Drawbore pins - yup, I made'm myself!

[froglips]

For a demonstration (and a great excuse to finally follow through), I made a drawbore pin!

This is an old tool, used to test fit and align mortise and tenons using an offset peg.

The idea, is if you drill a hole for the peg through the mortise with a brad point or auger bit (with a lead screw), then insert the tenon, use the bit to mark the center of the peg hole.

Remove the tenon and drill a hole in the tenon cheek closer to the shoulder. Maybe a 1/64 in hard woods, a 1/32 in softer woods.

Anyhoo, this offset hole in the tenon lets you drive a peg that will pull the tenon shoulder really tightly to the mortise. So tight, you can do "sloppy" work on the tenon and the joint will be as tight as a piston fit machine cut joint!

(Yeah, I'm a Schwarz Devotee, so I'm using lots of "his wording")

Well, you test the fit with a tool called a drawbore pin. Its a tapered metal rod that you twist into the peg hole.

The nice thing, it lets you test fit your frames (say a face frame) and adjust as needed without the need for fancy clamping.

Long way of saying here is my first of a pair of drawbore pins I made.

I got two 3/16" Alignment Pins (part #44022 Baltimore Toolworks).

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

Pulled a nice "quarter sawn" piece of red oak firewood off the pile. Split it up, and worked it to shape with chisels, spokeshaves and scrapers. Ended by burnishing it with the shavings.

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

View image in gallery​

I like the oval handle, like a mortising pig sticker chisel. It feels good when you twist it into the peg holes!

If you can't tell, I had a lot of fun making these

Jim

 

[Mt. Gomer]

Looks good Jim, great project. Just one question: Why are you trying to cook it? Does it require any special spices or marinade?

Trav

 

[froglips]

My photography skills are... lacking. I just seem to get better shots on a black background.

So my stove doubles as a photo booth

But, I do cook hide glue on the stove if that helps?

Jim

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Wow, you've been busy all of a sudden: sticky fingers yesterday, straightening a bent chisel today, and now making draw bore pins. I'm impressed! :banana::banana::gar-La;

Bill

 

[Bas]

Wow, you've been busy all of a sudden: sticky fingers yesterday, straightening a bent chisel today, and now making draw bore pins. I'm impressed! :banana::banana::gar-La;

Bill

Yeah, what's next, woodworking??!?? :rotflm: :rotflm: :rotflm:

(I cut up the cardboard box the compressor came in so it could go into the recycling. That's the closest I got to shop time this week.... :embaresse)

 

[CatButler]

Cool,

I made a couple myself. I have the Wood magazine article from Schwartz. He recommended grabbing the Sears punch and alignment set, which happened to be on clearance for $2.97. I was intending to use them to draw bore the joints on the saw bench I made, but Sears took too long to ship, so I just winged it and they turned OK anyway. I still need to finish the handle on the bigger one. It really does make some tight fitting joints. between that and wedging the tenon, I didn't even bother gluing a couple.

 

[bigcat4t9r]

I bought a punch set from HF. Was getting some chisels and bought some clearance replacement handles and used those for my pins (handles were like $5 for both couldn't have made them myself any cheaper). Going to be showing them in use soon enough with my workbench nearing completion.

 

[froglips]

Nice pins!

I'm on a roll now. Picked up two more from Sears (Craftsman #42903 $8.99) in 1/4". 12" long looks to give some added flexibility.

I am gonna try to stop at 4 pins, before it becomes an obsession

Jim

 

[michaelgarner]

I am gonna try to stop at 4 pins, before it becomes an obsession

Jim

Too late friend!!! Good job though, I will have to see if I can find the materials in Germany when I get back there so that I can add that to my hand-tool collection.

 

[willarda]

I have drawbore pins as well (commercial) and have read Schwarz's musings on same but I am not totally convinced they are everything they are cracked up to be. To really allow a face frame to be fine tuned, etc, you would need a minimum of 4 of these in the size that your pins are in. That can add up if you make pins in various sizes. Also, once the drawbore pins are inserted, you have deformed the hole in the tenon. I invariably clamp my joints up with a bar clamp, check the diagonals, etc. The joints will never get any tighter than you can do this. When I insert my pins, I bevel one edge of the pin (the edge facing the offset edge of the tenon hole) and make sure that the pin has enough meat to penetrate into on the opposite mortise cheek. This keeps the joint square after the pins are inserted. If you do not do this, the joint will skew out of flatness.

 

[Trent Mason]

Nice work Jim! :icon_thum