We recently moved to Kelowna and our bedroom has an enormous fireplace right in the middle of one wall, at first I thought it was a bloody monstrosity, until the cold snap. Suddenly and without warning, breakfast in bed, at the weekend, with the local paper, and a raging fire became very appealing. It’s a hard life in Canada!!
The reason for having to make two identical dressers, is to balance the fireplace wall visually. Well I finished the first dresser, over two hundred hours, and counting. So now I only have to complete one additional dresser, one bench, two end tables, and a bed. I thought this was supposed to be a labour of love and fun, maybe its evidence of inherent masochistic tendencies. I’m joking of course, I did enjoy the process, but there’s a long way to go. The dresser was 100% dowel construction, thank God. Can you imagine doing 77 m & t joints?? I also taped the joint surfaces, then prepped, stained, and sprayed all partially assembled parts, before final gluing and clamping. Instead of lacquer I thinned Varathane and sprayed, the result was very pleasing, a lacquer look alike, but with more protection. I should add Alder is my favourite wood - but a pain to stain.
I should mention the second dresser is about 75% complete. For a change I made the very wise decision to construct both simultaneously. I intend showing both in a promotional video, sort of before and after so to speak. We machined longer stepped aluminum dowels to provide an exploded view of the assembly. That’s been quite successful. I’m including photos but I’m not happy with the photo of the finished dresser, I couldn’t get the light quite right, but it’ll have to do.
Bye the way all six drawers, were made with Dowelmax in the face configuration, using ¼” dowels, and that was tremendously successful.
We are heading to Maui in February, and if we take the laptop, I’ll do some blogging while sipping my Mai Tai, under a palm tree, watching the whales, turtles, surfers and sunsets. Back in March. Aloha and Mahalo till then.
Hello Jim, I purchased my Dowelmax a while ago and I just started using it. After some learning curve experiences, I am amazed at the simple accuracy of the device. I love it! I really like the dresser and I was wondering if you built the top panel, and how are the side panels assembled?
ReplyDeleteD.A. Lemak, New Jersey
Hi Mr. Lemak - thank you for your comment on the Blog. The top of the dresser incorporates about 9 joints with the wood grain going in different directions. I do this for effect, however it creates 2 problems, (1) expansion and/or contraction leading to splitting and (2) staining evenly. I think I have solved (1) by undercutting the boards on the bottom side to a depth of about 3/8 inch, on the table saw. This has been successful over the last few jobs. The staining is still a minor problem. The two front corners are mitered.
ReplyDeleteThe end panels are routed with a flat panel (floating). The glued corners of the raised panels are strengthened by 2 x ¼ inch dowels in each corner.
For your information, I used the quarter inch set up on the drawers, using Dowelmax in the second configuration (face joint). The faced plywood is ½ inch thick, therefore I penetrate 3/8 inch into the face and 1 1/8 inch into the end.
Thanks again for your comments.
Hi Jim, I have a suggestion for the business: Make plans available to Dowelmax customers.
ReplyDeleteSince I bought my Dowelmax, I have been adapting plans here and there. It is just luck, but none of the plans I've chosen were very easy.
You've designed & built a ton of furniture with Dowelmax. Why not put the plans into PDF format and make them available for sale to Dowelmax customers? Heck, make them availabe to *anyone.* I've bought a few plans from WOOD magazine's website. (the whole Craftsman bedroom set) They range from $3 to something like $10.
This would save DM users from having to adapt existing plans or make their own designs if they like yours.
My sister's a masterful freelance graphic designer, and I'm a woodworker. I don't know if she'd be willing to do it for free, but maybe I can talk her into doing one for cheap if you promise to send her future business.
Why don't you send me your measured drawings or whatever of your dresser that you just built and I'll see what I can do? (I won't use them, as I'm commited to Craftsman style already) Even if I can't get my sister to participate, I'm sure I can make them into something that can be easily shared or sold. I hate to read about DM not being profitable.
Greetings Jim,
ReplyDeleteI’m a proud owner of two dowelmax units. I just love the product.
Recently I had a thought (I’m allowed only a few a year) that might end the debate over joint strength.
If my understanding is correct, that dowels are as strong (or stronger) as any other joint, then the only real issue is length and depth of the joint. From what I’ve seen from every test in major magazines and on the internet, the joint fails where the dowels (or tenon) end.
So, my solution in the case where you want maximum strength is to drill from the other side. At least two options exist: After drilling out dowel holes for every other hole for the internal joint, use miller dowels, or drill secondary holes with the dowelmax that overlap the first set of holes from the outside of the joint. This solution would create an interlace of dowels preventing the wood from breaking at the end of the joint.
Granted, the piece would need to support the look of dowels from the other end. However, if you want an easy way of producing the strongest joint possible, this may be your final answer. In addition, by including these techniques in the instructions, any future tests by independent groups would have a hard time ignoring the “maximum strength” technique because it is in the instructions.
It may be much to ask, but I would love to see a test (and based on some of my own minimal tests) that put this issue to bed.
Just a thought.
I wish you the best.
Bob Q
Jim: Glad to see you folks are updated. I haven't been to the site for a bit and I was glad to see your company is progressing. I have two things I would like to point out. regarding any question of joint quality, or product quality, or any other aspect of the DM. Just try to buy one used. If you can't find one used then it means one of two things. Either the product was never made or no one is stupid enough to let go of theirs. I keep looking since I love mine and suspect that everyone else loves theirs as well.
ReplyDeleteI too think that you could do the company a favor if there is a plan site or even a plan exchange where users can offer their plans to other DM users for $$ or free. I bought some cad software just to get some plans drawn up for the DM. Kreg publishes a CD of plans for their pocket jig, and you might want to consider the same. In fact the plans would be the same since the DM and pocket screws use butt joints for measurements and cut lists.