I'm glad you appreciate my 'help'... mileage as always will very.

for drilling a strait hole in a dowel here is what I did.

I ran a 2x4 piece of scrap through a table saw. The saw was set at a 45 degree angle. I did this twice so I had a vee notch in the 2x4. The 2x4 was clamped to the drill press table so the notch was vertical, and the dowel would fit in the notch and be held there, with the center at the point of the bit.

I forget how I held the dowel in the notch though... probably with my hand.

Worked well enough to run the bit in from both ends, and have them line up fairly well in the center.

you should be able make a simillar jig nailing two pieces of wood together.