Wolfcraft Doweling Jig

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You only have to look at Mercedes & Vw to realise that, but still companies choose German sounding names to impart quality. Black and decker must be owned by someone bigger or is that just a name and not the original B&D.
was once told that black and decker went drastically down in quality when the colour turned orange, which seems to play out from my experience

I know that b&d, stanley, stanley fatmax, dewalt and I think Irwin are all under the same company umbrella

https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/
 
Yes I can recall a black & decker drill many decades ago that had alloy body and not orange, might have been gold. Agree that Black and decker are now just black and wrecker, aimed at the low end of the DIY market.
 
was once told that black and decker went drastically down in quality when the colour turned orange, which seems to play out from my experience

I know that b&d, stanley, stanley fatmax, dewalt and I think Irwin are all under the same company umbrella

https://toolguyd.com/tool-brands-corporate-affiliations/
Toolguyd's listing barely scratches the surface, but does show the alarming damage asset stripping for historic names is. He doesn't tell you which Bahco chisel or Nooitgedagt plane will have a blade by Eric Anton Berg. Generally the golden age of quality tools is 1930 to the late 50s. Looking at the OP, I would think the Barrus/Wolfcraft of the pre plastic era with metal clamping and less gimmicks would be more consistent than the horrendously priced Jessem etc, and why would anyone want to keep more than a couple of dowel sizes. I did find a Wolfcraft badged version of the metal Barrus Wolfcraft Dowelling Kit model 3750 Made In Germany Dowel Jig. | eBay
 
but does show the alarming damage asset stripping
It's like a game of pacman, someone goes round and swallows up a lot of small companies and becomes big enough to draw the attention of a bigger player who then swallows them up. I can recall Amp being swallowed by Tyco who are now TE connectivity, but I reckon it is the customer who loses due to reduced competition.
 
the horrendously priced Jessem etc, and why would anyone want to keep more than a couple of dowel sizes.
I think cost is just a factor of todays expensive world, it only looks expensive because there are a lot of much cheaper goods on the market which highlight the price tag. You need to think that for many of these companies there is not an economy of scale, us woodworkers do not make up a huge market for suppliers to sell to and so cost will be higher. If you look at the engineering standards being delivered by the likes of Jessem, Dowelmax, Woodpeckers, Fc tools, Benchdogs and such then we are really fortunate to have such good products available if we choose to buy, but good quality engineering does not come cheap on a small scale.

The sizes of dowels required will depend upon what it is you are making, for a long time I was using the Dowelmax and just 10mm dowels which worked great but there were times when I would have liked to use fewer 12 mm dowels or could not use the 10mm ones due to not enough material to drill out. You could get away with 6, 10 and 12 but due to pricing it is better to buy the whole kit. Once you have used one of these dowel jigs like the dowelmax or Jessem you do appreciate the quality and precision they deliver.
 
Hello @grumpy6165

In case you are interested in other options - taking into account that this is an educational environment - I would forget about the jig and considered a setup like this:
1. regular brad point drill bits
2. split ring depth stops - they are easy to fit and hold their place reasonably well
3. Dowel Centre Points
4. Dowels

This way your students will have to learn
A. to drill straight by hand (or use a drill press if some find hand drilling challenging) and won't have to waste time with idiosyncrasies of specific jig which they may never encounter in the future.
B. how to use actual dowels for joinery, rather than how to use specific jig

If it is a college setting with other machines and you want to go further then you could consider:
- making dowel centre points in-house (on a metal lathe if you have one)
- making dowels - and explore various methods of making them

Split ring depth stops I mentioned above
1674668150445.png


Dowel centre points
- make sure they have a properly pointy end, and not just a tiny round bump like some silverline models
1674668177858.png
 
You only have to look at Mercedes & Vw to realise that, but still companies choose German sounding names to impart quality. Black and decker must be owned by someone bigger or is that just a name and not the original B&D.
Stanley/Black & Decker and the roots of the original Black & Decker can be traced from the founding to the present moment. Today, the company is huge, owning not only woodworking but extensive lawn & garden offerings (they bought MTD products, which owns most domestic lawn care names, such as Cub Cadet, White, etc.).
 
Confused by Spectric and Mickjay saying that WDS don't have 8,10 or 12 mm. Looking at the table on their site, isn't the D measurement the internal width of the clamp, and if so they do seem to have every size mentioned (4,5,6,8,10,12,14,15,16,18 etc).
Oops, sorry about that, my only excuse is it was past my bedtime 😴
 
Oops, sorry about that, my only excuse is it was past my bedtime
I have no excuse, even having looked at it some while back and dismissed it before buying the Rutland ones and then have looked again and dismissed it again as not having the sizes but the way the data is presented is not obvious and so one of those things you can see, look at but not comprehend. If you are selling drill stops the most important and definative parameter has to be the size of the drill it fits and not the size of the grub screw that clamps it which is secondary information.
 
I have the wolfcraft jig - agree that the depth collars are the best bit.

I've taken to using the jig just to mark the holes then drill them without the jig.

The three things that are essential in dowel joinery are getting the whole centered exactly - getting the depth right, and getting it straight. I find the jig ends up giving me a perfectly straight hole of the correct depth, but often slightly off.

I've seen a number of diy jigs that are 'two way' used in one direction for one side and the other direction for a mating piece.

I'm now thinking I might make something like that, but for just a bradell to make the marks in the correct location, then use a separate drill guide and depth collar for the actual hole bit.

Anyone else tried this ?
 
Never got 'round to making a jig.

Just seen this video from John Heisz -

Such a simple idea - just a bit of masking tape - might be what I've been looking for. Hopefully will try it this week.
 
Once you use a real decent dowel jig you will realise just how bad and inconsistant the cheaper ones can be, if you want something that can deliver everytime and with precision just put your hand in your pocket and buy a decent jig, the other route is buying lots of other jigs and tools that will make you think dowels are shieet and maybe you end up buying the right jig one day anyway.
 

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