Replies

1. 
   ram | Nov 22, 2005 02:50am | #1

   I have one, and had what I considered good results with red oak dowels.  I took a caliper to the home center where I bought the dowel rods and got slightly oversize stock.  The end result was not perfectly straight but had a good consistent cross sectional diameter.  The dowels had no problem going in to the M&T joints I was making.  I was making 5" dowels to go into 2.5" square sled feet for a small workbench.

   A friend told me he uses fluted dowels and they come out "perfect."  I haven't tried that yet.

   -robert

1. 
   Quartersawn | Nov 22, 2005 03:00am | #2

   Those are good ideas.  Have you tried making any from "scratch"?

1. 
   ram | Nov 22, 2005 08:11pm | #3

   'Have you tried making any from "scratch"?'

   Not yet.  I'm toying with ideas for a project where purpleheart dowels would make a nice accent, but it's pretty far down the list ;-).  Seems like it would not be all that difficult, using a shooting board that has a shallow vee groove in the base, and a block plane.

   -robert

1. 
   Quartersawn | Nov 22, 2005 11:15pm | #4

   That sounds like the good technique.  That's why these forums are so great.  Thanks

    

2. 
   AlanTurner | Nov 23, 2005 04:19pm | #5

   I use mine more than I thought I would, for dowels and also to round a portion of the dowel leaving the last part square, for square pegged tenons. I make the blanks out of very straight grained wood, not much longer than I need, and saw the stock to about 1/16" oversize, then knock off the corners with a block plane. The v-grooved shooting board is a good idea and I will make one. These dowels are not undersized and fit tightly. Ebony is a good accent wood for dowels, and I have made and used many. Pays to save even your small scraps of the exotics. White oak should not be a problem.

   Alan

   http://www.alanturnerfurnituremaker.com

3. 
   whiteoak590 | Nov 24, 2005 09:23pm | #6

   I got the idea from a video from Jim Kingshot titled Mortice and Tenons. he demonstrates how to make drawbore pins using the plate. These add great streangth to M and T joints that support larger panels in doors for example. They were and are used extnsively in the Timber Framing trades and used to be used extensively in shipbuilding. In all of these cases they are used as drawerbores.

   Kingshot shows how to rough out with a chisel the pin to aproximate size and then pound in through the plate. One side is smaller then the other to help scrape off the excess wood of the pin to the final size.

   Thanks to L-N for binging back a great older tool.

   Dan Evans    

4. 
   Jeff | Nov 25, 2005 04:31am | #7

   After initial poor results, this now works for me:  Use a spokeshave (drawknife if need at first) on a longer piece of straight grained wood to get the stock round and close to the final size.   Using a template of a hole drilled in thin stock, I check my progress in getting to the desired diameter.   Once the size is where I need it, I cut the piece to slightly oversize pieces and pound them through the  dowel plate.  Process is similar to making the chair members for the back of a windsor chair.