Dowelmax

[Prashun Patel]

Impulse Gloat: OMG, I just bought a Dowelmax. If someone had told me 3 years ago that I'd spend that kind of $$ on a dowling jig, I'd have thought they're crazy. Any tips for use? Looking for some validation on my purchase ;)

[Ray Schafer]

There have been several threads on the Dowlemax. Here is one.
http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=80707
I am a real believer.

[Jim Summers]

I really like mine. Accurate and flexible.

Enjoy!

[Art Mulder]

Tips?

I just watched the demo video on the website and started building stuff.

Nothing to it. It does exactly what the advertising claims. Very well designed jig.

enjoy.
...art

[Tom Esh]

Great tool. You won't be sorry. My tip would be to always check the hardware is snug before use. The only less than perfect joint I've had was when I failed to notice one of the thumbnuts had loosened.

[Ray Schafer]

I noticed a couple of times that I almost lined up the edge to the wrong surface. I now always make sure that I check to make sure that I am aligning to the main block and not one of the attachments.

Tomorrow morning I am going to make a block with the correct settings for the drill stops. I have found that it gets confusing when you are doing two different drill depths. I once drilled through a piece when I lost track of what I was doing.

This weekend I am going to build a desk using my dowelmax -- should be fun!

[Chris Padilla]

Uh, pics? No pics, you donta got one! ;) haha

[Mike Robbins]

I've been using the beadlock drill guide as a doweling jig, and for the $20 I paid for it, it seems to work ok.I use a lot of dowel joints for simple furnature that I've built for the office and around the house. Stuff seems to line up as well as my wood is square.

What are the advantages of the dowelmax other than the intergal clamp and the ability to drill 5 holes in a row instead of just 3?

[Brian Penning]

Just finished making some raised panel cupboard doors with it -amazing!!
Stile to rail joints are perfectly flush and all done so quickly!

[Ray Schafer]

The advantage is the accuracy. I have tired the beadlock and was not satisfied with the ease with which I could misalign the parts. With the Dowelmax, it is hard to get a misalignment (IMO).

[Brent Smith]

Expensive, but one of the best bangs for your buck in woodworking tools. Once you get comfortable with it you can knock off joints at an almost production pace. The only ways to foul up are as mentioned, lose hardware or not matching your pieces correctly. I've found that when drilling a lot of holes, spraying the bushings and bit with DriCote really increases efficiency.

[Bill Huber]

You will love it, I have had mine about a year and its one of those tools I just don't think I could do without.

I would get an extra drill and stop, very nice to have when drilling on the face of one board and end of the other.

I also scribed a line on each end for the center so when you are doing holes in the middle of a board.

I added some 400 grit sandpaper to the bottom of the one plate so it won't slip when using it with a clamp.

I would also say get the 1/4 inch set of bushings and bite, I use it more then I thought I would.

It is a great tool.....

[mreza Salav]

I know it's a great super accurate tool. Easy to use and everybody loves it.
But I can't wrap my head around the price tag: asking over $400 (the basic kit+ 1/4" optional guides which most likely you'll need to get too) is just too expensive IMHO and it's holding some people (including myself) from buying one.
So, for some hobbyist like me who might be using it once or twice every year, it may not be worth it.

[Clifford Mescher]

I think it would attract the same people who were looking at buying a Domino. Clifford

[Robby Tacheny]

I have the $50 Dowel It! Jig (with 3" capacity) and have been very happy with its accuracy and build quality. They make it up to 6" capacity. The downside is that it will only center dowels on the boards width. To do it off center you have to have either add an extra piece to offset the center, or whip up your own "short term use" jig.

If anyone one is interested in a lower cost alternative, here is the link.

http://www.dowel-it.com (http://www.dowel-it.com/)

*I am not trying to hijack the thread or downplay the tool. I just found a cheaper alternative that I have never seen mentioned and wanted to share.

-R

[Carroll Courtney]

I purchase the dowelmax about a yr ago.I told myself (before purchase) that for once in my life I want to buy new,and buy quality.At 300.00, this was my chance and to me a roll of the dice. Well IMHO,I hit doubles and have no regrats.I spent along time looking for a used one on ebay and CL,s and not finding nothing, which speaks for itself.This is one tool that makes me look like I know what I'm doing:D I started out using the Sears doweling jig,then to Dowel It,now to Dowelmax.Like some,300.00 is a big coin,but I save up some of my OT money and went for it.When I get tired of WWing,I don't think I will have a problem selling it for at least 75% of cost 10yrs from now.Check out my pics building Norms Tall Case Clock using the Dowelmax jigs in my post from yesterday.Sweeeet!

[Ray Schafer]

I am sure that the dowel-it is a fine tool. I don't like the idea of centered dowels. working on a fixed distance from the side makes it very easy to align the sides that I want to match ... even if my parts are not sized exactly.

[Prashun Patel]

My DM arrived yesterday. I cannot believe how easy this thing is.
I'm still feeling a lot of guilt for the $300 that I paid for it. Here's what I like:

1) Easy to align and clamp. The integral clamps don't mar the piece, and are cleverly usually oriented on the 'back side' of the piece.
2) If using the indexing pin, you really don't even have to clamp down that hard; it stays in place with the pin
3) Although the instrucs advise clamping the piece to a bench when drilling, it worked fine for me just holding the piece over the garbage by hand.
4) Perfect alignment. I mean, perfect.
5) Short learning curve. Once you learn how to orient pieces (2 minutes) it's intuitive and quick.
6) Ability to offset joints (vs. having to self-center).

Between this and pocket screws, I wonder if I'll ever try my hand at M&T joints...

It'd be nice if the jig had an integral clamp and vac chute ala Kreg's pscrew jig, but for a hobbyist like me, this thing really seems to be a shortcut to professional/strong joints.

At $300, I don't think this thing does anything you can't do with cheaper jigs & fixtures, but the extra $$ is worth the saved time.

[Mike McCann]

Shawn

I agree 100% with on the dowelmax. I really enjoy mine and as you said I just use it over a garbage can and all dust falls right in.

mike

[Ryan Eldridge]

I ordered a dowelmax on Friday so hopefully it will be here in a day or two. After reading some of the posts on this forum and then looking at other doweling jigs I decided that I just wanted to buy something once instead of going the hard route.

Hopefully it is as great as everyone says it is.

[Steven DeMars]

Not sure, but would there be a problem using it with Chinese Plywood . . . 23/32" for example or anything else that was not standard to match the spacers . . .

I assume I am missing something in how it works . . actually hoping I am missing something so I can justify a DOWELMAX. I just don't want something that will leave me doing work arounds for odd size materials . . .

Steve.

[Tom Esh]

Not sure, but would there be a problem using it with Chinese Plywood . . . 23/32" for example or anything else that was not standard to match the spacers . . .Steve.

It comes with some 1/16 shim washers, or you can use your own of whatever thickness as long as they're reasonably flat and close tolerance (basic hardware store variety usually are not). However since DM uses edge reference, aligning it dead center on the stock really isn't necessary

[Ryan Eldridge]

I went home to have some BBQ at lunch and low and behold there was my new dowelmax, it was like torture getting to open it up but not getting to take it out to the shop to play with it. I hope I have some time to watch the DVD tonight and then maybe drill some holes. It is a nice looking chunk of metal and after looking at the quick instructions on the website again looks pretty quick to get started with.

[Prashun Patel]

I went home to have some BBQ at lunch and low and behold there was my new dowelmax, it was like torture getting to open it up but not getting to take it out to the shop to play with it. I hope I have some time to watch the DVD tonight and then maybe drill some holes. It is a nice looking chunk of metal and after looking at the quick instructions on the website again looks pretty quick to get started with.

Here here! I was fondling those knobs all the way home last nite! Oops, did I say that?!:o

[Chris Padilla]

Ahem...let's keep it clean, Folks.... ;)

:D

[Jeff Skory]

I'm in the process of building a hall table where the aprons fit into the legs using mortise and tenon joints. I have tried these in the past just on practice pieces but was never successful.

So I spent a couple of hours building a tenon jig for my table saw and made one out of some 3/4" scrap. I then used my drill press with a 1/4" forstner bit to make the mortise and cleaned it up a bit with a chisel. All textbook stuff, right. :rolleyes:

Well, let's just say that it didn't work out real well. The mortise tended to drift a little bit and the boards did not line up very nicely.

I did a lot of research over the last two nights looking for alternatives to the M & T joint, spent quite a bit of time looking at biscuit joiners and then ran across this metal gizmo called a DowelMax.

$300+ for a hunk of metal with holes in it!! :eek:

But the more I read the more impressed I became. I've watched the videos and read more comments. With this tool I just might be able to actually make a decent piece of furniture.

So after telling me wife that I was thinking of ordering this expensive tool (I didn't tell her it was just a hunk of metal - I'm not a complete idiot) she told me to quit thinking about it and just order it.

So I did. :D

Now I just have to sit back and wait for it to arrive.

Thanks for all the great threads regarding this product. I'm counting on it to live up to its hype.

Jeff

[Myk Rian]

I have the $50 Dowel It! Jig (with 3" capacity) and have been very happy with its accuracy and build quality. They make it up to 6" capacity. The downside is that it will only center dowels on the boards width. To do it off center you have to have either add an extra piece to offset the center, or whip up your own "short term use" jig.
Let's dig up an older post.
I have the Dowl-it. You can offset it by loosening the screw in the back and turning the thread to how much offset you want. Tighten the screw and you're good to go.

Now, to Jeff's post.
I'm doing some M&T stuff right now also. Building a base for my thickness planer out of 1.5 X 3.25 cedar stock. The wood was jointed and planed today and now I'm just getting the mortise and tenon tools set up for the job.

[Michael Wildt]

Hi,

Beginner question;

Dowelmax sure do look like a nice tool. Well made as well. However, what is the benefit from this type of joinery versus a Domino (festool) joint (besides price of the tool of course).

Thanks,
Michael

[Prashun Patel]

In practice, none. Some tests show that dowels produce the strongest joints besides M&T, but some say loose tenon joinery of Domino is just as strong.

After using DMax for a couple months, my assessment is that it's great because of one thing: The alignment is virtually flawless; something hard (but not impossible) to achieve with other doweling jigs. It also allows you to do offset joints easily, (which is also possible to do with other djigs with some shimming).

The only downside of the DMax vis-a-vis a biscuit joiner or Domino is that you need to chuck the drill bit, clamp the jig, then drill. The two other tools are 'quicker', because you just align and 'fire'. Also, when doweling long panels, you have to use an indexing pin - which is perfectly accurate, but slower than using the other tools which just reference on quickly drawn hashmarks across the joint. I suppose you COULD use hash marks to align the dmax, but I haven't tried it.

Of course, the BEST thing about it is how it feels in your hand. This thing is the Ben Wa Ball of jigs.

[Chris Padilla]

Disclaimer: I own a Festool Domino and vacuum (and many more Festool items). I do not own any doweling jigs.

I think the Domino or the dowel is a fine joint to use and either one is strong enough for 99% of the joints one is likely to encounter or want to use.

Dowels used to be difficult because they had to be dead nuts on or your joint wouldn't line up well or go together at all. DM (as well as some other jigs) has this solved. The Domino can cut a wider mortise than the floating tenon to allow some sideways movement. You simply move the dial on the machine and it cuts a slightly wider mortise.

About the only other thing I can think of to give a nod to the Domino is dust collection assuming you have it connected to a vacuum. Sucks the shavings right up, clean as a whistle.

Otherwise, you'll have many more dollars (about 4x) into a complete Domino system over DM, for example.

[Michael Wildt]

Thanks for the explanation. One thing I have noticed is that there is difference between the types (dowel/domino/biscuit) when it gets to 'swelling' when glue (moisture) is applied.

- domino, no swelling
- biscuit, swelling

How do dowels behave ?

Thanks,
Michael

[Prashun Patel]

All of the dowels, biscuits and dominos are designed to swell once you glue them. That helps create a tighter joint.

[Chris Padilla]

Shawn,

Actually, dominos are designed to NOT swell. They are not compressed which is why they fit very, very snug into their mortise. In fact, I often swipe my domino tenons on some 80-grit a couple times so they are a tad looser. Often, if you insert a domino into its mortise dry, it can be VERY difficult to get the sucker back out.

[Prashun Patel]

Shawn,

Actually, dominos are designed to NOT swell.

My bad. Thought all wood swelled with water in the glue.

[Chris Padilla]

Shawn,

Yes, it does, of course, but then once the water leaves, it shrinks back. With biscuits, they are compressed so that they do swell but when they shrink back, they are larger than before swelling due to being compressed initially.

If you look at a domino floating tenon, it is just a chunk of birch (I think), usually quarter-sawn to rift-saw, with some markings on it. They have mahogany dominos as well. Saying that dominos are "designed to NOT swell" was a poor phrase to choose. My bad there.

Are dowels compressed or can one get compressed dowels? I think all my dowels are simply cut from dry wood so they will swell initially and they dry out just like wood normally does.

[Rick Potter]

Is it possible to use the dowel max for mortising, by overlaping holes then cleaning them out for a loose tenon? Kinda like a Beadlock, except you clean them out to be smooth.

Just curious.

Rick Potter

[Chuck Tringo]

Dowels can either be compressed or not...Dowelmax and Rockler are two that I know of that sell compressed dowels...about 80% of the dowels I use are compressed and I plan to buy all under 2 inches that way. I've found a place online, California dowel I believe, that sells longer dowels, up to 3 inches that are not compressed. I will use them for longer applications unless I find conpressed dowels in that length.

[Brian W Evans]

Is it possible to use the dowel max for mortising, by overlaping holes then cleaning them out for a loose tenon? Kinda like a Beadlock, except you clean them out to be smooth.



You can use the DM to create a bead-lock like mortise, but you'd have to drill some holes, shift it, and then drill some more. I don't think I'd like to use it like that. Try the MortisePal (http://www.mortisepal.com/). It's very well made and easy to use. A spiral router bit makes MUCH quicker work of clearing out a mortise than a drill bit and there's less to clean up with a chisel. In fact, I just round the ends of the tenon rather than squaring the mortise.