Shopsmith Forums

I’m a big fan of the Dowelmax, doweling jig. I use it because I find it much easier than making traditional mortise and tenon joints. However, that’s not what this post is about. I used it this weekend to re-enforce the miter joints on a picture frame.

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. Thanks for reading.

Berry,

I am a fan of DowelMax too. In fact I have two of them where one has the 1/4 inserts installed. I bought the center doweling jig from Shopsmith years ago and it got very little use because I always found getting exact line ups a crap shoot. DowelMax is right on the money every time.

Jack