trimming dowels

**robbygard** · 4th March 2018, 11:33 AM

reasonably often i find i want to halve, or most recently a bit over halve a dowel .. i have tried various approaches in hte past mainly relying on the linisher and trying to hold the dowel evenly on it (plenty of sanded fingers with very small dowels and not very even results)

i have seen posts about approaching this and the linisher seemed to be the best of the solutions .... but i have come up with a solution that i haven't seen before ( i am sure there are at least 100 other people who do this mind you)

i rout a stopped groove in a piece of scrap and then plane the dowel down ... so for instance on a recent car i needed to halve some 1/8 inch dowels to make trims ... with a 1/8" bit in the dremel with the depth set to 1/16" i routed the groove and with a block plane easily took it down

yesterday i needed to make some spacers for a model i am doing that needed 2/3 of a 5/8" dowel ... with a 5/8" core box bit i routed the groove and then my old no 3 easily took the third of the dowel off

being right handed, i would have been smarter to make the groove on the near side and could have clamped the other side, but a planing stop worked ok anyway

pictures below should make that clearer

as i said everybody else probably does this already, but i haven't seen it so thought i would post in case it helps someone

9_dowel1.jpg 9_dowel2.jpg 9_dowel3.jpg 9_dowel4.jpg

regards david

**htl** · 4th March 2018, 01:00 PM

Thanks for the tip!!!
There's only been a few times I've needed these kind of parts but when you got to have them nothing else will do, and an easy way to get er done is always appreciated.

If I could find more tips like this my modeling would be so much easier.

**Keith_1** · 4th March 2018, 04:06 PM

Thanks - a top work method.

Regards

Keith

**Dalboy** · 5th March 2018, 12:33 AM

A great idea.

Would it be better to chisel the end square or do you find that when the dowel is pushed up to the round end that it helps stop the dowel rotating. Now all you need is some more slots of different sizes on that piece of wood and it is there ready for any sized dowel.

**robbygard** · 5th March 2018, 07:38 AM

Originally Posted by Dalboy

A great idea.

Would it be better to chisel the end square or do you find that when the dowel is pushed up to the round end that it helps stop the dowel rotating. Now all you need is some more slots of different sizes on that piece of wood and it is there ready for any sized dowel.

the sides are tight to the dowel in both sizes i mentioned which stops them twisting (in fact i had to use a brass punch to get that one out of the slot once planed) and being somewhat lazy, i hadn't even considered chiselling it out ... and yes more slots would be fine, except i tend to chuck the scrap away (or back in the pine scrap box) after i have finished ... the various screw holes indicate that one had been a fence or guide beforehand

next time i need one i will try to remember to make the groove on the near side (for a right hander) though ... for the 1/8inch dowels i just held it in my left hand and used a block plane because you are not taking much timber off with the smaller dowel ... i hadn't thought of the logistics of taking more timber off ahead of time

i use the 1/8" dowels as trim a lot (as per the 1932 buick i posted recently)

regards david

**Alexkara** · 5th March 2018, 07:55 PM

Nice tip robbyg'... however, it begs one question... where the hell do you get imperial dowel here in Australia... or did you cheat and do a mental metric to imperial conversion!

My brain is ill and I just don't have enough fingers to convert on the fly.

**robbygard** · 5th March 2018, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by Alexkara

Nice tip robbyg'... however, it begs one question... where the hell do you get imperial dowel here in Australia... or did you cheat and do a mental metric to imperial conversion!

My brain is ill and I just don't have enough fingers to convert on the fly.

most of the dowel i buy is actually imperial anyway even when listed as metric ... the stuff i pick up from mitre 10 is anyway ... i also turn my own at times if i want a particular wood and particularly if the plan calls for one dowel going into another of different size when i just turn the finished product

actually i work easily in a pseudo world where both measuring systems co-exist ... so whilst i feel more comfortable with imperial both have their places for me

regards david

**crowie** · 5th March 2018, 09:57 PM

G'Day David,
I've sliced larger dowels on the bandsaw then mostly having to try to square them up later.
I've not used any of the smaller stuff metric or imperial like the detailing you've done on your Buick...
Thank you for sharing your jig to make it safer and easier; it's saved for further reference.
Cheers, Peter

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