I've seen this joint a few times on Instagram Tick Tock you know all the places where people post little Clips to just try to catch people's attention and hopefully draw lots of clicks you know something is totally different than what we do here on YouTube and at first I thought it was kind of cool then I thought actually it's kind of dumb then something else caught my attention I completely forgot about this until I saw it again and the whole cycle started all over it was a turbulent three or four minutes so I thought I'd run this by you the smartest woodworking audience on YouTube is this a legit joint or is it just another click bait scam now before you rush the comments to answer let's Analyze This analytically these little video clips about this are usually presenting it as a quick and easy way to join two pieces of wood of course the quickest and easiest way would be a simple butt joint but I think there's only one person on the internet that thinks that'll be strong so the addition of the dowels is supposed to lock the joint together but do they not long ago John Malecki made a four-way version of this joint that he had seen on Tick Tock and let's just say he was unimpressed with the results the only way this joint has any strength is like no it has an issue and you can literally just pull it straight apart the thing is he along with most of the people on the internet that make these little Clips didn't glue The Joint other than just the dowels I suspect if they would have glued the whole thing together all the surfaces maybe that joint would have been more successful but still this variation appears to have a significant mechanical advantage over that overly ambitious four-way pin joint in that video in fact I suspect that this one would be pretty tough to pull apart even if I had only glued the dowels but when you glue the whole thing together this becomes pretty solid at least in three directions Levering it upward Levering it downward and then pulling straight out I think this would make a decent face frame joint how much of that strength actually comes from the dowels I mean if I just glued the surfaces together and left the dot was out entirely I think this would still be a pretty strong joint in those three directions I'm not sure the dowels are really adding that much to it mostly I think their real strength is decorative if you use this for maybe a face frame maybe for a built-in cabinet assembly if you used PIN joinery like this you're bound to impress non-woodworkers especially just like the millions of Internet viewers who have oohed and odd over these little joint videos in that respect it's a little bit like Craftsman era Furniture which sometimes uses fake and unnecessary joinery and as design features and here we are 100 years later even as Woodworkers and we're still impressed by it let's not forget though that this joint is often presented as if it's quick and easy is it well I can tell you that it's not all that quick it took me a bit of fine tuning to get the right fit on the table saw it would have been easy to overshoot the fit and have some ugly gaps I also had the benefit of a blade with flat ground teeth that produced three smooth sides lacking that specialty blade I would have had to do a fair amount of cleanup with a chisel like this guy did so taking all that into consideration what's your take on this joint is it legit would you ever use it or is it mostly useful for drawing clicks online I suppose both can be true after all you clicked didn't you this is a Koenigsegg Sweden's Finest Sports Car this is a joburg's Sweden's finest workbench there are things for people who appreciate quality and high performance something they can pass down to their grandkids grandkids you can't afford this but this will cost you less than a good cabinet saw check out what showbricks has to offer at the link below this video
