festool domino vs dowels

[@xxtremetoastx]

Some of the best presentation and testing I've seen. Complete clarity in the methods and results. Appropriate amount of commentary. Clear graphics. Simple and effective analysis.

[@interdimensionalsailboat]

It sounds to me that, for a hobbyist with limited funds: Plain for flush trim. Fluted for hidden. Use the leftover cash for a good drill bit. Thank you 👍.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

exactly! great summary!

[@filldev]

Nice summary!😊

[@asderven]

Use the left over money to buy a domino later 😁

[@disqusrubbish5467]

@@asderven Or a vacation in Hawaii...

[@russellwheeler2760]

how have you only got 27.5k subscribers!??! every one of your vids is incredibly well researched, carried out, and informative. Bravo!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Thank you! There must be a glitch with KZbin. I’m hoping the subscriber count gets fixed by end of the year with a few more videos posted 😄

[@russellwheeler2760]

@@WoodcraftBySuman yeah I reckon there's a 0 missing off the end of that!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

@@russellwheeler2760 that’s high praise 🙌

[@SeaFanStudio]

@@WoodcraftBySuman when you figure out the fix for that bug, please let me know 🤣

[@brewtalityk]

it might be because, while interesting, these comprehensive comparison videos aren't entertaining or very useful. ProjectFarm is an example of how to do this in the best way on KZbin per the algorithm

[@TheFamilyWoodworker]

Extra credit for the thumbnail! Was blasting through my feed and immediately was drawn to the story...

[@awildschuetz1]

"Some women are into it." Haha. That killed me. Great presentation of great data, Suman. Much appreciated.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

2” is a perfectly adequate dowel size! Haha. Appreciate ya watching Aaron!

[@awildschuetz1]

@@WoodcraftBySumanI'll be sure and let my wife know. There's science to back it up now! 🤣

[@raymondbunkofske4702]

Nice job, I especially appreciate the error bars on the plots. I use the miller dowels for fastening edging which can be thin, the cap of the dowel is stronger than just glue would be. The idea behind the dowels with the vertical grooves is that the grooves are made by compressing the wood. The moisture in the glue causes the wood to expand, filling the hole. This should make for a tighter fit.

[@epgui]

Your statistical approach has been improving over time! I love how you're not removing outliers anymore, and are showing the error bars on the graphs-- that's super informative! Kudos to you! One thing that could be improved is if you actually specified what the error bars were (for example is it SEM, variance, standard deviation, or a 95% or other % confidence interval? all of these will have different interpretations). Going a step further, a statistical significance test would be important to see which differences can't be attributed to random error-- I could help with that.

[@BigBenC1991]

Based on the way he spoke of them, those error bars, as you call them, are the range of the failure loads he got from each of the 5 tests. The main bar graph bar is just the average of those results.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Great question. They are SEM. You’re right- I probably should do signifcance but worry I’d need to realistically double my sample size to get meaningful information. Which would be difficult to do at my current pace and available time.

[@jonathonbaron2914]

I only just came across this video and your channel, so knowing nothing (yet!) about your background in statistics or computation, I’d recommend 95% approximate confidence intervals (which, in my field at least, is basically the default for error bars). Approximate 95% CI bounds are easily computed as mean +/- 1.96*SE. Alternatively, bootstrapped confidence intervals are my preference-just take the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of the bootstrap replicates of the mean. They should be similar enough for these purposes, but I like the bootstrap.

[@jonathonbaron2914]

Significance testing between estimates can be useful, but then you’re welcoming complexity when you get a difference that’s, like, significant at the .065 level, but not .05. Technically not significant, but you’re ostensibly dealing with small samples, and relatively high variance, so I’d say that’s probably actually significant and just low-n.

[@_john_doe_]

Thanks for great video and test very useful. A note on the fluted dowel, the dowels should have been compressed when they are made, so they should expand when the glue is in contact with them making them stronger while still easy to insert and allow glue squeeze out.

[@matthewwright57]

I think the best part of these tests is the sheer amount of force it takes. No matter what you use, its going to be strong enough. Unless you have a dance party on that coffee table. The domino has a lot of other value relating to alignment in more than one axis. Its definitely a luxury though.

[@astronemir]

Not really. Leverage is a bitch. My kids can break any of these if I build it wrong.

[@multidinero]

8:00 the point of the domino is not increased strength, though loose tenon joinery is plenty strong. The true point of the domino system is to execute precise joints while maximizing the speed of the application. Dowel joinery suffers from how long it takes to setup and execute the procedure, as does classic mortise and tenon joinery. Execution and speed are the true strengths of the Festool Domino.

[@Csjurke]

You've become my favourite KZbin woodworking channel. Not only are you an excellent story-teller but your measurement and data analysis makes your content uniquely of the highest quality. While there are many channels that can provide an entertaining story, yours has that AND statistical analysis! Finally... Information I can have confidence in. Awesome!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

These videos are truly a labor of love and it means the world to me when folks like you recognize and appreciate them. Thank you for being here and thank you for watching!

[@F0XD1E]

I suspect the difference in shear stress between the different sizes in the first test is due to the fact that wood is an inconsistent material with layers of different density grain. The smaller dowels might not get as much bite on the layers of grain. The larger ones exposed more layers and started to plateau to the actual shear strength of the glue.

[@gcp02006]

Love this test. I’ve long wondered about dominos vs dowels for this type of joint. I’m honestly surprised that the domino beat the bunch for tensile strength because it has the least amount of the fabled “long grain to long grain” glue area. It has the most total surface area, but because the slightly roomy mortise, almost all of the glue surface is the end grain of the wood piece to long grain of the domino. Goes to show that End grain to long grain, like in a simple butt joint, has plenty of strength. Most of us fortunate enough to do so will continue using dominos because they’re fast, easy, and, most importantly, aid in assembly.

[@TCoffman]

One of the best videos I’ve seen on dowel strength. Thank you.

[@alexanderdgray]

Thanks for the science! A comment in favor of Miller dowels: Yes, they are designed to be installed AFTER a particular piece has been assembled, at least partially. Sometimes if I am trying to drill a 3/8 dowel hole into a 3/4 inch stock with hand tools, sometimes you get misaligned and the dowel comes breaks through the side of the piece you're attaching too. Of course, this can be avoided with better set up, marking and measuring, and better experience or mechanical assistance to make sure you're drilling straight. The thin end of the Miller dowel give you a bit more leeway in that situation, so you can have most of the strength of the dowel joint without risking the end of the drill bit breaking out of the vertical piece.

[@nicholasmanovich4330]

I love how thorough you are ! Great video as always

[@NewTestamentDoc]

This video is just one more example of why I subscribe to this channel!

[@nhmtnguy3802]

I just finished a major project using many many dowels and your video totally justified my choice of using dowels. Thanks so much, truly a superb test video. (as usual)

[@kalemsmith6895]

Hi there, when you are using a larger dowel you not only have a larger area for glue but also more frictional force from the increased area. Another factor can be that the larger dowel is easier to push into a hole with tighter tolerances without breaking, which intern increases your frictional forces even more. It's similar methods used in engineering for bolts.

[@darodes]

Dude I continue to enjoy your videos and love the cameos in other KZbinrs videos too 😂 Keep it up… you should have way more subscribers. Criminally underrated.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Haha the cameos are fun. As you might imagine, the woodworking content creator community are very open an, friendly, accessible folks.

[@AB-nu5we]

Nicely done review. I switched from dowels to the Domino primarily for the speed and speed related to cut lineup accuracy. Fancy dowel jigs are expensive, and still don't consistently align the holes without NASA 'landing-on-the-moon' concentration. It got sooooo tedious. I tried a Domino at one of the woodworking stores. Sold. Not a second thought required. Still though, dowels work.

[@n8sot]

Wow!! Thank you Suman! While you are expanding on what we all know, you have opened a new world of creating better joinery.. Always love your content! Always looking forward to what you come up with next! keep up the great work!! Love ya!!!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

I am so appreciative of folks like yourself who finds this type of content interesting! Thank you for watching and engaging via comments

[@professionalgiraffe]

So glad I found this channel! My two favourites - woodworking and SCIENCE

[@TheGreatChrisB]

These tests are genius. I would never think to eliminate other variables with wax paper and perfectly machined blocks

[@kyronnewbury]

another great video! clear and to the point. I was shocked by the dominos lack of performance near the end but it once again proves that regular dowels have been used for a long time for a reason

[@byhammerandhand]

Love how you do more than one type of test. Too many "joint strength tests" do a racking test and ignore tension and shear. However... dowel joints tend to have differential expansion from the joint they are in over time, so the glue joints can tend to open up over time (seasons of varying humidity). So repeating the test after a couple of years might yield way different results. Also one thing to remember is they have minimal surface area compared to other joints (bridle, box, dovetail, mortise and tenon, domino, biscuits, etc.) and most of the glue surface is end grain.

[@schechnera]

What a great video! I use fluted dowels because they’re cheap and easy to find, but I was always worried they weren’t as strong. Now I don’t have to worry anymore. Thanks!

[@thedevilinthecircuit1414]

The reason the straight flute dowels were more consistent in the test was even glue distribution. The helical dowels--you drove those in dry and they tend to push the glue ahead if them in the hole. The straight flute type automatically distributes the glue along the dowel. If you had dipped the dowels in glue you'd have even better results.

[@Locane256]

5:00 haven't finished the video but to answer your question about the dropoff of dowel performance to size ratio as you went up, I'm going to bet that if you scaled the wood the dowels were joining with the size of the dowel it would look more linear. The compressive force placed on the sides of the dowel by the wood itself goes down as your dowel size goes up.

[@constantinosschinas4503]

4:50 All dowel/holes have same tolerance, but the tolerance is less forgiving in the small dowels. This may be the reason strenght/surface is better in the larger ones.

[@angazi1341]

I like the miller dowels for making drawers, quick and easy to drill the holes in the plywood and pound them home, I could use regular dowels but the millers allow for better to be a bit off with my holes and not blow out the side of the drawer

[@Gromophon]

You have to consider by the sheer strength that the Festool Domino was the only dowel who didn't break, because they are way stronger than all the other ones. The wood broke at the Domino`s samples not the dowel itself. This makes the Domino the strongest Joint! Just the cause of the thickness of the wood let it seem to be the weakest joint.

[@carsonp.7009]

Suman, any machinist can admire that beautiful blanchard ground steel, cool video!

[@nate-408]

Yes you did have that plate made at a machine shop and yes it did probably did break the bank. As a journeyman toolmaker i can say that plate takes a while to make and our shop rate is $120 an hour. It's quite a bit of work and keeping it flat is another challenge. Buying a similar one off the shelf for fixturing parts in our laser engraver or CMM would cost us about $1500 last time we checked. Thanks for the great info your time and effort on these videos is greatly appreciated.

[@richardweiler1552]

Cool video - The best part for me was the difference in tensile strength and shear strength between a pair of dowels and a pair of dominos. Shows you must consider the grain direction versus load direction to get strong joints.

[@1deerndingo]

The fluted dowel has it's grooves compressed. The compressed fibres expand with the application of the wet glue. This gives it good contact and allows release of air and excess glue.

[@kencoleman7762]

I've used Miller dowels because they are more than strong enough for my applications and they just seem cool. Also, I normally have time to play. I don’t think i would choose them for production work.

[@donesry2902]

Thank you for doing this research. I typically cut mortise and tenon or dovetail which are much more time intensive but it is what I do. Having said that I am surprised by the strength of these joints. I have several pieces of antique furniture and those fowl joints are frequently failing. I’m guessing the modern glue is much superior.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Yup! Failure in antique furniture is largely due to the glue and not joinery. Modern pva glue is incredibly strong compared against hide glue. Though I should probably test that out at some point

[@trulsdirio]

So basically, standard dowels are shaped that way for a reason. The cheapest, easiest to make while still being super strong enough.

[@chrisnash2154]

I’ve seen a number of people do this type of test and the results are consistent. What I haven’t seen is what is the minimum amount of pull/sheer force that’s needed to keep specific parts of furniture from breaking apart.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

I wish I could do that. But there are too many variables in play, almost making the outcome of the test largely meaningless. If you have a clever idea and process, I would love to hear it.

[@darthrevanakc]

Thanks!

[@liquidrockaquatics3900]

I love my dowelmax system

[@paulhill1662]

❤ I appreciate your hard work and dedication. Thank you from England. ❤

[@jplummer]

Helical and fluted dowels are compressed a bit during manufacture, so there's a little more wood fiber there than a plain dowel for the same volume.

[@BMSculptures]

very informative tests Suman!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Thanks Blake! Can’t wait to see your shark with laser beam 😂

[@SeaFanStudio]

@@WoodcraftBySuman that shark is amazing!

[@ehRalph]

For visible dowels I drill undersized holes and use screws and glue to make the joint, then later pull the screws and re-drill for dowels.

[@jasonjayalap]

this is so you dont have to clamp?

[@ehRalph]

@@jasonjayalap I definitely have clamps, and sometimes just to bypass clamping, other times for awkward, hard to reach repairs or deep field laminations, thinking back, it’s more of a process, ie pre-drill or drill-press the outer holes first, slightly over sized 5/32 3/16, then positioning and drill inner hole 1/8 for drywall screws (maybe even with a clamp or painters tape for alignment) -then using 1” fender washers or rubber grommets under the screw head to spread force. But yesterday I did a big glueup the old fashioned way- no screws- just lots of clamps hahahaha

[@rpenm]

Great work, Suman. This mostly reinforced my priors, but I was surprised by the surface area-normalized pull-out force results.

[@petenelson8136]

Love how you do your analysis, and I really appreciate the time and expense you put in to making this as comprehensive as possible. There will always be things people can look at as variables, especially with wood, like grain direction, distance of the grain lines between different wood segments etc. and in my opinion that's simply nit picking. What you've done is provided as fare of a test as you could and let the results speak for themselves. In closing, I don't see myself spending thousands of dollars on a tool where results that I'm looking for can be attained for pennies on the dollar.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Thank you! Deciding what to test and what to exclude based on limited time and resources is one of the tricky parts of making these videos because there is always more that can be done. I appreciate you acknowledging that. Thanks!

[@at_timberworks]

Another incredible video Suman 🙌🏼 I enjoy the statistical analysis combined with the passion of woodworking. I found myself watching it again because it was so entertaining and informative. Thank you for all of the work you do!

[@Traqr]

One subtle difference in the thin dowels in your first set of tests is rigidity. As you apply force, the thin dowel will stretch more, causing the glue to hit it's strain limit earlier near the joint - basically, your peeling the dowel loose. Since the forces are carried further along the thicker dowels, more of the joint is engaged and it takes more force to break the glue.

[@marsrocket]

Great video, love the attention to detail and adherence to the scientific method.

[@snaketooth19]

When I cut dowels on a table saw I clamp a board to the fence, keeping the end of it back from the front of the blade. Then they don't get trapped. Also use a riving knife

[@asderven]

Finally found time to watch the video. Basically 1” or 2” long basic dowels suit my needs. I use them for alignment purposes mostly. Would you be making a video about sliding dovetails? I got the micro jig clamps and bit, that got me thinking, why not make sliding dovetails on the router everywhere? I was thinking for a battery box assembly, a sliding dovetail with magnets for alignment and a bit of holding power and use screws to hold the faces in place. The battery box will be moved on wheels and the box will be holding about 150kg of weight. Basically trying to think of the simplest joinery method without glue for people to use to assemble the battery box at home. Glue can be used, but not everyone is a woodworker, may not feel comfortable with glue.

[@donesry2902]

@@asderven sliding dovetails are not easy to do well. But they are really cool 😎

[@TaylerMade]

to be honest as a retired furniture maker who trained many years ago, i used dowels as a go to joint. using a horizontal drill and the drill press. it was quick and efficient and have never had a joint fail. my scotch chest in the bedroom i made 40 odd years ago and is as rigid as the day it was made. i remember looking at the festool when it first came out. my thought was as a one man shop, who does not do mass production, it made no sense financially to invest in it. have never regretted not getting one.

[@thorwaldjohanson2526]

I think it really comes down to the quantity / frequency of use and has to be evaluated as such. Most hobbyists and low volume specialty makers probably don't need it, but there is certainly a point where the saved time more than pays off.

[@bastiannenke9613]

I like the idea with the wax paper to rule out differences in the wood structures.

[@JohnSmith-ju1gi]

Miller dowels are convenient and I use them all the time. I will try the straight dowel technique as a through dowel similar to the miller dowels The big advantage is the dowel fits the best at the top. And I dont have a doweling jig. The other dowels (not miller) just dont look as good on finished work in a through dowel scenario due to fluting or chamfer or spiral glue space. For not showing surfaces, I will try plain wood dowels

[@folby]

your level of effort here deserves many more subscribers and viewers and i am commenting in hopes of contributing to that for you. keep it up!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Thank you for watching and engaging with the video. It helps a lot and I appreciate it 🙌

[@FrankDoesIt]

I thoroughly enjoyed this video! Watching them snap was super satisfying!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Thanks brotha!

[@FrankDoesIt]

@@WoodcraftBySuman absolutely!

[@FredPerras]

Best woodworking channel on youtube. I hope you get loads of success.

[@PM-wt3ye]

Best is a strong word... So far its lots of comparison... Not bad at all, but the BEST!?

[@FredPerras]

As a scientist, I really appreciate the experiments being run in triplicate and that you report standard deviations, which most do not. Most scientific woodworking channel and therefore best.

[@54321eclipse12345]

The bigger diameter ones propably hold better because they get compressed more when put in the hole. The smaller ones cannot compress much so the fit has to be less tight. Not only does that generate a holding force by itself, but the glue will create a better bond as the wood and the dowel are pressed harder against each other.

[@ianbaker3678]

A very fair test. Thank you.

[@jos6415]

YOu're the Project Farm of the woodworking world, and that is a real complement. Not sure where i heard this but I think one reason the fluted dowels work well has to do with the fact that they are compressed wood that expand when exposed to the moisture in the glue - so easy to insert and expand to make i tight fit. I use a large pencil sharpener to chamfer the ends of straight dowels, works really well.

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

That is a tremendous complement and I appreciate it! Indeed, fluted ones seem to be compressed and make for a easier glue up while being incredibly tight due to swelling after glue up.

[@MildarValsik]

It seems like the miller dowels should be glues as pouring in more glue to fill in the air pockets until proper squeeze out. Maybe that's how they are are ment to be used. I never seen them before.

[@raw123yt]

That was a lot of work to make all those joints and then break them. Thank you.

[@sreevatsan]

Fantastic & insightful video Suman! Loved it. Had a lot of fun making my guesses every time you were about to show a chart and ended up mostly wrong 😂 (except the shear strength test… but that was a great twist reveal)

[@bdm1000]

Great job! Thank you for sharing

[@einsam_aber_frei]

When you jointing boards side by side like a table top, dominos or biscuits are the way to go. It’s hard to align three or more dowels to their holes perfect.

[@BStreet666]

Love me some dowel joinery. Thanks for the great video!

[@disqusrubbish5467]

Excellent work. I would have liked to see the same "strength per square inch" for the "Domino". I think the dowels would have looked even better against it.

[@Bytesplice]

Thanks for the methodical testing. My understanding is that in the long term, dowels expansion and contraction is an issue, particularly when a different species than the work peice. I'd be interested in seeing how beadlock stacks up.

[@Dustins_Woodworking]

I always suspected that the domino dowel removed too much wood and would weaken the joint in some way. Of course it is still plenty strong. Thank you for all your hard work. Great video!

[@rfehr613]

Great video! And as a structural engineer who also has a physics degree and has developed lab testing procedures for materials testing, I think you did a very good job with your tests. It sounds like you have a science or engineering background, since you clearly identified the primary stresses for testing as well as some of the key variables impacting strength. There definitely are more variables to isolate in order to give more meaningful results, but overall I think you did better than anyone else outside academia lol. I was actually surprised to see the straight dowel wasn't top of all dowels. I always use them, because fluted can sometimes be machined wrong in my experience... just put a bad taste in my mouth. I also hadn't thought of cutting the dowel for air to escape. I always just force it in lol. Good tip. Thanks.

[@patseevers262]

Excellent. That is all, thank you.

[@John-NeverStopLearning]

The one dowel looks like it would do better at the golf course than a form of fastener. I wish you would have shown exactly what broke overall. The dowel, glue, the wood pieces or a combination of all of those. Great video keep up the great work. Look into CNC Kitchen. Stefan does a lot of testing only in plastic. May give you some great ideas for wood.

[@mr.huckleberry4951]

Theory on dowel size vs tension strength not being relative to surface area: The cut (or hole) going across the wood grain of a larger diameter surface exposes more fibers that are conducive to better adherence to the glue.

[@Settez123]

Love these videos!! Thanks for all your hard work!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Appreciate you watching. Thank you!

[@SawyerDesign]

You so smart. Informative and interesting, as usual. Nice work!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

I gotta work bent lamination into a video in the future 😂

[@GibsonCRG]

Solid info. Well done and well presented and leaves me thinking “well…..?” on a possible Domino purchase 😊

[@darkcoolcat]

Amazing Video, thank you. I would have loved to see how a biscuit compared.

[@MorningNapalm]

Good test, thanks. The point of the Domino is not so much to be the absolute best option, but rather to be a solid option, and to give fast, repeatable and accurate results. The pro needs a fast workflow with strong results.

[@NedMitchell-b9p]

Thanks for all the effort and analysis!

[@perrymurphy4100]

Good testing procedure. Thanks 😊

[@boyfriendsom9353]

I am a professional cabinet maker anzusehen wooden dowels very often. I was a bit surprised to see how you are glueing the dowels in. I think your results would be much better if you add glue to the hole AND the outside of the dowel before inserting it. I use only ribbed dowels and insert them as follows: applying glue to the hole with a smaller diameter dowel, then applying glue to half of the dowel, then inserting it with a hammer until some glue of the hole is coming back through the ribs. Now apply glue to the other hole and the upper half of the dowel and pressing them together. Should be much stronger.

[@Stillworks]

Fantastic as always Suman! Thank you for your work!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

Thanks dude! I'll know I will have made it when I'm in one of your parodies.

[@andre006]

I want to see more tests with the domino, as well as a test where the shear strength is being tested pulling the opposite direction, so the dowels would have to break before the boards.

[@diegodoumecq5144]

Huh, really interesting. I've been "flutting" my plain dowels by slightly and repeatedly crushing them with the serrated part of my pliers. Kinda wonder now if the crushing action is making it stronger or weaker. It certainly helps it squeeze out the glue.

[@dovesr0478]

Love these vids, hope your channel blows up!

[@alexschenck25]

Great video. Thank you.

[@Bryan-fn6lp]

Thanks, now I feel like a moron for pinning my dowel joints in my last project. I’ve seen some dowel joints come apart in cheap, old furniture from glue failure. So I thought the pins would help prevent that. But I didn’t realize how strong dowel joints are. Now I wonder if the pins will actually weaken the joints.

[@donesry2902]

@@Bryan-fn6lp I have some antique furniture and the dowl joints are not holding up. I think it’s a problem with the old glue. New glue is a better

[@NSResponder]

2:47 the dowel's not failing there, the glue is. Try it with epoxy or urethane instead of PVA.

[@chrismoore6359]

Nice video. I do want to additionally note things. First, for all of the second-round of tensile testing that all of these forces are huge and which dowel used in real life (where the forces will not be under such highly-artificial conditions) probably doesn't matter. Second, for the second round of tensile testing, the variance/standard error of the helical down is very large and if you were so use statistics if it was different than the plain dowel, they are probably not different than one another. Consistency is important, and along those likes, much to my surprise as well, it looks like those fluted ones are the way to go. Thank you!

[@WoLpH]

Very interesting test, thank you! I'm kind of wondering how these stack up to screws and nails now to be honest :)

[@RCake]

Excellent video, thank you so much!

[@dietmarfinster3176]

The reference value of the glued area without a dowel would be interesting. This power would have to be subtracted from the other values.

[@simoncapizzi9689]

Man I love Suman's videos!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

and I love you right back! Thank you for watching!

[@Itslvle]

Thank you for your hard work. It is sad that this type of content will never have the wide appeal of "Viral woodworking myth (gone sexual)" with a shock face and a female butt, but this stuff is pure gold. You're one of the few woodworkers whose videos I always watch.

[@jimbo3615]

I love your videos, you get to the point and deliver great information!

[@peybak]

Actually I saw a Japanese carpenter on IG who uses only dowels to make his doors. If you're like me (a hobbyist) you can use pocket holes in combination with dowels. That way you don't even need to clamp the pieces. But it's definitely good to hear fluted dowels are that strong, which is the type I usually go for. Plenty of those in the big box store. I have used miller dowels because they look cool, specially the walnut. I think these results are a bit disappointing though.

[@1ucasvb]

Really good analysis!

[@thomasalison6188]

Great job, thank you for putting together this test. A lot of thought & effort!

[@WoodcraftBySuman]

A lot of effort indeed. Glad you liked it!