On the suggestion of members of this forum, I bought the Jessem doweling jig. It seems a nice tool, but I won't know until I make some successful dowel joints.
I tested it tonight by drilling 9 holes for edge joining two scrap pieces. I never got to actually observe the fit of the dowels, because the 3/8'' dowel pins would not fit in the holes. To be clear, I do not mean that the holes did not align. (In fact, as far as I could tell, they did align.) I mean that I could not push the dowels into the holes with my hand.
I could have used a mallet to hammer the joint together, but I don't believe you should fit dowel joints together that way. The videos for Jessem and Dowelmax show the joints going together easily with the push of a hand.
So I think I have bad dowel pins. The 3/8'' pins seem exactly that width--3/8''. You can only fit a 3/8'' dowel into a 3/8'' hole with force. Shouldn't the dowels be a bit smaller? I used the bit that came with the Jessem jig. I either need to use a slightly larger big (25/64""?) or get different pins. Where should I buy my pins? Should I try a different bit?