Grizzly G1874 Improved Dowel Jig

This is a so-so doweling jig. Its the minimum I'd go for if you can't afford or justify a [the] really expensive one. 3-stars.The reviewer Algren ("You get what you pay for") is pretty much dead-on w/ review. The resulting drilled holes in the wood are not perfectly perpendicular to face of the wood. I'd say its due to the fact that the jaws don't stay in the same plane. I think the alignment rods are relatively poor. When jaws are tightened, the end of the jaws deflect out from the workpiece. Meaning the jaws are closer at the side w/ the screw and wider at the base (where the workpiece is). This allows the wood to not sit perfectly perpendicular against the boring/jig face. Use shims or light clamping pressure. And yes, jaws do not 100% center the workpiece. But its slight and consistent. So this is still somewhat OK for face frames and such since you orient jig on the appropriate side of the 2 pieces you're joining.Replaceable bushings are used for the 3 smaller hole sizes; the larger 2 (1/2" and 7/16") do not have replaceable bushings. Only the 3 smaller sizes can be drilled in pairs...assuming the jig's hole spacing is OK for you. If drilling the end of a narrow piece of stock, definitely use a scrap piece to keep jaws as parallel as possible.For occasional hobbyist use, you'll definitely get by with this jig. Its not horrible; its a better design than a few others out there and I don't hate it. Note that some others brands which have similar designs have fewer hole options.For pro woodworker w/ absolute precision or repeatability a requirement: look elsewhere. I bet better guide rods, true bushings, better tolerances and fine-tune capability would make this a perfect jig. Aka: The DowelMax.

Okay, I've drilled several dowel holes with this and I think it works extremely well. The one I received, like a lot of other reviewers was not drilling on center. I loosened the two screws on the back of the jig and made slight adjustments to the large thin nut they hold down. Was able to get it to drill centered holes after that. No instructions for this came with it and there was none on grizzly's website either.

I bought this jig because I needed to cut some 1/2" wide mortises for a Stickley style ottoman I am building. This being the my first attempt at mortise and tenon joinery, I was really struggling with the mortises, using a hand held power drill with a brad point bit. I probably should have gotten a forstner bit which would have allowed for better overlapping of the holes, but the problem was getting the holes exactly lined up and on center. The Grizzly jig automatically centers the drill guide/bushing. It clamps onto the the stock you're using (unfortunately only up to 2" wide) like a vise and as you turn the middle bar, the sides move in at the same rate, keeping the guide holes precisely centered. By clamping the stock and using a stop collar you can drill overlapping, perfectly aligned holes of the desired depth with a standard drill bit, leaving very little waste to remove with a chisel. Of the 16 mortises I had to cut for this project, I only had the Grizzly jig for the last one. Which pisses me off. I could have saved tons of time (and frustration) and made much, much better mortises from the get go. Live and learn. Oh, and buy more tools.The jig is built like a brick poop house. It's all metal, comes nice and oily, and is well-machined for smooth operation.

The title says it all. I've made a bunch of joints with this jig and they almost always turn out very well. However, there are a few things to watch out for. The piece you're doweling really needs to be clamped. When you tighten the jig around the wood, the clockwise rotation of the clamp will sometimes turn the jig slightly on the wood (clamped or not), giving you a slightly non-perpendicular hole; double-check this before you drill. It's sometimes a little difficult for me to line up the jig's marks with my own marks on the piece, but again, with sufficient care, it works fine. The manufacturer recommends using brad-point bits, but I've had no trouble with regular bits. In short, the jig is very helpful and can be used to make great joints, but you need to take your time and use some care.

Might be a one-off, but Amazon provided me with a clearly used and old piece of equipment--not new. I was sort of pissed because the box it was in was all ripped up (obviously torn open by a previous customer), the item was scratched up and some of the threads had a rust on them. I won't bother to return it as it should serve its purpose and is for me, alone. However, if it was a gift I would have been hella pissed and quite possibly would have attempted to find Amazon employee in the area to punch them in the back of the head. I live in Seattle, so there are a lot of them around here. The worst is you can't provide seller feedback when it's sold by Amazon, LLC.

This is the first doweling jig I've ever bought and find it to be decent...only decent. It's very easy to use and appears to be pretty solid. Most of the time the holes I drill are centered, but for some reason (that I have yet to explain) maybe 20% of the holes are noticeably off-center. I wipe the jig after each use and make sure it is sitting flush against the wood before drilling, even so, the holes are not always centered.The other complaint I have about this jig is that the lines that are cast into the metal so you can line up your mark to the jig are very poorly made. The cast lines are painted white to make them easier to see on the metal, but the paint is not straight and that makes lining things up a bit tricky and frankly annoying.With that said, I will keep using the jig and find it acceptable for the price. If you have the means though, I highly recommend you look for something better.

its what i wanted

It does nor aligh right

great product , works good

Very happy

Don't waste your money on this tool. Very inaccurate. Guide lines for aligning your holes are off center of the drill hole, causing everything to be offset by almost 1/8th of an inch. Also when clamped onto a piece of wood the center will still move almost 1/16th of an inch, so the parts will never line up when the dowels are put in. I've used a similar tool in the past with none of the issues of this one. Garbage