WoodworkingONLINE.com

You can sharpen your woodworking skills with helpful tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines. Get a FREE tip sent to your email address each week! Go to WoodworkingTips.com and sign up today.Here’s last week’s tip from ShopNotes online editor Phil Huber:

Drilling a centered hole in a dowel can be a challenge. It’s hard to get the drill bit centered and keep the dowel from turning as the hole is drilled. To make it easier, I built the jig shown below.

Build the jig by first drilling a hole the diameter of the dowel in a piece of hardwood. Then just cut a saw kerf through the hole from the end to make a clamp.

Using the jig is simple. Begin by centering the dowel under the bit. To do this, clamp a piece of scrap wood to the table and drill a hole to fit the dowel. Then change out the bit to the size needed.

Next, slip the dowel into the hole in the scrap wood. Then slip the clamping jig over the dowel and squeeze the kerf together with a small clamp. Now you can clamp the jig in place and drill the hole in the center of the dowel.

To learn more essential woodworking tips and techniques, just go to: http://www.plansnow.com/basics.html.

Good Woodworking,

Phil Huber
Online Editor, ShopNotes

Posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 4:04 pm. Filed under ShopNotes Magazine, WoodNet.net, WoodworkingTips.com.
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