Overheard a guy at the lumber yard talking about face frames...

I was picking up some maple last Tuesday and this older cabinetmaker said he never bothers with pocket holes on face frames anymore, just uses dowels and glue. Said it saves him about 20 minutes per cabinet and he hasn't had a call back in 8 years. Has anyone else switched from pocket screws to dowels for face frames and seen a big time difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony12916d ago

Pff, yeah, I made that switch a couple years back and never looked back. Got tired of adjusting for pocket screw tear-out on maple especially that stuff can be a real pain if you don't get the jig perfectly square. Dowels let me clamp up the whole face frame in one shot without any hardware showing and it does feel faster once you get a rhythm down. I still keep a pocket jig around for quick repairs or when I'm working alone and need a third hand, but for new builds it's dowels all the way now. The glue joint is definitely stronger than relying on a screw's threads in end grain.

the_spencer16d ago

Downside is you lose a bit of alignment precision with dowels compared to a pocket screw jig... I've had a few joints slip if I didn't get the clamps on fast enough. Still, the final result is worth it.