Dowels for box joints

[Yates]

I heard that screws a really bad tear your box and everything so I was thinking of doing dowel joints anyone done this know about this if this is bad tell me I would rather someone tell me before I built my box

Dowels

either internal like so

or external

what do you guys think?

[Rev. Wrath]

It looks nice and it will probably hold pretty well, but it seems like a lot of work for little to no gain. I'd rather just pre-drill the screw holes so the wood doesn't split. I'm using an air nailer right now and I have no issues with splitting wood. Give it a shot and tell us if you think it holds better.

[lolitskasey]

Not sure how well that will work, The only reason i use screws is to suck the two pieces of wood together so the glue gets mashed in and you get a tight seal.

[Rev. Wrath]

Not sure how well that will work, The only reason i use screws is to suck the two pieces of wood together so the glue gets mashed in and you get a tight seal.

I thought about that too, but I think if you clamped it together while it dried you might not have an issue. Unless your subs are crazy bad ass and just blow the box apart.

[Chris Hammer]

Dowel joints are stronger then a regular glue joint, and a proper glue joint is stronger then one with screws.

I say go for it, build a jig so your holes line up.

I can doa shitty paint drawing of a jig if you want...

I use them, and biscuits alot when we make shelving or stuff for in home.

For a sub box my new favorite thing is doing dado and rabbit joints, it all fist together when gluing up, stronger then regular butt joint or screwing it together, and makes clamping easy as hell.

Also easier then dowels, but you need a stacked dado blade.

[Chris Hammer]

Not sure how well that will work, The only reason i use screws is to suck the two pieces of wood together so the glue gets mashed in and you get a tight seal.

Using the screws you actually weaken the joint, not alot, not enough to care but it has been shown before a proper glue joint is the strongest way to bond them, and then then there are certain types of joints that cater to different scenarios. If the glue joint fails, there is more then enough force for the few deck screws to fail too, one of the first things we learned in college woodworking.

[Yates]

Not sure how well that will work, The only reason i use screws is to suck the two pieces of wood together so the glue gets mashed in and you get a tight seal.

I thought about that too, but I think if you clamped it together while it dried you might not have an issue. Unless your subs are crazy bad ass and just blow the box apart.

Yeah I got clamps

[Chris Hammer]

Also just for informational purposes, the reason butt joints are weakest glue joint is you are gluing endgrain, not as big of a deal with MDF, but when it comes to plywood, or hardwoods, exotics, you need to do somehting other then a standard butt joint so that you have more then end grain holding the bond. Dowels are used alot, and also biscuits because it is less noticeable when making a table top or somethign like that, also it lines up your pieces for glueing. Dovetails, and the other shown below are stronger, but you can see the grain change, unless you are using mdf, or painting, then it doesn't matter.

[Chris Hammer]

For dowel joints, if you want to make it easier, and you are wrapping or coating your box I would do external, jsut because you can do the holes at once, if you do internal it will look cleaner, and be easier glueing up, but will be harder drilling all the holes correctly.

[shogen]

this... https://www.google.com/search?q=wood+biscuits&safe=off&rlz=1CASMAD_enUS531US531&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=r23gUZ-lKIqsyAGo74HgBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=664