CRAFTSMANSHIP
Boatbuilder’s Notes
By Robin Gates
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Making dowels BY ROBIN GATES A sure way of ensuring dowels are a 1
good fit is to make them using a dowel plate, if you can find one of the right size. Lie-Nielsen make both metric and imperial plates (costing around £70) but lacking a hole for
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the 7/16in (11.1m) dowels favoured by some joiners. An alternative is to bore a plate to the size you need, or better still find one already bored for another purpose. For 7/16in dowels the mounting holes in a sturdy field gate hook (costing £7) were spot-on. For strong dowels use dry straight-grained wood which can be rived into square-sectioned blanks (1). The blanks are approximately rounded using a plane inverted in the vice (2), aiming for slightly greater than final diameter. Next position the plate over a dog hole in the bench and hammer the over-sized blanks through the hole (3).
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You might need to experiment; some find the plate works better if the hole is tapered on the exit side, but I achieve better results with a taper filed at the top of the hole (4). The blanks are easier to start if pointed slightly with a knife. So that surplus glue can escape as the dowel is knocked home, the doing this but I find a tenon saw effective, using a shop-made slotted jig to guide the blade (5). Next cut the dowels to length, for which a bench hook is useful, and lastly bevel the ends to ease fitting, for which I use an inverted Surform block plane – a tool with a blade like a
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cheese grater (6). Where boards are glued edge-to-edge,
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well-fitting dowels
2 Using an inverted plane to round corners
reinforce the
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Hammering a blank through the dowel plate
chemical bond
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A fistful of dowels ready for grooving
with considerable
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The grooving jig guides the saw
physical strength
6 Bevelling ends to ease fitting
(7).
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Riving blanks from straight-grained timber
CLASSIC BOAT SEPTEMBER 2021
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Preparing the joint for assembly
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ROBIN GATES
sides are grooved from top to bottom. There are several ways of
