Make Accurate Mortise Joints with a Doweling Jig (Mortise and Tenon Joinery)

[@edwaggonersr.7446]

Fifteen minutes after watching your video on the DowelMax I ordered one for myself. I've always considered the DowelMax to be the most satisfying tool purchase I've ever made. This video is interesting in that it points out another use for the DowelMax, but I can't see myself ever making a mortise and tenon joint. As always though the future is cloudy. Thanks Colin.

[@carltonharvey3818]

Colin is always clear and easy to follow. However not sure why you would do all this. I have already made my joint using dowels and Colin is still messing with the tenon. I have had great success with the dowelmax.

[@jeffstanley4593]

I have a Dowelmax but like you said, I am not going to make mortise and tenons when I can use dowels. Brad point drill bit would have made sharper edges.

[@jerryjohnsonii4181]

I absolutely love my Doweling Jig. Thanks for the knowledge !!!!!!!!!

[@AutotechWoodworking]

I made my own dowel jig that works really well, so I'm going to try using it to make mortise and tenon joints.

[@stevetobias4890]

Thanks Colin, great approach to adding versatility to your dowelling jigs as well as making tennons faster.

[@terrychristian672]

Interesting and informative. Thank you. Where do you buy the stock floating tenons?

[@christophermball]

I find it funny that we, as woodworkers, distinguish floating tenons from dowel joinery. Dowels are literally floating tenons that fit into mortises. I recently picked up the competitor to the Dowelmax (Jessem 8350) and may give this a try out of curiosity. Since strength is comparable and the joinery is all internal, it just seems faster and cleaner to use dowel joinery in these instances if you don't have an efficient mortising setup.

[@fredfreitag7232]

Absolutely!! In fact, this expansion of the mortise, in my opinion, actually ruins the alignment, the efficiency, the speed of using the doweling jig (regardless of what dowel jig is used) and possibily the strength of the original dowel joint. Makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[@joebrown1382]

I bought the Dowelmax. Very precision tool. Nice demo Colin.

[@harrypowers9412]

A creative concept-thanks Colin for this excellent short cut to making traditional mortises.

[@bryanmcwhirter9945]

This is a very old concept before routers were routers were around. Tage Frid had this in his book on joinery in 1978, 1 of 3 worth getting. And shiminf for table leg mortises etc. Ive used mine for center drilling in pipe and dowels, not just for doweling. Great on the job site for old retro doors, no drill press there, and routers dont go 3inches deep.

[@jakethesnake9528]

Which tendon & mortise joint would offer the greatest strength for the joint, the standard tenon & mortise or the floating mortise?

[@jccapwell]

Very nice work. Great explanation with clear instructions and visuals. I assume that you can make a through using the same process and drilling through the piece.

[@MOSTAFA131160]

very helpful video, thank you.

[@MrMaacin05]

Brilliant idea offsetting the center with some shims

[@vint7054]

Great idea, and it looks like it works well. Thanks

[@johnvodopija]

A really interesting video. Thanks for the engaging content 👍😎🇦🇺

[@tekanger975]

Also good to know alternative approaches to a woodworking. I'll probably never do anything with a mortise and tenon, but it is always interesting to see what more skilled people are doing. Thanks for the explanation.

[@SMee67]

Nice job, mate 👍🏽 Versatile little jig😉

[@galland3496]

Versatile and easy to do, getting the best from it. The only thing is.....how do you purchase one in the UK ? Thank you once again for your superb work.

[@BigTrainBuff]

I used my dedicated mortiser for years with good results, but the process is slow- especially setting up the tool and then cutting tenons accurately. I think using a doweling jig, and dowels only, with a metal spacer for creating reveals is best. You get perhaps 95% of the strength of traditional mortise and tenon joints in maybe half the time. I wasted many hours trying to cut and shave tenons accurately! Pocket holes are even faster, and I use them for cabinet frames, but I’m concerned about joint strength for things like tables and benches.

[@sgoldste02]

Actually, I believe dowels alone are stronger and faster than the less-than-perfect mortise and tenon joints that most of us make. Even looking at the joint Colin made in this video, the side walls of his mortises after cleaning them out with a chisel aren't ideal. I'll bet he would have ended up with a stronger joint by simply sticking to the dowels, and he would have saved a lot of time too. I understand the appeal of using the more "traditional" M&T joint. But if you're more interested in strength while saving time, just use the doweling jig to make the joints it was designed to make, and stop there.

[@maddogshwa]

I think that a single dowel is definitely inferior because the piece can rotate. I suspect two dowels is at least as strong as a mortise and tenon joint.

[@dreamkiss4u]

a better way to use it for the same thing would be to just make the left end and right end drill holes with the doweling jig then use a router with the right thickness bit for the router and just rout all the middle from one end hole to the other end hole already made and you will have clean and same size mortise no need to chisel out the holes.

[@clemmcguinness1087]

Superb Colin

[@rickmessina5396]

Do the shins come in the dowel jig kit.????

[@gregoryvangundy6170]

If you have a drill press with a fence, how is this an improvement. Seems slower, unnecessary

[@SeanSmith-wh5xh]

Awesome option!

[@francisbriggs806]

Where do you buy the offset spacers for the downing max? Thanks.

[@TheWoodHaven]

If you search for dowelmax on amazon, the spacers will also come up in the search.

[@renebeaudry8531]

Where did you get the jig ?

[@MD-en3zm]

A brad point bit might work better here. Less tendency to wander into other nearby holes.

[@aaudain1]

Wonderful

[@alexclark6777]

I seriously thought you were going to say "Check it!" at the 10 second mark.

[@woodworkerdwc]

Why don't they just make an insert with a slot so that a router with a guide collar could do the same thing?

[@lewisway6811]

In the end you just made a biscuit joint with out a $800 festool biscuit joiner.

[@Freespirit5371]

I love my Dowelmx and would like to have 5/16" drill guides for my Dowelmax but according to the Dowelmax website they only offer 1/4", 3/8" and 10 mm. Please let us know where you were able to get 5/16" drill guides for in the Dowelmax.

[@garymucher9590]

If you can't find one, maybe check with a local machine shop. I'm sure they could easily make one for you...

[@Freespirit5371]

@@garymucher9590 Seems to me that the cost of having a machine shop make five hardened steel drill guides would be cost-prohibitive. I don't want to reinvent the wheel if 5/16" drill guides already exist and can be purchased somewhere.

[@bradmeacham6982]

I'd also like to know where Collin got his 5/16" drilling guides. Dowlemax.com only appears to have 3/8" and 1/4" guides.

[@willybaetens4648]

Hi, Why don't you use a milling drill on your drillpress? This would be by far the best solution, and the milling drills are not to expensive. Also, if you drill the first and the last hole first, your drill may wonder as much it likes. Willy from Belgium. 🤭🤭🤭

[@mjb12141963]

He's showing a different joinery method. Companies send tools to established KZbin woodworkers for them to do a video with. It's a way to advertise their product.

[@maddogshwa]

Probably because a lot of people don't have a drill press.

[@willybaetens4648]

@@maddogshwa One can use an accu or normal drill. 😹😹😹

[@maddogshwa]

@@willybaetens4648 I don't understand your response

[@willybaetens4648]

@@maddogshwa Hi, If a lot of people don't have a drill press, they could use an accudrill or normalelectrical drill. Willy from Belgium 🧔🧔🧔

[@georgiemae11]

nice bit of kit.Would my silverline dowel jig achieve the same result?

[@maddogshwa]

Only one way to find out ;) Seriously though even if you only drilled two holes one for each end of the mortise the chiseling from there is pretty straightforward.

[@major77493]

Again, if you can create multiple in dowel holes accurately on two pieces of wood why overly complicate this and add extra work and additional opportunities to fudge the work and create a mortise & tendon joint.

[@shawnr771]

Customer request.

[@captainjohn787]

Well, it was pretty precise with Dowel Max, but once you got to the tenon it was back to trial and error. While I have great admiration for traditional woodworking and the skills developed by those who employ those time-tested techniques, my weekend warrior projects would take forever to complete at that pace. Nonetheless, Colin, your videos almost always offer something interesting and useful, this one being no exception. Best regards.

[@GentleStorm1]

Thank you so much for this. I’ve been struggling (mightily) getting my mortises and tenons to correctly align on some exterior doors. I’ve tried multiple methods using my own jigs, completely forgetting about my dowel max. I’d been hesitantly considering dowel joinery instead, which led me to your video! This seems like a fail-proof way to solve my problem using my preferred joint! Thank you so much!! 🙏

[@scottlouis7785]

I`ve been looking at that jig thanks I think I`ll do it

[@jeffstanley4593]

I have one and you must pay attention when using it. Watch some videos on how to use it. You must have the parts oriented correctly to have a good fit. It is easy as long as you do it right.

[@hardipchima7828]

Just use a router.

[@johnwaites6803]

I always wanted to do that , you might have just spurred me on.

[@dannytouet818]

metric please.

[@fredfreitag7232]

I think this is a bad idea for a few reasons - and would highly suggest people don't follow or use this. Just have to wonder why one would want to expand (and make alot more work and could cause problems) the already exact mortise and tenon joint using dowels?? I don't see where there is any benefit drilling/chiseling the additional slots for a larger "loose" tenon. Moreover, by doing such you are actually ruining the already exact alignment of the dowelmax using dowels - that you now have to make sure during the glue up that you keep the parts aligned correctly.

[@howardbecdove9780]

You’ve left me scratching my head. I get that as woodworkers it’s a great way to learn by adapting and experimenting. But for the life of me, I can’t see how the outcome is any better than just using the doweling jig as intended, especially when you start using floating tenons. Sorry, don’t want to appear negative.

[@kymion]

I imagine this is stronger because there is more continuous wood in the joint. Dowels would have spaces between them. Plus, you could use this to make through mortise/tenon joints which people might prefer to the look of dowels.

[@juddwhetten7141]

It would be interesting to do 3 joints, the tenon as described, the floating tenon, and the 3 dowels, then do a stress test to compare the strength of each. I would put my money on 3 dowels.

[@BigTrainBuff]

@@juddwhetten7141 id like to see this too, but a problems arise with variability of the number, size and depth of dowels, and design and accuracy of the tenons.

[@howardbecdove9780]

The owner of dowelmax has a strength test video, using dowels over various other joint fasteners if you search under Dowelmax......editing this, because went to that video and Dowelmax has a comparison with the M & T joint.

[@thecardinalcrew8959]

He stated this in the video. He said many people like to use the traditional joinery methods, and this is an easier way to get a centered mortise without a drill press or mortise press.

[@foodparadise5792]

Look nice, but I really can't justify $400 for few pieces of aluminum when you add the 1/2 and 1/4 size. The price ratio on this jig is worst than the $1000 domino.

[@carpdude73]

10:49 I thought these were called dominoes...?

[@BattleFrogs]

Dominoes are a proprietary floating tenon by Festool. Their gimmick is that they're fast and easy but the tool is expensive.

[@thecardinalcrew8959]

That’s what popped into my head when I saw that done as well. Only Festool calls then dominoes, as far as I know.

[@akbychoice]

I looked it up, outside my budget at $225

[@ethanhearle2099]

akbychoice a cheap set of chisels and a marking gauge have more learning curve but definitely are much more economically friendly

[@BattleFrogs]

For what it's worth, there are much cheaper doweling jigs, though obviously you get what you pay for. Sometimes you don't need the absolute best though. The "beadlock" system is a similar idea to this with one fewer step -- and the basic version is only $30. The problem with that being you'll either need to buy a router bit to make the tenons, or buy them prefabricated.

[@robd7703]

That’s what I thought. But it is without a doubt worth it. Just a joy to use.

[@sarademaio7500]

👍🏼good

[@tedgrimshaw4933]

For Christ sake man. Sharpen your pencil. It looks like you are using a scaffold pole to mark the wood

[@chingonbass]

the dowelmax inventor made of video testing the strength of the mortise, domino and his dowel system. Dowel was a lot stronger then the other 2