Wood working:Dry fitting?

[CalG]

Dowels are good! but I don't like smooth ones. There are sizing plates that groove the dowels when pushed through.

Rolling the dowels under a coarse rasp with heavy pressure works too. So does just producing rough facets by rubbing on sand paper. Anything to prevent a tight fitting dowel.

Got to leave room for the glue!

 

[N80]

Your use of dowels is just fine. Also, what you were told regarding required jointery for end/side grain is spot on.

One thing that may make doweling easier for you is sizing the dowel before use. I have a 1/4" thick steel plate with 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" reamed holes I made years ago. The dowel is simply driven through the appropriate hole to size it assuring good fits.

Using air dried lumber for interior projects can be tricky. 12% is about as dry as you can get; it usually takes way longer than a year too. Are you using an accurate meter? Know that wood usually climatizes to 10% in heated homes (throughout the nation). Cross-grain jointery (in completed projects) captures the wood and trys to prevent it from moving. Dry wood is compressed as it heads toward 10% MC. Wet wood (>12%) will try and shrink as it heads toward 10% and crack when it is prevented from doing so. Be sure of your MC if you are determined to use air dried lumber.

Thanks. Good info. I think I have a decent moisture meter but it is only measures surface. Readings varied among boards from 12-16%. The tree was a blow down and had been dead for about a year but trunk was not touching the ground so no rot at all. I know the wood wouldn't dry out much before milling but maybe some? Was milled about a year ago. It might have been 18 months.

This is a learning process for me. Doing without a table saw, jointer or router table makes things even more challenging. Fortunately these shelves will be going in a utility closet that doubles as my cloths closet so it will only be seen by me and my wife. As long as cracking doesn't compromise it structurally I will chalk it up to a learning experience.

 

[N80]

Dowels are good! but I don't like smooth ones. There are sizing plates that groove the dowels when pushed through.

Rolling the dowels under a coarse rasp with heavy pressure works too. So does just producing rough facets by rubbing on sand paper. Anything to prevent a tight fitting dowel.

Got to leave room for the glue!

Thanks. These dowels are fluted for what its worth. Can't speak to the quality of them or the value of the fluting; they're just what I happened to buy.

 

[dougtrr2]

I tend to use a lot of dowels. Part of that is because I have an old, 1902, double spindle horizontal boring machine. I also have some 25/64th bits for those dowels that are a bit oversized.

Doug in SW IA