Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Krenov Case: Dowels vs M&T
bill tindall
>Just returned from class with David Finck (that's Finck of the plane book fame), former Krenov student, and I have learned a number of reasons to prefer the dowels. It's like Wiley told me, "don't lightly dismiss what Krenov did, for you may find that there is a very good reason that may at first not be obvious". (well, that's more or less what Wiley said)
I'm blitzed. I'll post a discussion of reasons on Monday as well as a review of the class.
Re: Krenov Case: Dowels vs M&T *LINK*
MikeW
>Hi Bill, I posted the following down in the old thread, but it was pretty much done by that time. Here it is again:
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Being the dissenting type, I would suggest that dowel construction works just fine.
The link goes to a client progress album for a display cabinet. I moved relevant photos into a new folder.
Some will want to point out that it was bad enough that I used dowel construction, but did so with a cross-grain situation. I have an answer for that in this situation, but do not really think it relevant for now.
The cabinet top and bottom utilize 21 dowels each around the 3 sides. This cabinet's construction mirrors several I have done, though only two others have the same cross-grain dowel issue. They are 6 and 9 years old, respectively.
The now 3 display cabinets of which this is one are made to sit in front of a window--another cause of alarm, I'm sure, due to the direct sun, etc. The other two have "weathered" this condition just fine.
To be honest, the first two were made before I even knew who Mr. Krenov even was. I have since learned his main method of constructing cross-grain cabinets such as these, and it is a better way, especially depending on the specie of wood chosen. (Do the math concerning wood movement before railing, eh? Quarter-sawn Bubinga on the 3, 8.5" from outside first dowel to outside last dowel on the sides.)
Without going into details, a few years ago I was at a very low point in my life and it looked like I would not work in my shop again. I had a different style, but still cross-grain, dowel constructed cabinet in the house. It had been completed two years before for a client that flaked out on paying the last portion of the commission. In a weak moment, I took a 5 lb. dead blow to the cabinet. It really took a long time to, uh, disassemble it.
The next day I took the cabinet out to the burn pile and it sat there through two days of off and on rain (hey, this is Oregon). That's when I got curious enough to retrieve a few pieces and examined them. Other than shearing some of the dowels, the top and bottom pieces cracked in several places, some at a dowel point, others between two dowels. I used the bandsaw to cut into the dowel holes and took a chisel to the dowels themselves. They were holding just fine.
I use a variety of construction methods. Dowels are one of them.
YMMV.
Mike
21 Dowel Salute