: John & Roy

: I too have pondered this situation after listening to all the talk and
: problems with decks and hulls not lining up and/or being warped out of
: shape. I would like to do the dowel pinning as well, simply because I
: don't have a bisquit cutter( they don't give them away just yet:). But,
: also consider this: your problem might be achieving perfect alignment,
: with either tool. With a bisquit cutter, you HAVE to line up the cuts
: perfectly, and if you use a dowel jig, same situation. The problem lying
: in the fact that you don't have a flat/straight surface to work on as all
: the boats I've seen ( and you made reference to strip-building )have
: rounded shapes. This fact alone would make it impossible to get that
: "perfect" alignment. And without perfect alignment of the holes,
: you've accomplished nothing toward your goal of the perfect joint. You
: might get it very close, but.....?? you might not. Doing either freehand
: is guess-work at best.

: If you do decide to do either, then don't over do it with the bisquits or
: dowels. It is very difficult to align twenty or thirty dowels at the same
: time. You get a couple in and then it rocks on some others and they all
: pop out. If I were doing it, and I may...... I would space the
: dowels/bisquits about two or three feet apart and keep them to a minimum
: height, say 1/4" or less. Food for Thought!!

: Rehd

Hi Rehd & Roy,

I wouldn't spend the money for a bisquit cutter just for this. And yes, the dowels must have a stright virtical pull or you are going to have a lock. So the fewer carefully placed ones you use the better. You have to be very selective where you place your dowels and use as few as possible. Too many many can spell trouble getting all of them to align. That is the reason I said I would taper them to a point with only about 1/8" full dia. for seating. That way you have some room to move the haul and deck around getting the pins to drop into the holes. I will be the stalking horse on this to see if it can work. I have dropped the idea of using bronze welding rods for my pins because of the possibility of sanding into them, so I will use 1/8" dow pins. If they don't work, just cut them off. I will probable make a very simple dowel jig but it must be aligned fairly straight up and down when you drill your hole. Because you are using only 1/8" of the surface of the actual dia. of the dow pin it will be very hard to get into a locking situation even if you are off virtical somewhat. Doweling on a 1/4" thick strip isn't going to be simple either.

John