Tool of the Month March 2017

Welcome to the March edition of Tool of the Month! This month I'll take a little look at dowel plates

Dowel plates are incredibly low tech and simple, but for making up short pegs or dowels they really can't be beaten for speeed and ease of use!

In effect all a dowel plate is, is a piece of metal with different sized holes drilled through it. Some plates use harder steels (Lie Nielsen use A2) and some utilise different shaped holes, you could make your own by drilling holes in a sash clamp!

To make a dowel using a dowel plate, first you need to cut or split some suitable timber into short slightly oversized square lengths, then shape a point on one end using a chisel, knife or pencil sharpener...

.....then hammer it through the appropriate sized hole....

...simple really!

That's all for March, look out for the next Tool of the Month post in April!