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Flush-cutting dowels, corner keys or screw-hole plugs used to frustrate me because my saw’s teeth always left scratches on the project’s surface. Rather than buy a special flush-cutting saw, I [...]

I find cutting dowels on the band saw to be a hassle. For one thing, the blade can grab the round stock and twist it out of your hand if you’re not using a support cradle guided by the miter …

Destroying 10 joints taught us surprising lessons about joint design, wood failure and the tenacity of modern glue. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the December 2005 [...]

Bob Flexner walks you through all the steps in repairing an antique factory-made chair that is glued with animal hide glue.

I have to admit that I’m not very fond of dowel joinery. I’ve repaired too many old dowel joints over the years to trust them. Part of the problem is that a dowel hole in face grain offers only [...]

I often need to find the center of a board for resawing (and other purposes). A quick way to do this is to use a cheap doweling jig and brad-point drill bit to mark the center, then set your [...]

I recently made a couple of recipe boxes with finger joints. I didn’t have enough regular clamps to glue both boxes at once, so I decided to use band clamps. During my dry run, I discovered that [...]

Staple Set Pneumatic staplers don’t always set 1/4” crown staples flush.  Driving them the rest of the way with a hammer causes the staples to kink,  so I designed this easy-to-make tool, which I [...]

We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations. An exercise in dowel-making without a lathe During my formative years as a [...]

Tool: 08350 Dowelling Jig Master Kit Manufacturer: JessEm Price: $195 Dowel joints are a strong, simple and low-cost method of building furniture. All you need is a jig and a drill. Decent jigs [...]

Editors note: This item no longer appears to be available. Dowels and loose tenons have been around for some time. Both have stood the test of time, making strong, simple, reliable joints. While [...]