Dowel Jigs

A dowel jig is a very useful tool for creating strong joints.  Dowel joinery is one of the best ways to join boards, but can present challenges in accuracy.  A dowel jig can solve these problems for you by letting you drill a perfectly aligned dowel hole in a variety of wood pieces.  It positions the hole and keeps the bit straight as you drill. There is a wide variety of styles of dowel jigs available.  Most will allow you to clamp your pieces to be joined together and hold the work securely without damaging the wood.  The drill guide centers are hardened steel and are precision drilled for accuracy.

There are different considerations to keep in mind when selecting the right dowel jig for your needs.  There is a self-centering doweling jig that automatically centers itself so that it puts a dowel in the very center of the stock.  An adjustable doweling jig gives you more options about where the guide holes or bushings will be positioned across the thickness of the work piece. Jigs should have the capacity to accept at least 2 inch stock.  The drill hole guides are made for drill bits sized ¼, 5/16, 3/8, and ½.  Some dowel jigs have interchangeable bushings that can be used to guide the drill bit.  This involves adjusting a wing nut in order to find the center of the hole, and aligning the piece.  Some of these adjustable dowel jigs have a rotating turret to select the correct size hole.  Most dowel jigs provide stops for different depths.

You can make a jig to create the dowels themselves, or buy them already made.  Dowels that are purchased are usually chamfered at the ends for easy insertion, and they have small grooves to allow room for glue to come out of the holes. To make a jig for creating your own dowels, cut a ¼ inch slot ¼ inch deep across the sled that holds dowels from ¼ to 7/18 in diameter.  Then attach a 1x2 clamping fence to the sled and clamp it to the miter gauge so that the right-hand edge of the sled and the saw blade equals the length of the dowel you need.  As you can see, a dowel jig is a handy device to have around the home or even professional woodshop or workshop, and can save you a lot of time and hassle.