Doweling Plywood Cabinets

01/29/2015


From original questioner:

Would like to know if anyone dowels 3/4" pre-finished maple ply with a 32mm horizontal/vertical boring machine? If so how does everything line up?
Thanks,
Al

From contributor Bi


In the world of dowels better think in MM.
For 3/4 Ply 8 x 35 would be my choice.

I assume you are thinking a manual machine when you say Horz/vert? If so they line up fine for cabinet construction. I would not buy a cheap machine. Go with a Gannomat or something decent, I would stay away from import stuff but that is me. I always try and buy the best I can afford.

If you like dowel construction the next progression would be a CNC dowel/insert machine. For cabinet size parts a you can get a machine for a decent price and it is faster and inserts the dowels. Think Omal, Gannomat for that type of machine.

The progression after that would be a CNC machine to bore vertical and bore and insert machine for the horizontal.

From contributor Du


I use my Maggi 2332 on 3/4 prefin maple and it works fine. If the fence is adjusted for the thickness of the material there is no problem.

From contributor Ri


There should be no issue as long as you do not try to center dowels on panel. You should always go off one edge/side and push any panel deviations to inside of cabinet.

From contributor Da


One of the benefits of end boring with the outside of the panel against the table is that you don't have to adjust the back fence. You get better and more consistent results, more easily/efficiently, than with Maggi's automatic mating. Use accurate spacer blocks to set the fence and set the head to half (or a hair less than) that, e.g. 19.3mm blocks and 9.6mm head would let you bore 19+mm melamine and 18mm ply without changing anything.

From contributor oz


They all meant to line up but this should not what you look for when you want to purchase manual boring machine. Set up those machines takes very long time. Each of those construction methots you neet to reset properly it takes too long of you do unique dont believe those YouTube movies , Accuracy at Maggi machines not great nor practicall design, not good customer support and not good manuals call Felder first for maggi.
Goodluck
O.

From contributor ca


We used a Lobo machinery with our PTP and then router for years. It was fine. We did exactly what the other posters said. We now have a drill and dowel inserter, it's great. Guess what ? Same as above

And, yes we dowel a lot of plywood boxes

From contributor al


Could I screw two wooden strips on let's say a shopbot to form right angle on perimeter of shopbot table and then go
from panel saw with cabinet side butt up against strips and then have shopbot drill all holes? I guess I would be using
router to act like a point to point machine. Then I could always use router for custom curved work and such. Then dedicate a boring machine for end drilling of parts. I don't have the electrical capacity to run a large vacuum pump
for holding down sheets and I feel I'm pretty efficient cutting on panel saw. I generally rip 8 foot lengths, edge band
and then crosscut. One thing I don't understand either is when I cut a melamine sheet lengthwise the boards almost
always have a hook in them. I rip sheets in half on unisaw and then straighten on sliding saw and then finish rip to width I want. I always wind up with straight pieces. I see this with plywood also but not as much but you also don't
know until you cut. I have just gotten into habit of going through this routine insuring straight parts. How is this avoided when cutting on cnc?
Thanks for all the replies so far,
Al

From contributor Da


With a boring machine you don't have to worry about syncing your start holes (flush front and/or back) and I'd think it would drill holes faster than a single spindle CNC.

Even when cutting parts on a CNC, I'd think that doing all construction boring on the boring machine would be easier/more accurate - unless your work is pretty narrow in scope, i.e. a single setup for all endboring.