I am looking for any suggestions that will help me with a production problem. I need to dome and 3/8" dowel. Pofile is not real improtant but needs to be semetrical. A pencil sharpener is too angular. I need to do this operation thousands of times.
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I am looking for any suggestions that will help me with a production problem. I need to dome and 3/8" dowel. Pofile is not real improtant but needs to be semetrical. A pencil sharpener is too angular. I need to do this operation thousands of times.
For something that needs to be done thousands of times, the first thing I'd say is sub it out to a CNC operator.
If I was doing it myself in smaller quantities, I'd look at making some sort of jig that presented the piece of dowel at a compound angle to a roundover bit in a router table. Something like a wooden block with a hole drilled in it (slightly larger than 3/8"), with the hole pointing downwards towards the bit. Feed the dowel in, and spin it like sharpening a pencil. The combination of the bit's radius and the compound angle of presentation will give you the dome profile. You'd need to make sure that the dowel is stopped in some way so that it's height relative to the bit doesn't change whilst you're rotating it during the cut. Maybe you could use a roundover bit with bearing on top, and butt the shoulder of the dowel against the bearing.
You could also try a similar jig to feed the dowel into a 3/8th bullnose bit. Perhaps dowel rotation could be done with a hand drill, and production could be handled by two guys, one feeding the dowel in, one cutting the end off the dowel as it's completed, ready for the other guy to keep feeding the dowel into the jig.
Sounds impractical from a labour cost perspective, CNC's looking better and better.......
Given that you're in Kansas, if you haven't already done so try putting your question in one of the forums on woodweb.com. Somebody a bit closer to you might be able to help you out.
Cheers,
Justin.
hi dave,
2 ways i can think of is
1/ put each piece in drill press and round over with afile ,then sand smooth.
2/ put each piece in a battery drill ,hold up to a disk sander and round over.
this one is probably the easiest and will get a better round over.
not my idea of a fun weekend but each to thier own.
seeyasoon mik.
Similar suggestion to Mikmaz1.
If you haven't got a drill press you can hold the dowels gently in a hand drill, preferably in a bench mounted drill holder & file then sand.
I've used this method when the size dowel I needed was out of stock so bought the next size up & sanded to size needed & champhered the ends at same time.
Or you could make something similar to this. (I'd suggest you buy one, but 13mm is half and inch so the smallest is probably too big for you).
This is a page fromCarbatec's catatlogue, so don't forget to tell 'em we sent you!
Cheers,
P
Thanks for all your info. I did not realize this was a down under site when I posted the first thread. So what, we all have the same problems.
Bitingmidge has the answer to my problem but I need one of them that will chuck into a drill. Ya know , power. Is there anything like that?
Dave
I guess I'd drop the dowel into the drill!!
I think you're off on a jig building trip!
Cheers,
P
This might be the answer to your problem?
http://www.binkyswoodworking.com/PegTip.htm
Dean I want to thank you for the information. I am working on something similar right now but it is nice to have another look at accomlishing the same thing a different way in case the firs thing does not work well.
I found the End Rounder in the US....it's called a dowel baller and you can find it at Dowel Baller Set | Doweling & Wood Threading
Highland wood working online site. 24.99.
I'm very excited to find this...I've been looking online for a end rounder and only found it at the Carba-tec site and shipping from there is outrageous.
I hope this helps you as it did me!
Janet:U
I've done this many times before. A simple jig on the router table with a round over bit works well. Just shove the dowel in, spin it by hand a few times and it's a perfect dome.
With all the dowels stacked close, once I get a bit of a rhythm going, I can do about 1 every 2 seconds.
Possibly a little late but for future reference - This is a jig which I have made from Wood magazine as it was an improvement on my own jig. It also allows the use of multiple sizes and takes about 10 minutes to put together.
Dowel Chamfering Jig
Hope it helps,
Bob
Thanks for that Bob. simple idea but looks effective. Another good jig to make. :):2tsup::2tsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob38S