More of a DIY than Improvement question, but here goes anyway.
We're building a shoe box with slatted sides and base and were thinking of joining the slats to the corner uprights with dowel (excuse the bad art):
The problem we have is getting the dowel hole in the cross piece straight. The hole in the upright isn't a problem as we can use one of these:
(something I've wanted an excuse to buy for years!).
However, the one's we've looked at don't seem to be suitable as there's not enough clearance to insert the cross piece vertically (it's about 18"-24" long), and they don't seem to rotate on the pillar (I assume for safely reasons).
I could use a hand drill, but there'll be 4 cross pieces per side and across the base which with 2 pieces of dowel per piece per end is 160 holes – which is a lot to guarantee getting perfectly straight.
So what can I use to drill the holes in the cross pieces?
Best Answer
Buy a self centering dowel drilling jig. Lee Valley has them, as will virtually all wood working supply sources, Rockler, for example.
The jig clamps to the end of your board, and then you drill through a hardened drill guide into the board, using a hand drill. These dowel jigs used to be much more common in the days before biscuits, pocket screws, etc.