Dowel and Tenon Centers
Tool: Dowel and Tenon Centers
Dowel Centers are little metal cylinders capped with a point that can be used in a few ways:
- For doweling, they align your second set of dowel holes.
- For positioning spindle work, they pinpoint the location for boring.
- An internal point marks the exact center of a dowel for lathe work
Experience:
Most often I use dowel centers for doweling custom plywood furniture together. The centers make alignment a breeze since you don’t really need to worry about the specifics of your first holes. I drill into the endgrain every so often then drop in 3/8″ centers, align the mating piece and apply some pressure or tap with a rubber mallet and the points show where to drill your second holes. I’m no scientist with this procedure, rarely using a drill press, and the dowels all line up and the pieces fit together. Here’s another example of crafting without a tape measure. I guess the spacing for my dowels. I set the drill bit depth stop by comparison to the material thickness. That’s it, a little glue then tap in your dowel and you’ve got a solid joint. For repetitious doweling (like making drawers or cabinet boxes) there are better aids.
Links:
General Tools 888 1/4-Inch to 1/2-Inch Dowel Center Transfer Plugs
Filed under: Marking Tools | Tagged: Center, Dowel, Jig, joinery