Richelieu R88708 Professional Doweling Kit

There are many doweling jigs out there that perform well; what sets this one apart from the others is that you can align and cut dowels into two boards at the same time. Dowel alignment can be tricky when just attempting to edge join two boards of the same thickness and length. Not all boards are created equal, you have slight twists or cups to potentially deal with. Add to the complexity the task of joining boards at various angles (think 45 degree mitered picture frame parts) and perhaps you can understand why the ability to line up both boards and drill the dowels at the same time can be a real advantage. Dowel holes have to be precise and misaligned holes are not forgiving in a project.I recently used this jig to build an A frame for a quilting rack. Many of the boards were at 15+ degree angles. The results were excellent and looked as if performed by a professional (which I am not by any means). This jig will not replace the need for other jigs. It has width limitations for one thing. But if you are working with dowel joinery with tricky angles and less than perfect boards, this jig will save you big headaches.

I bought this to do some basic woodwork around the house. I made my wife a mission style full length mirror and a red oak book stand for her textbooks. I looked at many styles and price ranges for dowel jigs and decided on this one.It works fantastic! The dowel holes are precise and fit perfectly. The other reviews that talk about not lining up etc can only be attributed to the initial markings of the hole location.I plan on buying another jig so I can use the small clamp in the middle of a job and use the drill clamps on the ends, eliminates any movement during jig placement.If you are looking for a great, easy to use product, this is it. I have used it free hand with no clamping and even that worked very well.Given it is not "professional grade", for the weekend dusty warrior, it cant be beat.

Having just started to use this doweling jig kit, I am writing this preliminary review to clarify an important feature of the device. As many have pointed out, the key advantage of this jig vis a vis others is that the two workpieces to be joined are drilled in one setup, so that no measuring or other alignment step is needed. This is very useful. What was not clear to me before using the jig was how the dowel holes were positioned relative to the workpiece edges. Some jigs, for example, automatically center the dowels on the workpiece edges. As it turns out, the design of the Wolfcraft 3751405 jig is such that the dowels are always located at a certain fixed distance from one edge, not generally centered. Moreover, each dowel diameter (1/4", 5/16" or 3/8") has a different fixed setback. The measured setback values are 0.25", 0.31" and 0.37" respectively, which means the dowels would be fairly well centered (but not exactly) for stock thicknesses of 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" respectively. The instructions recommend using 1/4" dowels for stock from 1/2" to 9/16", 5/16" dowels for 9/16" to 11/16", and 3/8" dowels for stock from 11/16" to 15/16". Therefore, in many cases the dowels will be pretty far off-center along the joint. The product description says that stock up to 1 1/4" thick can be used, but in that case the asymmetry would be huge.This is sort of OK, in that if the instructions are followed explicitly, the holes in the two paired workpieces will be off-center by the same amount and in the same direction, and thus the dowelled assembly will come out OK. However, this kind of asymmetry bothers my sense of craftsmanship and may weaken the joint, so I have shimmed both sides of the jig's separator plates with tape (depending on the stock thickness) to cause the holes to be approximately centered. For example, with regular 15/32" plywood, the necessary shims are about 0.020" each (5 layers of my masking tape). This fix only works for stock that is thinner than the nominal for each dowel diameter, however. For thicker stock, there is no obvious solution, although one could alternate dowel offsets, with every other dowel located off center in a zig-zag pattern. Fortunately, for my current projects the shim fix works well. I have dropped one star due to this "feature". Otherwise, the product quality is reasonable for the price -- not a precision machine by any means, but good enough for routine work.

This is a must for the diy guy. This took my trade to the next level with efficiency and professional accuracy. I work in a high level custom wood shop. This is for garage projects when I don't have the biscuit joiner. Does the same job and honestly is not all that much more time consuming. 1000$ or less than 40.... no Brainer