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Your cart is empty.The Miller Dowel joinery system is an ingenious and simple way to securely join wood parts together. The system uses a stepped drill bit and dowels that produce better, stronger joints with less effort and set up. Simply drill a pilot hole with the patented high-speed steel (HSS) step drill bit, apply glue to the ribs on the dowel and drive the dowel home to pull the joint together. The step dowel design reduces the amount of glue squeezed off as the dowel is driven home creating a stronger adhesive bond. Once the glue dries, the exposed dowel is trimmed and sanded creating a strong and attractive joint. Miller Dowels can create joints in a wide range of woodworking projects. Stepped dowels have shear strength similar to that of screws or nails. Miller Dowels are a suitable alternative to mortise and tenon, loose tenon, traditional blind or through dowel or biscuit joints requiring less set up and specialized machinery. Miller Dowels come in 3 sizes: 2x for stock up to 1-5/8 inches thick, 1x for stock up to 1 inch thick and Mini for stock up to 3/4 inch thick. Dowels come in birch, maple, oak and walnut to match or contrast any project. Starter kits are available in any size and contain a bit with a selection of properly sized dowels. Dowels are available in packs of 100 and 500. Replacement stepped drills bits can be purchased separately
Pierced Armor
2025-08-31 14:39:45
The leading edge of one of my stair steps was cracking and coming loose. I tried gluing it with wood glue, but, that quickly came loose again and continued to crack. I looked everywhere for a solution and came up empty handed. Eventually, I discovered the top piece of the wooden stair steps are called, "treads". Once I knew the term, my new search results started getting somewhere. After awhile, I noticed that Miller Dowel kits kept popping up. I did more research and figured, what the heck and gave it a try.The kit comes with a graduated drill bit and a bag of wooden dowels, with the same graduation in thickness as the drill bit. You simply drill your holes into the center of the separating, top tread into the main step. I drilled one in the center and two more on each side, equally spaced for a total of 5 holes.I generously coated each of the dowels in wood glue before driving them into the holes with a hammer. Then after 24 hours of dry time, I sawed off the excess dowel ends. After that I came back with a wood file and then sand papers to where the dowel's ends followed the same curvature as the stair treads. Viola! Good as new and the stairs appear as strong as new. Very happy with this purchase.
Slyde
2025-08-01 18:00:47
Used 4 of these dowels on a cracked oak stair tread. I had to drill ~an inch past the stop line on the bit to make sure I was far enough across the crack, but relieving the bit 4 or 5 times got it done just fine. then i glued up and drove the stepped dowels in to the holes using a section of 7/16 dowel to drive them all the way in and half inch dowels to back-fill the rest of the hole flush with the front edge of the tread.Terrific product and I'm sure I will use more of these.
Customer
2025-04-23 11:31:17
They are basically like wooden screws in terms of ease of use: clamp everything together the way you want it, use a hand drill to drill both parts at the same time, paint the dowel with glue and tap it home. Actually I generally tap them home dry until I have them all in, then I use a pair of pliers to gently pull them out , and then I apply glue to the joints and glue and tap the screws all home in a single operation. The part of the dowel at the top that is left showing is plenty long, so you can drill the hole to leave the top standing proud, to be sawn, planed, or sanded off after the glue dries. The drill bit that comes with the dowels gives a tight fit if you keep a steady hand while drilling. Part of the shaft is grooved to ensure the joint isn't starved of glue. (Miller, if you're listening, I'd like to see grooves along the whole shaft.)You can use these anywhere you might use a fastener, except don't expect to ever get it out. I just used some to attach end caps on the posts of an outdoor fence. The existing end caps had been attached with screws, and the screws are now corroding and are working loose. So, I just backed out the screws, one at a time, and replaced them with Miller dowels of a size large enough that drilling the hole got me to fresh wood that was not damaged by contact with a corroding screw. They are also great for filling holes left by screws, in those cases when you need to need to move a screw by fraction of a screw width. I started out using the 1x dowel size and found enough ways to use them that I bought the 2x screw size too. I don't have the mini ones yet, but someday I'll find a need for them and I will not hesitate to order a set of those too.
Kat Atwood
2025-03-14 20:03:30
Exactly what my husband needed for his workshop.
Customer
2025-03-10 21:11:18
Saw these dowels used in a YouTube project (Cow Dog Craft Works). Decided to use them for my project. Just used them last night, they're working great.
Patrick_J
2025-03-09 15:52:34
This thing rocks. I had a stair tread that had cracked. Found a fixit video on YouTube from This Old House where they used this dowel. A little sleuthing with Google turned up the name. I have never spent $30 for a drill bit before but this worked great for fixing the stair tread. The drill bit goes in very easy and then you dab the dowel with some wood glue, pound it in, and trim the excess. When it comes to carpentry I barely know which end of the hammer to hold, but this was a piece of cake. Stair is now good to go, and I have earned my carpenter's jeans.
Jeff Lyons
2025-02-25 17:18:53
Built some shutters and used 6 of these per shutter - worked like a charm and really did the trick in holding the shutters together cleanly.
Jason Barnes
2025-01-29 14:31:45
I first learned about stepped dowels from This Old House television program. We had a loose banister assembly at the top of the stairs. This was the perfect fix for our application. The included drill bit is sharp and of quality construction.
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