Dowel - biscut or none

I don't use any alignment aide

Bill Tindall, E.TN

>I have never used any alignment aids because I find I can do better without. If I glue one piece at a time I can get joints aligned better than 1/32, and often perfect.

I just fastened some plywood together with biscuits because I worried a butt glue joint would not be sufficient on plywood and my alignment was way worse than I get without biscuits.

Re: Dowel - biscut or none

Frank D. in Montreal

>Doweling or even biscuits are a lot of extra work when you have several panels to glue up. I often use biscuits when it's critical (when I can't spare 1/16" of material to flatten things out). I use cauls at each end when it's important to get pieces aligned and don't want to bother with biscuits, but the pieces all have to be the same thickness, which is not always the case. Otherwise, paying attention when I assemble, untightening the clamps and using my fingers to "pinch" the ends and make the show surface flush before retightening. Well-placed mallet blows (rubber head) are also very helpful to get boards to comply (I always glue up with a mallet at hand). I use PVA glue (Titebond 3 usually), which gives me a little more time than other glues. the biggest problem for me is when angles are slightly off 90 degrees; I have to plane more to get out the humps and dips than to make things flush.

Just my experience.

Re: Dowel - biscut or none *LINK*

Gary Roberts

>Well, I'll through in that both dowels and biscuits are good for the pro shop or the high production shop, but a pain for the home shop or someone doing one-off work. Both dowels and biscuits are good IF your stock is stable and pre-sized. They don't add strength and if too many are used, reduce strength. Plus there is always the danger of telegraphing or splitting if your stock is not in environmental equilibrium. Instead, use enough clamps, cauls and do a little clean up work afterwards. Make sure the stock is in equilibrium to the work area.

All that said, I use dowels when repairing antique furniture when I don't want to mess with the surface. But I have to take great pains to ensure that the bored holes line up and that is a pain.

Just because we can do or use something doesn't mean it's a better way to do it.

Gary


The Toolemera Press

Re: Dowel - biscut or none

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>Hi Bob

I sometimes use dowels to align boards. As Frank notes, this is more critical when there is less thickness to play with, when the boards are not the same thickness (so cauls are difficult to use), or when the boards are long and my assembly bench is shorter.

My old Stanley #59 is extremely accurate...

What doweller are you using?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Dowel - biscut or none

Bob from GB

>The jig I use was purchased locally about 25 years ago. I am not sure of the brand name (not at home now), but very similar to the link below.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=9977

I always preclamp the boards, make the parallel reference line, transpose to the edge - razor thin marks. I always use the jig against the face of each board marked to account for any possible jig deficiencies. There is a machined mark on the side to center on the edges. I use a LED flashlight and sight down the mark with both eyes.

Your method looks a bit better.

Doweling gives me a little comfort that when I walk away, the boards won't move. It seems no matter how much I fuss, nondoweled boards don't come out true and I have a lot of clean up - probably just my lack of experience.

I also find that without dowels, the center of a long glue up is not true no matter how good you deal with it on the ends. Doweling assures this. It's just a lot of work, but so far worth the insurance. I don't think I have been convinced otherwise yet. Perhaps a Stanley 59 would give me even better results to make this a non issue.

Bob in Green Bay - a few flakes of snow today.

Re: Dowel Jig *LINK*

Frank D. in Montreal

>Apparently the best dowel jig out there is the Dowelmax. It makes locating and drilling for dowels as handy and as fast as using biscuits. Really a versatile and well-thought-out jig. THis isn't really OT because you can use it with a brace too.


Dowelmax doweling jig