As everyone on this forum will know, miters on picture frames are inherently weak. Just those small end grain areas of glue. Using splines to re-enforce miters is a great method and with contrasting wood very attractive. They are not very difficult if you have a decent table saw. But the frame I was working on had a profile, with a concave surface, on the outer edge. While this doesn’t prevent using a spline it makes it more difficult.
I could and have stapled the back of the frame. That’s fast and cheap but it’s not a very professional looking project.
And there is the biscuit joint. I have a nice biscuit joiner but for some reason it doesn’t get used in my shop very often. So I don’t know how difficult it would be to set up to re-enforce mitered corners.
So on to the Dowelmax. In making mortise and tenon joints I use a 3/8” dowel but for the frame I need a ¼”. So I changed the drilling sleeves and set up a test. Then moved to the project and drilled all 8 holes. The whole process took about 15 minutes.
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