Wednesday 15 April 2015

Dowel Joint

Dowel joints are very strong and attractive if they are, like all other joints constructive well. Dowel is also very useful for greatly increasing the strength of weaker woodwork joints such as the butt joint.


This type of joint is secured with an adhesive and a small piece of dowel. Construction also requires nothing more than a drill and some accurate markings.

To achieve perfect markings a special measuring tool can be used to measure the position of the holes for the dowel to be inserted.

The tool is called a dowel centre and they are placed in a predrilled hole to create an accurate mark on the other piece of timber where the next hole will be drilled.

The dowel joint is assembled the same way you would screw a regular joint together only pieces of dowel are glued and inserted into holes instead of screws. By using pieces of dowel over screws the joint becomes much stronger and can be turned into an appealing feature.

Step 1: You need to calculate the size of dowel suitable and then mark where you are going to make the joint.

You can either mark the position of the joint and where to drill the holes with a ruler or you can drill a hole in one piece of timber and use a dowel jig to mark the second piece and this should be a very accurate method if done correctly.

Step 2: The next step is drilling the holes for the dowel but remember to only drill as far as you need to fit your dowel and to use a drill bit the same size as the dowel.

You can drill the holes with a cordless drill or a pedestal drill but the pedestal drill is more accurate so it is usually the best option.

Step 3: Now insert the dowel into one of the pieces of timber and insert the other piece on the other end of the dowel. Bond the joint together with a strong glue and clamps can be used but are not usually needed depending on the size if the timber.

Tip: You can drill a hole all the way through one of the pieces of timber and insert longer dowel but using this method will mean that the dowel will be visible in the back of one of the pieces of timber.


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