wood much too green and I have learned to plan ahead and get enough stock to give it time to dry out before working it.

A wood moisture meter would be a good item to have over here and I plan to pick one up on my next journey back across the pond.