Does such a jig exist?
July 16, 2009 5:50 PM Subscribe
Is there such a thing as a face-mounted doweling jig?
I'm trying to make a hidden dowel joint. The only problem is, though the gluing surface is totally flat, no other surface is at all regular. Imagine you had two halves of a football (made of solid wood, of course), and wanted to join them with a dowel inside. You need the dowel to be perfectly perpendicular to the work surface, otherwise the football will not go back together smoothly. But you have nothing to clamp to.
I'm thinking I need something like a steel plate (with small holes for screws and a large hole for the drill bit) fitted with a perpendicular steel tube to guide the drill bit. Does such a thing exist? Not at woodcraft. Somewhere else? Should I just drill a perpendicular hole in a piece of wood and make a (less long-lasting) version? Is there another way to do this?
Sculpturefilter?
I'm trying to make a hidden dowel joint. The only problem is, though the gluing surface is totally flat, no other surface is at all regular. Imagine you had two halves of a football (made of solid wood, of course), and wanted to join them with a dowel inside. You need the dowel to be perfectly perpendicular to the work surface, otherwise the football will not go back together smoothly. But you have nothing to clamp to.
I'm thinking I need something like a steel plate (with small holes for screws and a large hole for the drill bit) fitted with a perpendicular steel tube to guide the drill bit. Does such a thing exist? Not at woodcraft. Somewhere else? Should I just drill a perpendicular hole in a piece of wood and make a (less long-lasting) version? Is there another way to do this?
Sculpturefilter?
Another time you need something like that perfectly upright is when starting a tap in a hole. Machinists often just use a block of metal with a hole through it. The hole has to be perpendicular to the face of course. This is easy for a machinist to make using a mill, a lathe, or even a carefully set-up drill press. I'm a bit at a loss as to how you can make it without any of those tools though. Do you have a friendly home shop machinist nearby? I think the jig you describe is a good idea. The little holes for wood screws to hold it on are a nice touch. Where are you?
posted by fritley at 6:55 PM on July 16, 2009
posted by fritley at 6:55 PM on July 16, 2009
Oh hey, the profile tells me that - sorry. Not very near me unfortunately.
posted by fritley at 6:56 PM on July 16, 2009
posted by fritley at 6:56 PM on July 16, 2009
When I've done that for small projects, I've just gone with the perpendicular hole through a thick block of wood method. Looks to me like hydrophonic's drill guide is the Right Thing, though.
posted by flabdablet at 7:28 PM on July 16, 2009
posted by flabdablet at 7:28 PM on July 16, 2009
You can roll your own jig with a flat piece of wood and hardened inserts. If you use centre points you don't have to worry about referencing the holes to an edge. Or if your shape is always the same you could make your jig a tight fit on the face of the object.
PS: you don't have to order these from Lee Valley; any decent woodworking store will have them in stock.
posted by Mitheral at 8:17 PM on July 16, 2009
PS: you don't have to order these from Lee Valley; any decent woodworking store will have them in stock.
posted by Mitheral at 8:17 PM on July 16, 2009
I didn't see all those negative reviews (flimsy, cheap plastic, hard to get square) on Amazon when I linked to the drill guide above. The brand we use at work is an Accudrill. I've only used it once, and it was decent. I'd drill a test piece to check the calibration.
Mitheral inserts are less expensive, though.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:46 PM on July 17, 2009
Mitheral inserts are less expensive, though.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:46 PM on July 17, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by hydrophonic at 5:52 PM on July 16, 2009