Craftsman  Professional Dowel Kit

I borrowed this kit to make a headboard. 1x4 Aspen, 18 dowels, 36 holes. Plus 8 tape measure mistakes. It was my first time doweling. I usually don't read instructions, but glancing through them made this process a whole lot easier. My workbench has a 3/4" top that I clamped to. Some of the clamps seemed a bit short, but it worked. The clamps only spun a few times. It's better than nothing, but not perfect. A few of my holes went in at an angle despite the use of these guides. The spacers seem to be tapered about 1/2-1 deg, probably because of casting, so you have to clamp two pieces together to keep the bushings straight when going into the side of a part. Ends were no problem. I didn't drill faces yet. At half the cost of a biscuit jointer, I don't think it's really worth the price.

Before I bought this tool, I read the reviews. I took all the comments in mind when it was used. For the situation of the clamp putting marks on the boards, I put small pieces of 1/4 inch wood between the clamp and the work piece. That will take care of that problem. The drill stops will tend to move if you use too much pressure while drilling. Take your time and use a slower speed to avoid that problem. I have used that type of stop before. As far as any other problems, I had one hole that didn't line up correctly. That was do to not cleaning the wood debri that came from drilling previous holes in the assembly. So be sure to clean out as you go along. Take you time and use patience. If this is just a hobby, enjoy it.

poor instructions, poor clamps, mars wood, poor bit collars. Would not re-purchase.

I've been using this jig to strengthen edge-to-edge joints in 4/4 walnut. I don't have a big shop, I don't even have a drill press, so when I needed to join boards together I looked here. I think what you're really paying for is the allignment of the holes on the jig. Having the measurements/offsets calculated for me is a big plus. Other jigs on the market require you to put the holes directly in the middle of a board, so making corner or T joints is hard. Plan on buying new set screws for the drill stops, as another reviewer mentioned, or just put a piece of masking tape on the drill bit to mark the stopping point and be careful. The clamps will mark up your boards (not such a big deal on walnut because it's tough, but I imagine this would mar up pine pretty good). The "good" side of the board is the side away from the clamp, so use your head here and think about which side of the boards you want to look nice. The boards do not always come out 100% flush, but I buy my wood surfaced because I don't have a power planer, so that's probably my fault. They've never been off by more than 1/32nd of an inch though, so sanding it flat again is no problem. You have to really be patient when you move the jig around to make the next hole, or else the boards will move. This is one of the more expensive dowel jigs on the market... if you bought two of these you're almost on your way to a biscuit jointer. However I think the fact that it can make three kinds of joints makes it a great value for those of us who don't have the room for a lot of big tools.

I've been using this jig to strengthen edge-to-edge joints in 4/4 walnut. I don't have a big shop, I don't even have a drill press, so when I needed to join boards together I looked here. I think what you're really paying for is the allignment of the holes on the jig. Having the measurements/offsets calculated for me is a big plus. Other jigs on the market require you to put the holes directly in the middle of a board, so making corner or T joints is hard. Plan on buying new set screws for the drill stops, as another reviewer mentioned, or just put a piece of masking tape on the drill bit to mark the stopping point and be careful. The clamps will mark up your boards (not such a big deal on walnut because it's tough, but I imagine this would mar up pine pretty good). The "good" side of the board is the side away from the clamp, so use your head here and think about which side of the boards you want to look nice. The boards do not always come out 100% flush, but I buy my wood surfaced because I don't have a power planer, so that's probably my fault. They've never been off by more than 1/32nd of an inch though, so sanding it flat again is no problem. You have to really be patient when you move the jig around to make the next hole, or else the boards will move. This is one of the more expensive dowel jigs on the market... if you bought two of these you're almost on your way to a biscuit jointer. However I think the fact that it can make three kinds of joints makes it a great value for those of us who don't have the room for a lot of big tools.

it seems ok but the jig sometimes moves.. i fixed that problem by putting a peice of leather in the end of the clamp.

I have only used it a few times. The last time I used it I could not hand tighten the clamp well enough, so observing that the handle was squared, I thought a half a turn with a wrench should hold the wood in place. It did for the first hole, but the wide auxillary clamp broke when I did the second hole. It's definitely not made of metal and if it is, it awfully cheap stuff.

Very hard to center on board, need to shim. Instruction vague to generic.

This special tool does perform as advertised but could use some improvement. There is no direct way to view a mark where you want to drill a hole for a dowel, especially for corner and edge to edge joints. The circular flange on the hold down clamps leave circular marks on the wood surface. The knobs on the hold down clamps are very hard to grasp to tighten and loosen the clamp. It is almost impossible to clamp down boards shorter than 24 inches when doing edge to surface joints. I had to raise the boards with scrap 2 x 4's above my bench surface. The stop collars do not stay in the position as the drill bit heats up and makes contact the fixture. You can not get enough torque on the small set screws to tighten the stop collar to the drill bit properly. The instructions for use of this tool could provide more detail set up instructions and illustrations should depict the exact picture of a particular set up, not a generic picture of an a corner joint. There is no mention that you must flip one of the boards to get the correct grain or pattern match up or correct board orientation when doing edge to edge and corner joints. This grain or pattern match up or board orientation is particularly important when joining hardwoods for fine woodworking projects.