furniture making and flat pack furniture with cam dowels

Fred · 2012-05-04T10:18:33+00:00

Hi,I've noticed that all flat pack furniture, regardless of what it is,follows the same general construction: two rigid sides, a rigid top,and a flimsy back. I guess they use a flimsier piece of wood for theback to save money? The top of the sides and the bottom of the top aredrilled to accept dowels and/or cam dowels, like these: day, when I find time, I would like to have a go at making my ownfurniture. I know it won't be as quick or as cheap as buying flatpack, but where's the fun in that ?! I'm sure there must be a goodbook I could buy about this. Can anyone recommend one?I can see that I would use a forstner bit to drill the hole for thecam lock and a pillar drill to accurately drill the holes for thedowels and cam dowels.I don't have a pillar drill at the moment. I do have to drill throughbits of wood for various projects and sometimes my holes are not asperpendicular as I would like, so I think a pillar drill would beuseful. I have used google groups to search for old posts about pillardrills and I have found a few recommending a 500w motor but looking atAxminster, most of them seem to be lower than this, around the 300Wmark, unless you go for an expensive floor standing one. Is that theonly way to get the bigger motor?Machine mart sell "Clarke metalworker" models but I'm only interestedin woodworking. What's the difference? MM also list different tapersfor different models. I've heard of Morse tapers but what are theother types and what are the advantages /disadvantages of them?And one last question about the furniture, if drilling a hole into thetop of a side piece, is the best way to rotate the table 90 degreesand clamp the piece to that? That could be difficult if you want tobuild a tall wardrobe/bookcase/etc. as you would need the drill to betaller than the piece. I don't suppose there is any other way, such asa drill that rotates!TIA

May 04, 2012 24 Replies

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Fred 14 years ago

Is that by Hylton and Matlack? I must admit, the router is not my favourite tool. A good book would boost my confidence with it.

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John Rumm 14 years ago

The posh ones do, but a basic one can be had for £40 or so.

If you want cheap easy joins, then have a look at something like a pocket hole jig...

A bit corny, but you get the idea:

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biscuit jointing is also very cheap once you have the machine:

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John Rumm 14 years ago

Hugely versatile tool once you get a bit of practice with it.

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The Medway Handyman 14 years ago

You can buy a drill guide like this

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which gives surprisingly good results. Axminster also have a good selection of doweling jigs.

Another option is to screw it together & use a plug cutter to hide the screws.

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Fred 14 years ago

I think there is a new edition due to be published in August. I wonder whether to wait that long?

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