Dowelmax vs. The Biscuit
Some time ago, I posted about dowels, splines, and their kin (plus a completely random tangent about my finger near the end). A reader wrote in to say:
“You talk about this amazing DowelMax doweling jig. But I can get a cheap doweling jig for a lot less money, or a great biscuit joiner for the same price. Is it really worth it?”
The short answer is, YES. In terms of usefullness-per-dollar, this sucker is near the top of my list. It absolutely blows away the competition for accuracy, ease of use, speed, and strength. Pretty impressive for a hunk of machined aluminum.
A full review is forthcoming (the good folks at OMS Tool provided me with a sample so I could stop borrowing Mike‘s), but I wanted to share the results of one early experiment with you.
I have a pretty good biscuit joiner–a Freud JS100, to be exact. I decided to do a head-to-head, Biscuits vs. the Dowelmax comparison. This was pretty easy. I made two cuts in a walnut board, then doweled one and biscuited the other.
As a side note, I wasn’t working particularly hard at aligning either joint, but the Dowelmax one came out perfectly flush anyway, while the biscuit was about 1/16th off. I applied glue to the biscuit and the dowels and clamped.
I waited a full week before giving it a smack. I grabbed the board firmly by both edges and slammed it down on a pipe in the center to distribute the force equally to both joints. It occurred to me that I might bruise my palms bashing this thing against the pipe, but on the very first smack:
I think that pretty much speaks for itself.
It’ll take me a while to get the full Dowelmax review up, but if you can’t wait, I’ll give you a preview: sell your biscuit joiner for scrap metal and hawk the biscuits on street corners. Take your crappy doweling jig and raffle it off for charity. Do whatever you need to get yourself a Dowelmax. You’ll thank me for it.
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