Review on Wolfcraft 3751405 Dowel Pro Doweling by Nick Reddy

I've just started using this dowel kit, so I'm writing this preview to highlight an important feature of the device. As previously mentioned, a key advantage of this jig over others is that the two pieces to be joined are drilled in one fixture, eliminating the need for measurement or other alignment steps. It's very useful. What was not clear to me prior to using the jig was how the dowel holes were located relative to the edges of the workpiece. For example, some jigs automatically center the pins on the edges of the workpiece. As it turned out, the design of the Wolfcraft 3751405 machine is such that the keys are always at a certain fixed distance from one edge, not at all in the middle. Also, each dowel diameter (1/4", 5/16" or 3/8") has a different fixed offset. The measured offset values are 0.25", 0.31" and 0.37" respectively. . The dowels are fairly well centered (but not exactly) for 1/2", 5/8", and 3/4" thick workpieces respectively. The instructions recommend using 1/4" dowels for workpieces with 1/2" to 9/16", 5/16" dowels for sizes 9/16 to 11/16" and 3/8" dowels for standard sizes 11/16 to 15/16 inches the dowels are quite far from the center of the joint in many cases.The product description says you can use material up to 1 1/4" thick, but in this case the asymmetry will be huge. will be by the same amount and be off-center in the same direction, and hence the pin assembly will come out fine.However, this asymmetry interferes with my sense of craftsmanship and can weaken the connection, so I sewed both sides of the jig divider plates with tape (depending on the thickness of the workpiece) that way that the holes are roughly in the middle.For example, are for regular 15/32" lock wood the required spacers about .020" each (5 layers of my masking tape). Fix only works for material that is thinner than nominal for each dowel diameter, however for thicker material there is no obvious solution, although it is possible to alter the dowel offsets so that every other dowel is off center in a zigzag pattern. , for my current sh projects works fine in the fix. I'm deducting a star for this "feature". Otherwise the quality of the product matches the price - by no means an exact machine but good enough for routine work.