So I've been out of commission for a few weeks and that is because I've been working
on the house. My wife and I have decided it is time to sell and I'm excited,
because the new house will bring a plethora of projects that I would love to share with
you. So far I've got the house painted, both inside and out. I've got the kitchen
cabinets refaced. Now I need to just match up the bathrooms with the kitchen. However,
I think I'm going to take a break from that project for a little while because there is
something else that needs to get done. The reasons are beyond the scope of this video.
However, what is within the scope of this video is that I've decided to use dowels
on that all important project. My only problem with using dowels however is that I don't
have a repeatable system in place for me to get consistant results again and again
So...here you go.
This is a shelf from an old partical board book case, like what you might find for sale
at a big box retailer. The bookcase itself is almost ten years old, we're not going
to take it with us so I'm going to cannibalize the parts and reuse what I can.
This is a scrape piece of pine And this is a piece of 1x3 oak. I'm using
oak to reface the cabinets in the house so I have lots of this stuff.
I'll glue the scrape pine to the underside of the piece I'll be using for the base of the jig.
Then I'll turn my attention to the oak board.
Cut it to roughly the same length as the base. Now this mark I'm making here. Remember
this. It'll come into play later. The mark is the same width as the material that I'll
be cutting dowels into. Take this over to the drill press and drill
the dowel holes. And here I'll show you...nothin but my
arm being in the way, what was I thinking with this camera angle.
Here that's better. Now I'll take that over to the table saw
and rip it in half. The jig will be clamped in my bench vise.
To keep the vise from racking I'm going to place this spacer in first.
Now those two pieces I've kept them together, one will go on the long side and the other
flip 90 degrees. I'll mark the length of the second piece
then cut that at the miter saw. That's better, now well do this again.
90 degrees The two pieces need to be exactly corner to
corner with each other or this will be off. I want to be able to remove these pieces,
especially this top one, as you'll see later. So I'll attach them with dowels.
I'm feeling from underneath the jig when the pin is flush with the bottom.
Then I'll flush cut the tops. Now that can be removed or replaced if I want.
Now the other side. I have a couple pieces of scrap I want to
join with dowels. Mark the two adjoining sides.
Take the first piece, I have to flip this over onto the jig to drill into the right
side. Since I flipped the first piece, I have to
flip the second piece as well or I'm going to be off.
There is my dowel joint and that doesn't look half bad actually.
Now lets say I want a dowel not at the end of two pieces but in the middle of one.
I'll mark one side of the adjoining piece. Remove the top section of the jig.
On my example here I have to transfer the mark to the back side since I had to flip
the first piece I have to flip the second. Remember that mark I pointed out earlier in
the video, it comes into play now. Line up the mark on your piece to the mark
on the jig. If you would like more information about this
or other DIY projects you can visit me at simply easy diy dot com.
You can also find me on Facebook and Pinterest. Until then.