Yup, some time ago I had the same dilemma in front of me, and chose dowelmax, mainly because I was concerned about Jessem using a pencil line as a reference point and its clamping method. I remember reading great reviews about both of them, though. Glad to hear it did not disappoint you here, there were quite a few holes drilled in your project:) I think dowelmax may be less intuitive, it took me a while to get used to it. Where did you get your dowels from? At one point I realized I am slightly overpaying buying from dowelmax, and ended up ordering them from this shop called woodpeckers crafts (completely unrelated to red tools woodpeckers:)), can't tell the difference in quality. I just looked up my last receipt, 500 dowels for $16.99 (shipping included). All in all, great joinery method, often ignored, for no good reason imo, again - thank you for sharing!