Woodworking Basics
(Page 2 of 5)
June/July 2007
Story and Photos by Steve Maxwell
Doweling jigs are an even more accurate way to regulate the location and angle of matching dowel holes. Numerous tool companies make doweling jigs; good ones can cost more than $100. Most include a built-in clamp that holds the jig steady on the wood during drilling.
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Although you can buy 3-foot lengths of wooden dowel rod and cut 1-inch- or 2-inch-long pieces for use in building furniture and built-ins, there’s a better way. Ready-made “fluted” dowels cost very little money, they are already cut to length for joinery work, they have a more accurate diameter than dowel rod and have grooves pressed onto the outside surface to boost joint strength. These fluted grooves, produced as the dowels are compressed during manufacture, ensure that these dowels are truly round in cross section. Fluted dowels typically come in sizes ranging from one-quarter inch to one-half inch in diameter. You can use them to assemble everything from small projects to high-stress joints such as those between a table leg and apron.
BISCUIT JOINTS
If you want to tackle a wide range of woodworking joints with just one tool while dealing with the shortest possible learning curve, then biscuit joinery is ideal. This technology is mature and relatively inexpensive. Using a biscuit joiner (also called a plate joiner) is not only simple but safe, too: Cut matching slots in the mating pieces of wood using the hand-held power tool. Swab glue on a factory-made flat oval of hardwood (this is the “biscuit”), push the biscuit into one slot, then fit the other slotted wood part over the protruding half of the biscuit before clamping the whole thing together. Biscuits turn what would ordinarily be a weak butt joint into a very strong connection. They’re also one of the most versatile of all the joinery options, ideal for connecting everything from bookshelf parts and cabinet components to small and medium-sized door frames and even window or door trim before it goes up.
Biscuits come in three standard sizes: #0 are five-eighth inch by 1¾ inch; #10 are three-quarter inch by 2? inch; and #20 are 1 inch by 2? inch. A box of 1,000 biscuits costs less than $30, and each slot takes about two seconds to cut once you’ve got your biscuit joiner set up. You can buy a basic biscuit joiner for around $100, and pro-grade models cost less than $300. Machines have crept down in price substantially from the $800 level seen in the early 1980s. When patent protection ran out on the original Swiss design, held since 1955, the concept entered the public domain. Tool manufacturers around the world began making their own joiners, driving prices way down.
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