wolfcraft Universal Dowelmaster Set I 4645000 I The Complete Starter Set for All Standard Wood Dowel Joints

Good quality and easy to use for any diy enthusiast

I just bought a new LG C1 48" OLED TV, It is bigger than my old 48" Plasma including the surround, so if I placed it on the plinth that I made years ago, which had room on each side in which to stand my front L/R surround sound speakers, the bottom corners of the new frameless TV would be cut off by said speakers. A new design was needed that fitted inside the alcove from side to side, and with just enough height to place the speakers on their sides below it, along with my Mini PC and Bluray Player (which are currently nested under the old one. This would leave the top of the 'plinth' free just for the TV and an unobstructed view of the screen. Unlike the old one which was screwed together, I wanted this one to be smooth and sleek, with an uninterrupted expanse of black-ash on the top. I never liked that the old one had the screws that I could see each time I dusted. So I decided to use dowels. Practicing on spare bits of wood, carefully measuring, drilling and dowelling proved fruitless as nonmatter how careful I was I could not get the holes perfectly vertical, and so could not get the pieces to go together as they should. This is where Amazon came to mind and how I came to buy this set. There are no English instructions but to be honest the images tell you all you need to know on how to use this. That being said, I never used the extra part that can slide back and forth when drilling holes in a flat piece, I used the hand-held part for it all. It is simple to use but to drill into edges you will need a vice or a workbench to hold the work. There's none of this putting a line down the pieces and measuring meticulously where the dowels are to go, it basically lines the holes perfectly in the centre for you, you just have to drill. The drill collar is not at all well designed, It had one small Allen screw on one side so on a wood bit it is impossible to get level. I used size 8 (40mm) dowels for my project, as the timber was 20mm thick I put 15mm into the top and 25mm into the uprights. careful measuring is required whilst the drill is slotted through the guide. It can be awkward as at the same time one has to tighten the screw of the collar. Once done though it is a cinch to do. Once all the holes were drilled then putting the spikes in the holes it came time to marking the corresponding points on the underside of the top of the plinth. This was the only time measuring was needed, and that was so that the uprights would be perfectly distanced and so that I could kick them back 3mm from the front edge. Line then up by eye or by using a spare piece of timber - bang with a rubber mallet and presto, perfect marks to drill the receiving end for the dowels. Simply adjust depth of drill bit (whilst in the guide) again, and carefully put the point of the bit in the hole, hold the guide down flat on the piece and drill away. First time I have ever used dowels in my life, seriously. Always wanted to but unlike my father who was a cabinet maker and could do it by hand, I could never attempt to do the dead-on accurate measuring and drilling required. This piece of kit made it easy. The crunch came when it came time to fit it all together and it did fit all together, perfectly. I have my 3mm kick in on the front and a 1mm kick on the sides, perfect right-angles between the uprights and the top, and smack-on equal measurements each side of centre. The first image is one I took after primer had been applied and sanded down. The second once painted with Black satin oil based paint I am chuffed with the way it turned out and I'm sure my father would not be shouting at me for doing a shoddy job of it. As an aside: I ended up returning the TV as it has serious issues with brightness and it has an awful soft picture with motion smoothing on, and if it's off the picture jags like crazy in HDR...but this tool at least helped me make my unit look fantastic - even for my old TV.

Cheap and cheerful,did my 8mm holes perfectly value for the money

for the price this is pretty good, does what it supposed to do with a little care.

Bought on request for Christmas. Ideal tool for many a DIY project.

Quite helpful, and it contains all that you need. Two considerations: 1) It does not contain the newer version of the Dowelmaster, which is much faster to use and probably more precise 2) The dowelmaster it contains is not entirely reliable if you want to dowel the short edge the board if the short edge is less than 10 cm. Other than that, it’s quite good. Video instructions on how to use it are available online.

Having read some of the reviews, negative & positive, I did my own research before ordering and once I had fully understood the basis on how it works I completed the order. I am so pleased that I did, I can now make strong joints using dowels, much better than screws alone. It takes a little bit of practise but once the principle is understood it is realitively easy, if I can master it @ 68 years of age then others can as well. Do the research, look at the various videos. Only advers comment is that no instructions are provided, perhaps Wolfcraft should put up a video themselves to show how best to use the jig.

The package is nicely presented and comes with everything you need to add dowels cleanly and accurately to your projects. You get a nice amount of the different sized dowels, the different sized drill bits were perfectly fine and the drill stops work as expected. The reason for the 3 star review is priimarily the scarce instruction manual and the very fiddly dowel jig. The jig is very, very fiddly though, to be fair, it is well built and is very sturdy. The manual is one of those annoying ones where it presents 10 different languages on one page to describe one action instead of a manual divided into seperate languages. It also fails to describe the use of the small bronze items in any shape way or form. In conclusion: The product does exactly what it claims to do, and worked perfectly for my first time usage, but it lacks full instructions and ease of use. Despite these criticisms I would recommend this product to anyone needing a full kit, quickly and cheaply.