Do you own this simple dowel jig?

[D_W]

Check out Hooked On Wood on YouTube. Dennis has reviewed almost every dowelling jig you can buy on Banggood with detailed reviews

Call me an old crank, but the only reason we're seeing all of these banggood reviews is because they pay "reviewers" a HUGE commission on link throughs. Amazon pays something like 3-4% and I've gotten emails about banggood (God only knows why they would send them to me - I guess because I have a very low traffic youtube channel) offering numbers like 30% or something.

That's not in the last couple of weeks and I'm sure those will go down over time - they're just trying to move people to their platform, but it makes me really irked over "Review" channels that really only want to farm viewers.

Edit: phew - it's way down - I just followed the link. It's about 6% for general items, but my cranky premise remains the same - the reviews don't happen without the ability to farm viewers with a salesman's smile "hi friends!". blech.

 

[skeetstar]

The Joint Genie is a good tool - accurate and versatile - but I constantly find myself thinking that a few simple changes would make it so much better. Why not, for example, thread the transverse holes used to hold the shims? And why not supply proper thumbscrews for the end tabs (I’ve done that anyway)? And a bit of engraving (marking L and R sides, numbering the dowel holes, perhaps). I’ve made and 3D printed some add-ons that make the device much easier to use.

Yer right Geoff, hole numbering would be an excellent upgrade. Would certainly add a few percentage points on the ease of use scale.
As someone said below it is an expensive tool, but after trying lots of other recommended options I got tired of things being done almost accurately.. and bit tne bullet and paid out for it. Not regretted it though.

 

[bluenose]

This is mine, I've had it for many years and it is absolutely brilliant. Very accurate and stable as the units are clamped in place.

WOLFCRAFT 3750 000 WOOD DOWELLING JIG SET 6 8 10 mm DRILL SIZES 3750000 | eBay

Here's another illustration
Wolfcraft 3750000 Universal Dowelling Set, for all types of dowel connections: Maxedbuy.co.uk

 

[transatlantic]

Call me an old crank, but the only reason we're seeing all of these banggood reviews is because they pay "reviewers" a HUGE commission on link throughs. Amazon pays something like 3-4% and I've gotten emails about banggood (God only knows why they would send them to me - I guess because I have a very low traffic youtube channel) offering numbers like 30% or something.

That's not in the last couple of weeks and I'm sure those will go down over time - they're just trying to move people to their platform, but it makes me really irked over "Review" channels that really only want to farm viewers.

Edit: phew - it's way down - I just followed the link. It's about 6% for general items, but my cranky premise remains the same - the reviews don't happen without the ability to farm viewers with a salesman's smile "hi friends!". blech.

I think you're right for the most part, but it's all about finding youtubers you can trust for an honest review.

I find both HookedOnWood and BischBaschBosch to be very honest and give a review that I would trust. They often give an unfavourable review of bangood products for example. Which is great, because it appears that the manufacturers actually listen and fix the issues.

 

[transatlantic]

Another thing to point out with these dowel jigs is that they're mostly designed for sheet material type joints.

Where as the more expensive types like the DowelMax, Joint Genie or Bangood ones are also good at doing furniture type joints.

As for the accuracy of the bangood stuff, in my experience it's been fine. I have a few dowel jigs from them, and they're perfectly symetrical where needed. One common thing they suffer from though is ease of use. You can tell they're designed by a CAD engineer rather than a woodworker.

 

[Spectric]

Don't trust any reviews at face value, do your own research and take the reviews with a pinch of salt because they are just a marketing ploy, often to shift goods that have got stuck on the shelf. The same with youtube, you need to find the few flowers amongst a huge carpet of weeds and even then I find you need to connect with that person, some just go into waffle overdrive, using fifty words to say just ten or make it to obvious they are pushing a brand or product. Now we also have an excess of adverts that have no connection to the subject mater of the you tube vid.

HookedOnWood has given me some great ideas and comes over as knowing what he is doing, BischBaschBosch is also good for product reviews and seems neutral from what I have seen, the wood grafter can be ok although I am sure his brother is Mike from wheeler dealers.

When it comes to a dowel jig I doubt there is anything out there that matches the engineering of a Dowelmax, it is such a great tool and so precise, once you get the method of tick alignment in your head and if only my XL700 could match it's accuracy so easily. There is no sloppyness in a 10mm dowel, yet I have used two rows of six groups of three dowels along an edge and perfect alignment, but alignment is fast, drilling is slower and when you get so many dowels the gluing and assembly becomes very tedious and you need to work making sub sections rather than one big assembly. But just look at what it can do.

 

[transatlantic]

It's a shame the DowelMax is not available in the UK. I did look at getting one from the US, but importing costs put me off.

 

[D_W]

I think you're right for the most part, but it's all about finding youtubers you can trust for an honest review.

I find both HookedOnWood and BischBaschBosch to be very honest and give a review that I would trust. They often give an unfavourable review of bangood products for example. Which is great, because it appears that the manufacturers actually listen and fix the issues.

There's a necessary evil element to it, much like there is with politics or business leadership. That is, the average person who idealizes that someone would spend their own dime, be experienced, and then do all of the little nitty demands (for example, I won't clean my shop, I won't make a script to talk through and won't edit or have a second person doing the camera - all of these make for terrible videos - it probably takes a couple of days of man/woman hours to make a good video and do all of those. If you don't, it takes about 40 minutes to do a 20 minute video (less if you don't watch the video at all).

Realistically, the channels that do the things that will bring them to the top will only be run by people turning on ads, and you're secondary in the process. The channel and the ability to get revenue from it and perhaps to get sponsorship is by far first, and the person seeking those will outwork anyone else. Just like most business leadership will rise to the top when they can get past the idea of considering everyone else all the time (which is idealistically wonderful, and competitively limiting).

Just my opinion, but I tend to view channels like that only when they are reviewing something that I want or absolutely need, but you can see by the viewership that there's a very strong contingent of folks who watch everything whether they want it or not.

That's the "magic of the internet" stronger than anything else that I can recall - if you watch things that you can buy, you will buy more of them, even if you think you won't. It works on me even though I know they sprayed the magic dust in the air, so to speak. It's so bad that even if I get fascinated and start talking about stuff on my own, I'll buy more if it when I don't necessarily need to.

 

[stuart little]

Same here, the Dowelmax is very precise and it's only drawback is that it can be very slooooow. An issue with the banggood version is accuracy, the five dowel holes must be identical from both ends which the Dowelmax is, any error is noticed when you do the opposite side holes and have to reference from the opposite end and is where the cheaper ones fail. It can also take a bit of getting used to initially, you must not overthink it which is to easy to do rather than just stick with the ticks.

Exactly, that's where the 'copy falls down, just as Mr, Dowelmax said. Probably a way out for the 'pirates' if they're sued!

 

[stuart little]

It's a shame the DowelMax is not available in the UK. I did look at getting one from the US, but importing costs put me off.

It was available here when I bought mine, but I think the guy has now retired.

 

[jonn]

Hiya,
I'm after a simple dowel jig, I've seen this one online and on you tube, just before I buy it asking if anyone has one or has made one and worth it or completely stay clear?
I'll be doing edge to edge work 99% of the time.
Cheers.

Stick with the Wolfcraft Dowelmaster, and take the time to learn to use it. It is good value for money, and when you get the grip on how to use it, it will become a very handy tool for many sorts of joinery. But like so many things, the applications are not always bleedin' obvious, but you'll enjoy it when you master them.

 

[transatlantic]

Wolfcraft Dowelmaster might be ok for wide sheet material type joints, but it's going to be difficult to get it working accurately for anything else. It also works by aligning the tool to the dowel itself, which is going to introduce error.

 

[Linus]

Hi Chris.
From the outset let me apologise if I'm over-simplifying your needs.
I understand that you will be doing mainly edge doweling. The attached shows a very simple doweling jig that
can be made fairly easily and is perfectly accurate every time.

That is basically the same as one I saw on Paul Sellers blog except instaead of a hole for drilling you put a steel pin/nail in the centre and it gives you a marking gauge for centre of a board edge. Handy and cheap!

 

[Tony Zaffuto]

I think you're right for the most part, but it's all about finding youtubers you can trust for an honest review.

I find both HookedOnWood and BischBaschBosch to be very honest and give a review that I would trust. They often give an unfavourable review of bangood products for example. Which is great, because it appears that the manufacturers actually listen and fix the issues.

Watch the multiple brands on the “Hooked on Wood” reviews. Most, if not all are sold on Bangood. One is generally acceptable, with the others not so much. Are the reviews accurate/truthful? No idea, but many of these items are aimed for those revving their engines, getting ready to woodwork, not really getting off the starting line.