20 Best Self Centering Dowel Jig (2023 Updated)

It takes a little to learn how to use it, be firm with the grip and how you hold it and light it up. I used this on my very first dowel project and even with my errors, I still highly recommend this item.

It works, it’s built really solid and it stores just as good if not better than most other jigs. I was honestly surprised at how solid this jig felt.

The directions are clear and shows you how to do all the projects you want with ease. It is a nice size and is not heavy. The price was awesome.

I needed to edge glue two 3/4 inch pine boards to repair a broken night stand table top, and this jig helped me to align the pieces perfectly.

Everything arrived on time and in great condition. The fit and finish is excellent. Setup and use are straightforward. I’m very satisfied with everything about the tool and purchase process. My only wish is that Jessem would provide a case to hold everything.

There are more pieces than you might think. Considering the price and quality of this jig, the cheap cardboard packaging was the wrong place to cut costs, no fault to Infinity. Even tools of half the cost and quality often have a carry bag or case.

A plastic carry case with foam inset seems reasonable, not only to protect and keep up with all the components but especially for those of us who will use it both in the shop and at the job site.

Same video as he referenced and I did see the misalignment at 2:19. Also the same video, at the end shows $50 for cost, but now it is $199. Wow! How long ago was that video made. Pretty big inflation no matter when.

Awesome dowel jig just got it still need to try it out I really liked the many ways you can drill the dowels put for precisely! I purchased it to make decorative joints!

Excellent product. I have used it to dowel the edge-glued panels of an old maple desk, where the edge-glued seams had come apart. I put 3 x 1/4″ dowels along a 30″-long panel to hold the two halves of the edge-glued panel together.

Accuracy was very good — the joint was as smooth as it was when I laid the pieces together pre-doweling. Make sure you use a good, sharp drill bit. I used the Rockler Dowel Pin Assortment Kit https://www.

rockler. com/dowel-pin-kit-assortment #19661. Only drawback is it’s one hole at a time. But for smaller projects, it’s very quick and accurate.

Pros: It’s sturdy, heavyweight, and will last a long while. If you get the kit it comes with a lot of supplies (dowels). Cons: I guess I need to watch some more tutorials cause it doesn’t seem to help with perfect alignment of holes (in regards to joinery); it does however ensure that the holes you make are straight and clean.

Seems like a good product and I gave it 4 stars cause there’s probably a lot of user error involved and I didn’t want to penalize for that.

inexpensive tool that makes dowell rod joinery easy and accurate, even on butt joints.i have zero complaints with this product

Great product does a great job for me. Thank you.

Is Rockler serious?? “Great for large jobs such as swing sets and outdoor structures!” using 1/4″ to 1/2″ dowels?? I wouldn’t build a swing set for my kids with 1/2″ dowels. Be prepared for emergency room visits and lawsuits.

I purchased this specifically to drill for alignment dowels in knock-down bed rail hardware, also found through rockler. I used it to drill out 1/2 in holes through 2 1/8″ thick solid walnut. The alignment was pretty good, not perfect.

Human error is definitely a factor. by the 20th time or so I clamped in a piece of wood, I noticed that the lower halves of the aluminum jaws were splaying out and no longer parallel to one another. It appears that the pins keeping the jaws parallel were flexing under normal clamping forces.

I expect more from such an expensive jig. It performed its duty on one single bed frame and I’m not sure how many more projects it has left in it. I’m underwhelmed by it’s build quality.

I ordered this based on the excellent reviews on this page and a review of the item on Youtube. I did not need this item immediately due to some family issue so the item was place on the shelf until I started the project.

First, the shipping box was intact and undamaged but the product box was in pieces and tapped together with clear shipping tape but it appeared that all the pieces appeared to be there. I then proceeded to perform a test on a piece of scrap.

This turned out to be a VERY good idea because it was a complete disaster. The jig did not center on the 3/4″ board (it was about 3/16″ off center) drilled the hole and the hole was at about 10 degree angle and almost came out the side.

Tightened the jig again and re-tried the hole with the same result. I took a closer look at the jig and one of the jaws was canted and not engaging flush to the board. Called customer service but it was outside the 30 return and they could not help.

Lesson learned. Always open and test item from new places of business you buy from. This was my first purchase from Infinity.

I love this tool, it is most for accurately drilling dowel joinery at a fraction of the cost of the new dowel guide ou there. And with a little ingenuity, you can kick it up another notch. You’ll be surprised at the quality of work you could do with it.

And one more thing, I believe this model with as many guides is only carried by Infinity. I couldn’t find it anywhere else. I’m grateful to Infinity for making available and for putting me to work and be proud of the finished product.

Excellent jig! I’ve used it many times and have been pleased with the results each time. It is also reasonably priced. I haven’t had the same success with jigs that cost less.

I purchased this kit after several attempts to create my own DIY dowel jig because I didn’t want to spend $100+ and I was hesitant to get this one due to mixed reviews. Well, I am glad I ended up getting it because it works really good and allowed me to complete my project.

I wish I bought it right away and saved myself so much time and frustration. The only thing is if you want to only use 5/16 or 1/4 dowels you will be restricted on the width of the wood, but 3/8 works great.

Great value for the price.

I bought this thinking it was a reasonable price but it’s not – it’s too low of a quality. The drill guide holes have way too much tolerances – making it easy to drill at an angle or be off-centre to begin with.

The twist knobs for the fence have a very sharp edge from the molding process, the liner in the case holding the parts is super flimsy plastic.

It is not complicated to use, but it is extremely difficult to get good results. This thing is made to be handheld, but there is no way you can hold it on your mark and drill the hole where you need it.

I was using it on pine boards, which is not hard, but the grain was enough to consistently force the drill bit and jig off target, which makes the dowel crooked. The bits are way too aggressive. They know a hole in the wood versus cutting one.

I got much better results when I used my own bits.

I used this on several pieces recently and found that it worked well. The holes definitely seemed centered, although to be safe I flipped the jig on each side of the joint, just in case there was a slight bias in either direction.

One improvement I’d make to the jig is to add a centering line around each hole. I had a pencil mark on the wood and then had to eyeball to get the hole in the jig lined up on the pencil mark. Being off even slightly means the dowels won’t line up and the joint will be hard to push together.

Second – which could actually replace the sight lines above – is to use a spacing gauge. I used a piece of scrap with two dowels in it that were spaced the same distance as the holes I wanted. One dowel went in the previous hole I had drilled and the other went in the jig.

That way you get consistent spacing every time. Some of the fancier jigs come with an adjustable gauge you can use for this purpose.

I’ve recently moved into a condo and managed to set aside a small part of our basement storage locker for a very small workshop. I’ve only room for a workmate bench, and a selection of good basic hand tools (including power drill and sander).

Dowelling has always been a problem for me without a drill press and always involved a lot of corrective sanding and planing. After reading the earlier reviews I decided to give it a try. It has has solved my problems, I agree with all the favourable comments – it does what it’s supposed to do.

The only thing I would add is to take great care that you are lining up and measuring the pieces the right way round. There is a small amount of play, you cannot rely on every dowel being exactly in the centre.

One other minor problem is that the holes are slightly too large to give a snug fit to the dowel, due, I suspect, to a little play when drilling as both drill and jig are hand held. It’s likely to be susceptible to wear, but a replacement is cheap.

I recently purchased this jig to aid in making edge to edge dowel joints in wooden screen frames. Canadian Tire happens to be the only retailer who sells dowelling jigs in Amherst. This tool is an excellent value for simple projects that use boards up to 1¼” thick.

This jig automatically centers the hole in the thickness of the board by using alignment pins if you hold the jig in a consistent manner. This centering process may not work perfectly if the dowel hole is positioned too close to the end of the board for the alignment pins to grab enough material.

Metal dowel points are not required when using this jig for edge to edge joints as it easily allows you to drill holes in the correct position on your mating piece of wood by using the adjustable fence.

I’m not sure about the long term durability of the adjustable plastic fence as it must be regularly assembled and un-assembled. The fence design looks more robust on the newer Wolfcraft Dowelmaster jig.

We recently bought a biscuit joiner and haven’t looked back. But before that, we used dowels for a lot of hidden joinery. We’ve used a few types, including this Wolfcraft one. We mainly used this jig for some edge-to-corner joints on a small bookshelf and edge-to-edge joints while making a36x18″ table top.

With both projects, this jig made working with dowels a bit quicker and a lot more accurate. Although you should read the instructions, this jig is easy to figure out. Place the wood piece (up to 1. 25″ thick) between the pegs and determine the hole size you want (1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″) and the jig centers the drill bit.

Regular HSS bits wander in the jig, and will throw off the alignment of the boards. This is really noticeable with edge-to-edge joinery and you will spend a lot of time sanding the bump in the boards.

So Brad point bits are recommended to reduce the wandering and reduce the sanding time. The jig is sturdy and well made. It is made of thick plastic and it uses metal for moving parts and in the jig holes.

With this jig, some clamps, a drill, and Brad bits you are set up to do basic joinery work. It is still not as good as a biscuit joiner, but it’s also a lot less expensive and still does a good job.

Great little jig; can’t be beat for the money. Sure, there are better jigs out there, but if you just need to do some repairs or simply joinery, why spend more than this? Frankly, I don’t know how they offer this at that price point.

As noted in other reviews, there is some minimal slop in the guide bushings but it does not appear to affect the dowel fit or position much at all. I would definitely buy this again and would recommend it to anyone needing simple, quick and accurate doweling.

A low cost jig that works but not great. Stop collars tend to slip on the drill bits, which results in tightening them more, which results in stripping treads. Good thing I have a set of decent stop collars.

Got through the job I purchased it for but would not expect it to hold up long term.

This kit was easy to use for intermediate woodworker, but for a beginner it may be a little challenging. The alignment was very close to accurate. The jig doesn’t always stay where you put it, and the bit depth holds can get seized up not able to remove from drill bits.

Big Al.

Once you get the hang of it, it is fantastic. I scribe a center mark on every piece and filled it with paint. This allows me to stagger from the center of a part if I chose to. I was making a table with a couple odd width stretchers and wanted to use the two dowel holes on either side of the center hole (the spacing was what I was looking for).

Another thing I may do is turn a locating pin like the one that comes with the kit that steps down from the 3/8 bushing size to maybe 3/16 dia. And make a 3/16 dia screw in insert for the center location.

That way I can drill the center pin on center and move out from the center with my dowels. I may have a buddy of mine laser etch a scale that zeros on the center of the unit for this kind of application.

But again, fantastic tool, totally worth the dough. Watch the videos, then watch some less dry youtube videos showing other folks using the jig. You’ll get a lot out of it.

Dowelmax provides a precise and versatile method to rapidly locate dowel bores to create reliable, durable and strong joints of the loose tenon type. It will unite a great variety of joint designs including edge to edge, edge to end.

end to end, end to face, offset and flush and T joints. It produces uniformly spaced joints with operator chosen intervals and operator selected dowel lengths. The Dowelmax web site includes very favorable strength comparisons with several commonly available joining methods.

Technical support is prompt, courteous and accurate and includes teaching as well as specific method solutions for the specific problem requiring immediate help. Warren Buffet observed that “price is what you pay-value is what you get”.

I had never done any projects requiring dowelling so was a little apprehensive at first, but this jig really takes all the guesswork out of it. It is a very ingenious little device that makes dowelling straightforward.

There is a video to go with it and an instruction booklet. I watched the videos and practiced on some spare pieces first. And if you take your time you can create perfectly aligned dowel joints (end / edge or surface).

This dowel jig is extremely handy. Glad i was able to order it online through Lowes.

I was happy with the kit. I was not happy with the instruction booklet that came in it. However, Youtube solves all kinds of problems. The kit itself is very useful.

Works pretty good but is a little difficult to hold in place while drilling. However i had really good results. For the price you cant beat it.

Great for the small shop (or lack thereof). Was looking at a large drill press to dowel 12″ boards for a tabletop – came across this jig, and effortlessly installed 24 dowels for the 3 large pieces. I understand there is a self-centering feature when working with standard stock thicknesses.

As my pieces were 3″ thick, I simply used the adjustable guide, making sure to switch between pieces with each drill hole (there is some play on the adjustable guide, being only held by two friction screws, so I didn’t want to run down a length of one board only to be off by a few millimeters on all the holes on the next board).

Excellent jig that works well for repeatable matching dowels. Good instructions as well, easy to follow. Would highly recommend especially if like me you’ve struggled with accuracy using dowel centre points but don’t want to spend silly money on a jig.

So very simple to use. Instructions included to help with any tricky constructing. Only thing was the depth collars wouldnt tighten to much but with a bit of practise, no issues!!

Useful / compact product for the hobbyist. Dowel depth setting collar can come lose / move during use.

It is a good idea but I found it very difficult to get satisfactory results. There is too much slack in the guide holes to ensure that the holes are drilled straight enough for accurate alignment. The 8mm holes seem to have an inherent 1mm error, which I was able to correct with additional spacers.

I also found the depth stops tricky to fit straight and securely. I am fairly proficient at DIY but still found lot of care and practice is needed, which somewhat defeats the purpose of a jig.

Woodworking Dowel doweling Jig set is too little accurate. If you try to connect two wood element face to face is a almost 1mm unevenly. I had to do a little improve and now is much better. Also all holes are not the same size in all elements of those doweling set.

I bought this item for all dowelling jobs, but found out that it’s only use would be for half inch thick cabinet work and not anything thicker. I sure I’ll find some use for it