User Manual

4
Wooden boards are most often joined with round
dowels. Round dowels are normally produced
from beechwood and are available in various
diameters and lengths. They are inserted into a
predrilled hole and obtain their stability in wood
from the addition of wood glue. Therefore, the
surface has small longitudinal grooves, also
known as fluting, in order to achieve the
maximum stability. When the glue is
applied to the hole and the dowel
then inserted, the glue is pressed
along the dowel in the longitudinal
grooves.
Wooden dowels are also
known as fluted dowels
be cause of these grooves,
and must not be confused
with ordinary round rods.
Round rods are completely unsuitable as
dowel substitutes because they do not have
these grooves. This results in most of the glue
remaining deep in the drilled hole when the rod
is inserted, instead of being pressed out along
the rod. Every carpenter and cabinet maker
works with these round dowels when he wants
to join wooden parts quickly, without complica-
tion and extremely firmly. The home craftsman
can also easily use this extremely effective
me-
thod. Wooden dowels can be drilled into wood
either visibly or invisibly.
While even an unpractised home craftsman
achieves good results right from the start
drilling wooden dowels that are visible,
the invisible joining of wood
parts with round dowels is
significantly more difficult.
Here, the two wood parts
must be drilled on the inside,
and the two drill holes must be
positioned precisely opposite each
other. Since the necessary precision
of drilling is rarely achieved just by marking the
centre drilling point with pencil and rule, dowel-
ling aids or dowel templates are used to help in
positioning the dowels.
Corner and T joints:
In furniture construction, almost any cabinet can
be made with these two types of joint. The round
dowel is thus exceptionally well suited to the
construction of furniture. Whether chairs, tables,
or even cabinets, round dowels are found every-
where as the joining element, and every one of
these joints can be classified either as an L-sha-
ped corner joint (upper circle) or a T joint (lower
circle).
Face joints:
With round dowels, boards can even be leng-
thened in area, or joined at the corner to form a
frame. Reinforcement of the mitring of a picture
frame is also an excellent field of use for round-
dowels.
The round dowel
Field of use of the round dowel
The dowel joint
Field of use of the round dowel
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