I like to use dowel joinery on some of my projects. But recently, I had a project that required drilling a lot of dowel holes in similar workpieces. Since all the holes were located in the same place on the workpieces, I came up with the jig you see here. It allows me to accurately position my workpieces so that I can quickly drill the holes with a bit chucked in my lathe.
The jig attaches to the bed of my lathe with a couple of knobs and washers. And the top can be raised or lowered to account for workpieces of different thicknesses. I added short strips of adhesive measuring tape to both sides of the jig to help ensure the top is level and the holes are drilled square to the end of workpieces. Knobs on each end of the jig secure the top in place.
An adjustable fence locks into T-track that’s recessed into the top of the jig. The fence allows me to position each workpiece to drill the first hole. I use a spacer block between the fence and workpiece for additional holes. The drawings here give all the details on how to build it. You may need to make some modifications to fit your lathe, though. Once the jig is built, it really is a significant time-saver.
