Joinery
Pocket Screws, Dowels or Mortise and Tenon: Picking the Joint
Table of Contents
Demo content — Kerfline & Co. is a fictional woodshop. This site is a demo of the KeoCodes Site Engine: the maker, plans, prices, reviews and town stand in for a real shop's, checkout charges nothing, and nothing sent from here reaches anybody.
Pocket screws
Fast, strong enough for cabinets and shop furniture, and the screws pull the joint tight so you need fewer clamps. The holes show, so they go on the inside or the bottom. The outfeed table uses them.
Dowels
Hidden, cheap, and strong in glue. They need accurate drilling, so use a doweling jig. Good for edge-joining tops and simple frames.
Mortise and tenon
The strongest joint for a table or chair, because it resists racking. It takes the longest. The bedside table and the workbench use it.
Rule of thumb
Shop furniture: pocket screws. Anything you'll sit on or lean on: mortise and tenon. Anything people will see the joint on: dovetails, because they look like the work they took.
1 read
Was this useful?
Questions & comments
Questions about a plan are welcome. I answer most within a couple of days.
Be the first to comment.