That was my original thought but a guy at work whose opinion I generally trust said glue/dowels would be as good or better as long as I do a good job of clamping and letting the glue throughly cure.JPG40504 wrote:BTW I used tie rods(about 3' apart) rather than glue/dowels for the 2x4s stood on edge. Planed the top flat. Still flat after 40 years.
Since I'm doing the trough with 2x3's I think dowels actually help me out. Especially if I do a 1 1/2" trough at front and rear rather than 3" at front. When I dry fit the top together I'll decide. I'm doing a a pair of dowels high and low rather than centered because of the shorter pieces, spaced every 2 ft, total of 10 dowels. That way I can start and stop when I get to a trough.
I'm also going to glue and dowel all the doubled up 2x4's in the base, but where 4 laps come together I am going to through bolt on account of the material being thinner.