Replies

1. 
   GHR | Dec 03, 2003 08:50am | #1

   I don't think dowels are precision made by wood workers. Glue fills in the gaps and the dowels hide inside a project.

   In any case you can a dowel sizer from a piece of steel with a hole in it.

2. 
   eddiefromAustralia | Dec 03, 2003 10:56am | #2

   telemiketoo,

   They're quite easy to make from stock that's slightly oversized - will probably cost you a couple of bottles of beer at your local engineering shop. 3/4" drills probably cost USD25-00, so two bottles of beer is a cheaper option as you'll probably never need the drill again.

   Just ask the engineering shop to drill a 3/4" hole through a bit of scrap plate, pref 3/8" thick, but beggars can't be choosers.

   Take the plate home and hammer the dowels through it.  The surplus thickness will peel off like a banana skin, leaving you a smooth dowel near as dammit to 3/4" dia.

   These are called dowel plates and are how dowels used to be made in small quantites.  Stanley had a mechanical jig like a pencil sharpener, but the dowel plate works well and leaves a serviceable finish.  The quality of the finish depends upon the quality of the corner of the hole - burred or sharp corners produce smooth surfaces.

   Here's a link to a commercial version

   and another link from a google search

   And another good link from a fairly well acknowledged woodworker. (copied and pasted below)

   Cheers,

   eddie

   Here is how I make my dowels or pins or pegs. First you need a dowel plate. This is made out of metal, mine happens to be made from an old freight wagon wheel tire and is a rather substantial piece of wrought iron. Mild Steel or Iron Plate will also work, if it is too hard it is difficult to work. Any size metal plate can be used if it is large enough to accommodate the necessary holes. I cut off a 12 inch long section about 2 inches wide and 3/8 inch thick. I then drilled a series of holes starting at 1" down to 1/8" in 1/16" increments. You can make larger sizes if you have a use for them. Make sure the entry hole in the metal is clean and sharp, it will form the cutting edge of the dowel plate. 

   To make fluted dowels make another sizing plate like the first one. Then, using a ball peen hammer, pound around the edge of the holes, bending in the metal. It is like a reverse rivet, instead of hammering and spreading the head of the rivet out, you are hammering and spreading the upper edge of the holes inward. It doesn't need to go in very far but you want a burr on the inside of the hole. Take a sharp cold chisel and hold it in the hole and on the edge of the burr. By striking the chisel you form a V notch in the burr on the top of the hole. Move the chisel and continue forming a saw tooth pattern around the inside of the hole. The projections left inside the hole should be pointed, this is not critical, and it just looks better if they are uniform and sharp. You can also do a little cleanup if necessary with a triangular file. These are the final dies that you put the dowels through to provide extra gluing surfaces and an escape for the hydraulic pressures that build up in blind dowel holes when you drive the dowel into the hole. These fluted dowels should only be used where they won't be seen, and are not intended for use on exposed surfaces. 

   Click on the thumbnails below to view larger picture, then use the Browser Back button to return to page.

      

   Note: hole detail; cutter holes on right & toothing holes on left of center bolt hole.  This tool was made from a section of wrought iron wagon wheel tire.

   Making these doweling dies, through which you will pound hundreds of pieces of wood, is an investment of time and when properly used they will last a lifetime. Don't use a steel hammer on them, when you make the final blow and the hammer hits the holes, the sharp upper edges will soon dull and you will have to continually dress the die holes. Always use a rawhide mallet, wooden mallet or maul, something that will not damage the metal plate.

3. 
   JohnWW | Dec 03, 2003 05:27pm | #3

   The plates being recommended are sometimes called "dowel pops" and while they do a decent job of getting the dowel to the proper diameter they leave the side surface of the dowel fairly chewed up and possibly crooked.  I use pops all the time to size dowels for plugs where the sides of the dowel won't be seen, but I wouldn't use them to size a dowel that would be visible.

   The ideal method of sizing the dogs would be to make them on a lathe, you could fine tune the diameter and have a clean surface when you got done.  You could possibly make a simple lathe using a drill press or a hand drill in a cradle and use it to turn oversize store dowels to size using a coarse file and sandpaper to shave the wood down to size.

   Beall Tool Company, which makes tooling for threading dowels, sells carefully sized dowels in several species of hardwood.  They're at bealltool.com. 

   John W. 

1. 
   BobSmalser | Dec 03, 2003 05:59pm | #4

   One gizmo I use a lot to make tools and jigs is the Beall Wood Threader.  Comes with it's own dowel plate.  I took the router off for clarity.  And JR Beall is a great guy, too.

   Beall Threader in Use

4. 
   jako17 | Dec 03, 2003 06:57pm | #5

   If you use your "crude" jig as you put it,you almost had it beat.The chisel needs to be skewed but the last 1/8 of the edge needs to ground parallel to the axis of the dowel.Leaving it as a normal chisel gives the self feed but is cutting a thread.The diameter is measured at the parallel section.Also you might try a low cutting angle as a No 60 plane.Another suggestion is a lathe and a block plane.Hope this helps!

5. 
   AlanWS | Dec 03, 2003 10:45pm | #6

   A handplane and/or sandpaper work too. Or use a roundover bit with a 3/8" radius, and rout two edges of a 3/4" thick board except for a few inches at each end. Now rip that off 3/4" wide, turn it over, clamp at the square part and rout the two exposed edges.

   Another option:

   http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com/dowelmakingjig.pdf

   
   

   ---

   Edited 12/4/2003 7:45:20 PM ET by AlanS

6. 
   SawdustSteve | Dec 04, 2003 12:48am | #7

   I'd like to have your problem.  Any dowel I get at my local Home Despot or Lowdowns is undersized.  I keep a 31/64 drill handy for the '1/2" dowels, and similar undersizing for almost all dowels.   SawdustSteve in COLD New York

7. 
   migraine | Dec 04, 2003 04:15am | #8

   What you are discribing is exactly how we made hardwood dowels in the past.

   his is how we did it.

   Drill an exact size hoe through a piece of 1 3/4" hardwood like maple or beech about 1/2" away from the edge.

   Now ream about 1/2 way the block with a slight taper on the face(like a morse taper)

   Now, slice of the edge of the bolck just until you get to the unreamed area of the hole.  This is where you clamp the plane blade(razor sharp) and the blade must be at a skew so the the rough side dowel starts to take a little off as it enters.  The deeper you go. the more it removes until it reaches the unreamed area.  This whole process is done with the oversized dowel is chucked into a drill on medium speed.  Sort of a trial and error on the speed/feed rate.  We have been able to cut dowel rods that need no sanding and are as smooth as glass.  I think the longest we have ever made is 4-6'.  These included walnut, maple, and teak.  Smallest diameter was around 3/16" or 1/4". largest diameter was over an inch.  A friend told me that they used to make some ove 3" in diameter when he worked in the boat yards many moons ago.

8. 
   mike4244 | Dec 04, 2003 07:43pm | #9

   You could buy a length of 3/4" steel dowel and put some type of wood over it. Steel dowel (available at any hardware store or big box store) should be 3/4" exactly.

   I have not tried this but seems like a good solution. Steel will last forever and if wood gets damaged it would be easy to replace.

   mike