"FoggyTown" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 29, 3:15?am, "Toller" wrote:

Depends upon (among other things) how good you are, and how fussy you
are.

Dowels require precise fits; screws are much less demanding.
On the other hand, dowels are invisible, but screws are pretty obvious
unless you do an incredible job of matching color and grain on your plug.


Ooooo . . . no, no, no! You misunderstand me. I have seen many arts
& crafts pieces where the dowels are an actual feature - either by
coloration, grain orientation or protrusion. Hiding them is something
I do NOT want to do. Even if a screwed joint is necessary, I would
make it so the plug is visible.

I expect you are mistaken. They often have exposed tenons, but no furniture
features conspicuous plugs or dowels. Are are are simply ugly.

I guess the question I wanted to ask was, everything else being equal,
is a dowel as strong as a screw?

Dowels are more rigid than screws, but screws will hold even if a joint is
busted. Does that make them stronger or weaker?
Years ago I built a rather shoddy TV stand out of scrap, always wondered how
strong it was. When I replaced it with something nicer, I tested it.
With 300 pounds of weight on it the glued joints gave way, but I actually
had to hit it repeatedly sideways with a sledge hammer to get it to fail for
the nails.
(I haven't used a nail, except to hold a back on, for a while now)

FoggyTown