Dowels

[Danielb]

What is the best tool to use to drill a hole for dowels?
Don’t have a drill press and can't drill straight lol

 

[Jonzjob]

I just use a lip & spur drill and hold the drill a steady as I can if I can't get it in the press. And to line everything up I have some little top hat type jobbies with a small spike on the under side that drop into the drilled hole. Then just line up the other bit of wood. Tap it on the spikes and drill in the indentations left behind. Easy peasy!!

 

[RogerP]

If you have a mains drill with standard collar these are quite good ...

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-axminster-drill-guide-prod22269/?src=froogle

Or there's this ...

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-axminster-drill-guide-kit-prod21306/?src=froogle

 

[Danielb]

Was thinking about one of them but need it to be perfect.

What a good cheap drill press?

 

[joiner_sim]

I brought a Wolfcraft dowelling jig a few years ago and I think it works great. No need for a drill press at all. If you want to go the machinery route, a specialist dowel drilling machine maybe the way to go. I've used one of the small ones that were about a metre long and wasn't too hard to setup at all.

 

[Richard D]

I have the same problem - can't drill straight to save my life. As I want to use dowels for a couple of projects I have on the go or in mind (where a drill press would still be very unweildy), I've just bought a Joint Genie. Will be interesting to see if it's anything like as good as its own publicity info suggests.

 

[nanscombe]

I brought a Wolfcraft dowelling jig a few years ago and I think it works great...

I also bought a Wolfcraft Dowel Master, from Axminster, a couple of weeks ago and it works nicely.

You can see it in action on YouTube

I also bought a couple of bags of beech dowels whilst I was at it.

 

[Danielb]

I have the same problem - can't drill straight to save my life. As I want to use dowels for a couple of projects I have on the go or in mind (where a drill press would still be very unweildy), I've just bought a Joint Genie. Will be interesting to see if it's anything like as good as its own publicity info suggests.

Looks good that jig, could you let me know what you think of it and if it works?