Dowelmax Doweling System
 Review
By Dean Bielanowski

It's true. Dowels have almost become a thing of the past for many woodworkers who have converted to biscuit joinery or even pocket hole systems for joining tasks - which are usually a little faster to achieve - but dowels are still fairly common and doweling jigs still seem to see daylight as an option for the beginning, intermediate and advanced woodworker who doesn't need to churn out furniture or wooden items at record speeds.

You can count Dowel Jigs in your sleep!
There are a hundred and one (and maybe even more) different types of dowelling jigs that have been manufactured and marketed over the years. Almost every big woodworking tool or machinery manufacturer has probably produced one at some stage in their company's life cycle. All claim to speed up the process by making it easier to quickly align and drill dowel holes for accurate joinery. Sadly, the majority of dowel jigs cannot achieve this, or can achieve it, but with a bagload of frustration thrown in. The construction and manufacturing of these jigs also left a lot to be desired. Many simply couldn't last the distance.

In my travels surfing the web, I came across the subject of today's review - The Dowelmax Jig. After reading through their website at www.dowelmax.com and noting that the jig itself looked pretty strong, sturdy and useful, we decided to give it a go, and a review on this website, so here we go!

The Marketing Blurb
According to the Dowelmax website:

"DOWELMAX is not a "gadget", it is a precision engineered professional hand tool, designed to aid all woodwork enthusiasts, whether beginner, advanced, semi-professional or master craftsman.  There are no limits for DOWELMAX. Any joint configuration can be achieved in mere minutes with no expensive machinery, no set up, no measuring, all you need is your drill and your DOWELMAX JIG"

I must say, most doweling jig product blurb states a similar thing, but few have lived up to the raves they claim. Lets see if the Dowelmax can make the grade.

Construction and Build
Ok, we are looking for a "precision tool"... When I first received the Dowelmax jig, the box it came in felt quite heavy considering its size. Naturally, I got stuck into the packaging, pulling everything out of the box for the initial inspection. The old saying that you cannot judge a book by its cover held little weight upon initial inspection and handling. Picking up the Dowelmax unit for the first time is a small delight! It is constructed of clear (silver) anodized 6160 aluminum, appears to be precision engineered and looks more like an expensive part to a larger piece of machinery than a cheap off-the-shelf doweling jig. The addition of brass clamp knobs and threaded screws adds to the 'flavor', functionality and 'look' of the jig. It's pretty solid and will certainly take a beating over time no doubt.

Ok How Does It Work?
Well, that really depends on the type of joint you are trying to make, the width of material you are using and how many dowels you need to put into that joint!

One of the design features of the Dowelmax that makes it easy to use and accurate is the fact that the 5 drill guides are equidistant from each other, and from the sides of the jig as well. This means the jig can even be reversed on the workpiece and accuracy will be maintained. This among many other design features provide the dead-on accuracy that many other jigs in the past have failed to achieve.

Ok, for starters, let's say you want to butt-join two 3/4" rails for a door or a face-frame for example. Using dowels will certainly be much stronger than a joint stuck together with glue only. 3/4" material is pretty standard these days, and so the Dowelmax ships in the 3/4" material setting configuration. Now, I decided to test this capability first, and you can follow the process with me by viewing the sequence of images running down the right-hand column on this page.

All joints you make using the Dowelmax first require some marking of the reference faces. Now, this is not absolutely necessary, but you would probably soon change your mind if you were joining some nice expensive piece of exotic hardwood and drilled the second mating piece on the wrong side, or the wrong end! The Dowelmax has reference marks etched into the jig  to match your marks you have made on the wood, which ensures you will never get it wrong. So use some common sense and follow the instructions included for best and hassle-free results.

Ok, firstly, we take our pieces to be joined and find which ends and faces are the most suitable to join. Just dry-fit them and check your options. Once you have that sorted out, you mark a "tick" on the faces that need to be flush at their joins. You mark an "X" on the face/surface of the pieces that will be drilled into. Once you have achieved this, your marking tasks are virtually all completed.

The next step is to clamp either of the workpieces into a vice and set the Dowelmax jig on top. The aim is to line up the ticks on your workpiece to the ticks on the dowelmax jig itself. It's pretty easy to do. For this particular joint, we also reference the side face of the jig marked with the tick to the side face of our workpiece. If these are flush, and set flush on both pieces, then we will achieve a perfect result.

With piece number 1 in the vice and the Dowelmax jig clamped to the workpiece and referenced correctly, you can go ahead and drill the holes as needed. You can choose any of the five drill guide holes on the Dowelmax, as long as you use the same guides on the second piece to ensure the dowels will align perfectly later on.

With your holes drilled (you need to use a drill bit depth stop to get snug holes for the dowels), you can unclamp the first piece, take your second piece, reference/line-up the Dowelmax jig and again, drill your holes and that is basically it for a piece of stock that is not too wide. Now you can remove the Dowelmax, place dowels in the drilled holes and dry-fit your pieces to check they are ok before you apply the glue and seal it up for good.

Spacers
Now, if you had wider/thicker stock to join, you can use the 3/4" drop-in spacer included in the standard set to make multiple rows of holes on your pieces. The other spacer blocks are available in 3/4", 3/8" and 1 5/8" widths and easily attach to the jig by seating themselves over the larger threaded screws, which are then held in place by the brass clamping knobs. These spacers are used when working with thicker stock or for offset joints.
 

Creating a Double Row of Dowel Holes for Extra Strength
Begin by drilling the first row of holes normally...	Next, just drop in a spacer to offset the drill guides for the second row.
With spacer inserted, proceed to drill the second row of holes.	Eight dowel holes... Now that joint will have to be strong!

Offset Joints
Ok so not every joint you will make will require flush mating surfaces. What about joining rails to leg pieces, say for a table or chair construction? Easy, you start by marking your surfaces as normal. You can drill the dowel holes into the rail piece. To create the offset in the leg for the drill holes, you simply insert one of the spacer blocks (depending on the offset distance you require) between the reference plate and reference block and tighten the clamp screws and again drill your holes. Because the top of the leg and the top side of the rail piece will end up flush, these are the surfaces the Dowelmax is referencing its drill holes from. All you have done with the spacer block is offset the distance from the adjoining end. Its a little tricky to understand without an array of pictures or diagrams, but trust me, it works well and proved itself accurate again and again throughout our testing period.

Box Type Joints
These are simple butt joins, but pose a different challenge to joining with dowels simply because on one piece, you are drilling into the end grain, while on the other, you are drilling into the widest face of the board. As a consequence, you also need to change the configuration of the Dowelmax jig to drill those holes in Workpiece B (as indicated in image to the right). This requires the biggest modification to the Dowelmax jig, but it is still fairly quick and easy to achieve.

Modifying the Dowelmax jig to enable drilling of dowel holes into surface of our board to create a right angled joint with a second piece of timber.

Dowelmax can also be used to join mitered joints as well for
picture frames or other applications.

Accessories for Joining Long Boards
Included in the Dowelmax standard set are the Indexing Pin and Distance Gauge tools. These tools allow you to accurately line up dowel holes on both mating pieces no matter what length of timber you are working with. If you only want say a couple of inches between your dowel holes, then all you will need is the Dowelmax and the Indexing Pin. The process is quite simple...

Configure your timber pieces for the best join, then mark your reference faces as normal with ticks and crosses at one end only. Next, drill your first hole in the first piece using drill guide 1 and then drill a second using drill guide 5 for example... Now, release the Dowelmax clamps and insert the Indexing Pin into the first drill guide. Slide your Dowelmax along the face of the workpiece until it slots into your second drilled hole (drilled with drill guide 5 on the first pass). You have now indexed the Dowelmax jig and can drill your second hole in any drill guide you desire... in this case, guide number 5 would give you a set consistent distance between your dowel holes. As long as you continue to use the same drill guide holes in both pieces, they will line up perfectly. You continue along with the same process of indexing, drilling, moving and indexing again until you have drilled holes along the entire length of the workpiece. Take your second workpiece and set the Dowelmax into its first reference position as marked by you and then follow the same steps. Assuming you complete the process correctly on both pieces, they must line up perfectly and their reference faces will be exactly flush with each other, resulting in a very clean join.

Take a look at the following brief sequence of pictures to give you a better idea of the process:
 

The indexing pin (seen inserted into Drill Guide 1 above) slots into your last drilled hole to aid in lining up the next hole along the length of timber.	Here we have used the indexing pin to drill equally spaced holes along the length. These will exactly align with the dowel holes in our mating piece thanks to Dowelmax
If you want a larger spacing between your dowel holes, the distance gauge can be used to set the Dowelmax jig the same distance every time from the last drilled hole - Handy!	The results speak for themselves. Perfectly aligned holes that will join these short-width boards to make a wider one. Both end and surface faces aligned perfectly when dowels where inserted and boards were glued up.

Alternatively, as the manual suggests, you can use a square to draw lines across two pieces stacked next to each other (like you might do for marking biscuit slots) and use those lines as reference points to line up the edge of the Dowelmax jig before drilling. This also worked ok for us during testing, but we found that you need to be very precise in lining up the Dowelmax to get a positive result. the use of the Index pin was preferred and recommended. It was also faster in use as we only had to mark the ends of our pieces rather than setting our marks right along the edges of the timber.

Dowelmax Manual
Included in the package is a 36 page manual in both English and French (18 pages per language). The manual is black and white with line-art type drawings. The design of the manual won't win any awards for layout and style, but it does do what a manual should do - that is, explain how to use the item properly, effectively and without hassles. Instructions are straight-forward and to the point. The Dowelmax is a pretty easy jig to get the hang of, but often you need a quick reminder of how to configure the Dowelmax jig for a joint you may not come across that often.

Conclusion
Well, what can I say... Without sounding like a kid on Christmas morning, the Dowelmax is perhaps one of the best jigs I have ever used, for any task. Even though doweling may not be the choice of the majority of woodworkers today, who may favor other methods, it still remains a strong and effective method of wood joinery, and the Dowelmax jig has restored my faith in the possibility and usefulness that dowel joints offer. I have never seen another dowel jig that is as accurate, as simple to use and as uncomplicated as the Dowelmax system. The precise engineering of the system is something other jig makers should really be ashamed of. I can certainly recommend this system with my highest praise. It is solid, it has proven to do what it says it will do, and it is great fun to use. The only downside you might say is the cost. At US$169 for the set, it is a little expensive, but you are certainly buying a top quality item that I'm sure will take some punishment and still be plowing out dowel joints in 30 years time.

Highly recommended.

Dowelmax Photos
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The Dowelmax System

The Dowelmax jig is SOLID in construction.

You can see the precision in the decisgn and manufacture here. note the 'tick' markings which help you correctly orientate the jig to the workpiece for drilling.

The drill guides are threaded and removable to make it easier to remember which drill holes to use, or for replacement if they ever wear out. Smaller sized (1/4") drill guides are also available if needed.

Ok, here we have reference marked the surfaces for our joint. our marks are a little over-exaggerated so you can see them clearly in the photos.

We are going to make a butt-joint like this using the Dowelmax jig with dowel construction.

Clamp the Dowelmax jig to the first workpiece, ensuring the face of the timber marked here with a tick and the end face of the dowelmax jig
are flush.

Drilling two dowel holes.

First piece is drilled... onto the mating piece.

Aligning and clamping the Dowelmax to the second workpiece, again ensuring our check marks on the timber line up with the refernce marks on the Dowelmax jig.

Drilling the dowel holes in the second workpiece, ensuring we use the same two drill guides.

Both pieces drilled, and by the
look of it, I think they will
match up just nicely!

In go the dowels...
the moment of truth...

Dry fitting the pieces to check accuracy... and its perfect. Flush on both the top and end faces marked with the ticks...

SO let's now slap some glue on the dowels and the joining faces for a tight bond.

Clamped up and ready to dry. Nice flush surfaces that will require
little (if any) sanding. This joint is not going anywhere in a hurry!