Draw bore technique in action.

Re: Draw bore Part 2

John Clifford

>Here's a picture of the draw bore pin I made about a month ago. I followed Chris Schwarz's recipe in woodworking magazine. It was easy but I'd make the handle shorter than the 6 3/4 he recommends. At least for the smaller of the two. This size handle works well for the larger pin.

Re: Draw bore Part 3

John Clifford

>Just one more shot of the draw bore pin. I made both the large and the small sizes. The one I used in this project was obviously the smaller of the two.

Wow John, This post is realy...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Borning...;^) Just kidding.

Nice looking drift pins, you did a great job on them.

Hmmm one more thing on the to do list for me...

Dowel Plate

Brad in Ottawa

>Have you used your LN Dowel Plate yet?

I am debating making my own dowel plate or buying the LN version. Any input you could provide would be appreciated.

What wood are you going to use for your dowels?

BTW, nice job on the Drawbore Pin!

Brad

Re: Dowel Plate

John Clifford

>Brad, I just used it today. Very easy to use. The dowel plate worked fine but the dowels came out funny looking. Not nearly as smooth as if I had bought dowel stock and some of the dowels came out crooked. Hard to describe I'll post a picture later if I get a chance. The wood I used was red oak, don't know if that made a difference or not. Chris Schwarz recommends white oak. The size though of the finished dowels was dead on. Hope that helps.

Re: Dowel Plate

Ted Shuck, Centennial, CO

>I have found that the dowels I make using a dowel plate will follow the grain of the input material. If you want straight dowels out, you have to put straight grain in. Any little bends will show up in the final dowel. The roughness is tearout of the grain. If the grain is not straight and continous end-to-end, you will get some tearout.

If you have riven stock to use for making your dowels, that's ideal. If , like me, you don't, it helps to saw the stock with the grain and whittle or plane it close to the size of the finished dowel before hammering through the plate.

Regards,

Ted

Re: Draw bore Part 2

Paul M. in San Diego

>Hi John,

Could you please post which specific issue of woodworking magazine you referenced for this? I searched my pile last night, but did not find this article.

And for the novice draw-borer such as myself... Would taking a worn-out phillips screwdriver to the grinder accomplish the same end capability?

I'm not John but... *LINK*

Brad in Ottawa

>Check out the latest edition of Woodworking Magazine on the stands now.

Check out the link below for the current issue and be sure to check out the Weblog link. Christopher Schwarz has a lot more information in the Blog on drawboring and other topics featured in the magazine.

You will even see that John did an excellent job making his pin.

As for the use of a screwdriver instead of a pin I could not answer that. I will say the pin's are pretty easy and cheap to pick up, even brand spanking new!

Brad


WoodWorking Magazine

Re: I'm not John but...

Paul M. in San Diego

>Thanks Brad,

I'll look for this issue around town to see if I can find it. Then I'll decide for myself if the phillips screwdriver would be a good starting point. ;-)

-- Paul M.

Re: Draw bore Part 2

John Clifford

>Paul I'm a novice myself. In fact I only have eight draw bored mortises and tenons under my belt (all on the art easel I'm building for my daughter). They were VERY easy to do and in fact I glued them up and put them together yesterday, no clamps. They are all rock solid - I'M A BELIEVER. Now for the draw bore pin, an old screw driver would probably wore ok but it would really help to have the taper of a real draw bore pin. You should make one, they're easy and fun to make. I made two of different sizes in a little over an hour. Chris Schwarz describes the process in full detail in his article in woodworking magazine. He even gives you the item # for the drift pins that you can buy at sears for about six bucks. Money well spent. In Chris' blog he does mention using something else instead of his draw bore pin and it worked fine. I don't recall what it was though, maybe a screw driver. Anyway, let me know how the screw driver works or if you end up making a draw bore pin yourself. Have fun with it. John.

A couple reasons pins help

Christopher Schwarz

>Peter,

It's true that you don't need a drawbore pin to drawbore. Before I made a set I didn't use pins either. But I do like to use the pins for a couple reasons:

1. They allow me to test-fit the shoulders of the tenon against the mortised piece. Insert the pin, check your fit, trim the shoulder, repeat. This is especially useful for chair work when you're dealing with curved shoulders.

2. They slightly deform the holes, clearing a path for the peg. This allows me to use slightly greater offsets (I can use up to 1/8" in large scale work) should I choose. It also allows me a bit more of a guarantee that the peg won't catch on the far mortise wall. And that's disaster when you have thin componentry.

I'm not saying your approach isn't valid; just explaining a bit about mine.

Chris