Make Your Own Drawbore Pins in One Hour

Proper drawbore pins are absolutely the key to successfully and consistently executing a drawbored joint. The pins allow you to work with bigger offsets, to know exactly how the joint will fit before final assembly and to pave the way for your peg by slightly distorting the hole through the tenon.

You can purchase traditional pins from dealers of antique English tools, though you will spend $45 to $80 for a pair, and you must sometimes search for the smaller-sized drawbore pins.  I’ve had good experiences with two dealers: Tony Murland’s Antique Tools (www.antiquetools.co.uk) and Classic Tools (classictools.com).  Both are British dealers that sell to the United States. 

The other option is to make your own. It’s easy and takes only about an hour once you have the materials in hand.  The metal part of the tool is easy to find.  Machinists, bridge builders, mechanics and anyone who works with metal has a set of tools they use that are much like drawbore pins.  They’re sometimes called drift pins, alignment tools or line-up tools. And they come in a wide variety of sizes and tapers.

To make your first set, I recommend you buy a set of alignment tools from Sears (www.sears.com, 800-349-4358 or visit your local store).  The company sells an eight-piece set of punches and alignment tools under its “Companion” brand name.  The set, which contains two alignment tools for our purposes, costs $6.  The model number of the set is #30130.

One of the alignment tools in the set has a 5⁄32 " tip that tapers to almost 3⁄8 " over a span of almost 4".  This is a decent tool for furniture-scale work, though it will be much easier to navigate the offset if you grind the tip a bit smaller.  The other alignment tool has a 3⁄16" tip that tapers up to a bit shy of 1⁄2" over a span of 4 5⁄16".  This is a good size for larger work.

The first thing to do is to sand the black paint off the tapered section of the tool, which will come off on the wood eventually.  Then you need to set the alignment tool into a wooden handle.  Drawbore pins must be twisted in and out of their holes to work properly in my opinion.  (Striking them is not a good idea.)  I prefer a traditional tapered octagonal handle, which is easy to twist in and out of the holes.  However, a lathe-turned handle will work nearly as well.

First bore a hole straight into the end grain of a 1 1⁄4" x 1 1⁄4" x 6 3⁄4 " scrap of wood that will accommodate the hex-shaped end of the tool.  For the smaller tool, use a 13⁄32" bit for the hole (this is why you bought that fancy set with so many bits!).  For the larger tool, bore a 17⁄32 " hole.  If your bit isn’t long enough to go deep enough, finish up the hole with a long auger bit that is a bit undersized (3⁄8 " or 1⁄2 ").

With the holes bored, shape the handle to your liking.  I tapered my handles to 7⁄8" or 1" square at the small end.  Now comes the fun part.  Get a propane torch and heat up the hex shank of the tool for a minute or two.  Then knock the handle onto the tool.  The heat will char the wood as you insert the steel and prevent the handle from splitting as its driven on.  Allow everything to cool down and then add a couple coats of wiping varnish to your handle.  Now you are ready to explore this ancient joinery technique for yourself.

1 Bore a hole vertically into your handle blank. The hole should be slightly undersized compared to the largest dimension of the steel pin.
2 Taper the handle using your band saw. Be sure to keep the hole in the center of the blank.
3 I have a clever chamfer attachment for my VERITAS block plane that’s sold by Lee Valley Tools. You can also do this operation freehand.
4 Use a simple propane torch to heat the pin. Heat it up for two minutes. It will not change color.
5 With the pin still in the vise and hot, drive the handle onto the pin. When the handle is fully seated, the sound of the mallet hitting the handle will change.
6 This tapered octagonal handle is the perfect shape for the twisting action needed when inserting the tool in the joint.

Christopher Schwarz, Editor - Popular Woodworking

Related Info:

• Peter Follansbee and Drawboring

• 17th century drawboring in furniture by John Alexander

• Hand-cut Dovetails - Half-Blind Dovetails by Mike Henderson

• Hand-cut Dovetails - Through Dovetails by Mike Henderson

• Mitered Dovetails by Mark Singer

• 1921 - Woodwork joints by William Fairham

• Machine-cut Through Dovetails by Bob Smalser