Thread: Consistent dowel making.

There are many!

Just a couple that come to my mind...

The Stanley 77 dowel machine. This is an old, rare tool which works like one of those pencil sharpeners you used as a kid. Wood goes in square, comes out the other end round. Hand cranked. I mostly mention this because I really want one of these machines... but they can be in the thousands of dollars range if they are in good condition and come with the full range of cutters. The cheapest you'll find one for is maybe 4 or 500.

So on to reality... The Veritas tapered tenon cutters work for this application. You simply clamp the tenon cutter in your vise, then mount the square stock in a drill and spin it as you push it through the tenon cutter. It comes out as a dowel on the other side!

Again, that's just what comes to mind. There are plenty of other methods. I think one way to do it is to just push the square stock through progressively smaller holes in a metal plate, but I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of this method.

Good luck,
Luke

There are quite a few videos on YouTube about making dowels on the bandsaw. I've got inconsistent results myself trying the bandsaw method but it is okay for dowel used to peg joints. I'll try this method using the lathe next time I think.

Hi lewisc,
One of the reasons, for not getting a good job done is you are doing them between centres.
Remove the Drive Dog, & whack one end up the MT2.
More stable than the other way, & you maybe able to use a Roughing Gouge, that will most likely do a better job. With the R/G you can Skew as well, when you are nearing the right thickness.
Thatsjustmy2scenseworth.

have a look at this jig http://www.woodworkersinstitute.com/page.asp?p=977

and here's a jig that uses a block of wood and a chisel http://woodgears.ca/dowel/making.html

I make dowels all the time. There are some new shaving racks that are being produced that require 6 dowels ranging from 120mm to 80mm all to be press fit into 10mm holes.

Turning between centres gives exact results. I always get them to within 0.05mm (reading it right, and no it's not slow and fiddly)

showed me how to make a spanner sharp on the smaller lip. You grind it back a bit on the grinder and sharpen it from the outside. This is what gives you the rough size. A 12mm spanner is closer to 12.5mm. Grab your micro and check them out, they are all oversized.

The rest of this technique is mine....

First, run the work between centres, maximum speed, make round with the spindle gouge. Using the rest as a stop/safety, press the spanner into the spindle at the ends and a few places along the work. It won't catch. You'd think it would, but it doesn't... I don't know why, but it's quite cooperative at this abuse. Take care pulling it off, it does sometimes want to get grabby.

Then using the skew, remove all the leftover until you are a hair above all your spanner marks. Grab a long strip (300) of 80 grit cloth backed sandpaper and wrap it once around the spindle and hold the ends at 45 degrees, on slow about 1200 rpm and with the DC going, sand it like you dry your back with a towel.

I'll try to describe that better. The strip of paper is normally held horizontal to to the piece, but this only sands the width of the strip. Rotating it 45 degrees, or more, and wrapping it loosely once, makes the width of the sanding surface very wide indeed, perhaps 1/3rd of the work. It sands evenly on all sides and moving it left and right removes any high ridges or bad skew work in seconds. Remember to use the back-towel-dry motion. It's cheating horribly, but it works for me.

Sand it to a whisker above the spanner marks, swap to 180 (I use colour coded stuff from Moggy) to the height of the spanner marks, or juuuust below, then 240 to adjust the last 0.3mm down to 0.05mm

This sanding technique makes the entire length very flat and smooth and gets you to within an absolute hair of what you want. It's freakishly accurate.

After a couple of tests you'll be spitting out dowels 300mm long and dead press-fit accurate in about a 2 minutes (that's what it takes me and I'm a rubbish turner).

I'll post some pix of the process tomorrow.

P.s. I expect to cop some flack about the sanding technique and it being dangerous. But you are only holding the ends between forefinger and thumb and it's reasonably loose. You aren't trying to strangle it to death....a light grip and light tension is heaps.

P.s.s for this job I use a tiny little steb from mcjings and a cone live centre from timberbits (their double bearing super special.

Ian's first link is excellent

Thanks.

My homemade plate doesn't work so well. It might need some adjustments.

I had a go at the jig using the chisel and drill. It works well apart from some tear out. I'll need to make sure the chisel is extra sharp..

Id like try on of the tenon cutters but I'm seeing what I can come with without throwing money at it.

• 6th May 2015, 01:32 AM
  issatree
  
  Hi lewisc,
  One of the reasons, for not getting a good job done is you are doing them between centres.
  Remove the Drive Dog, & whack one end up the MT2.
  More stable than the other way, & you maybe able to use a Roughing Gouge, that will most likely do a better job. With the R/G you can Skew as well, when you are nearing the right thickness.
  Thatsjustmy2scenseworth.

Do you have any links or pictures of this? So far, I get the best finish using the lathe and will probably try a few more times with it. The spanner methods sounds interesting. I'll see if that could work as well.

I was going to suggest the wood gear one as I have seen that before.

Originally Posted by lewisc

....I had a go at the jig using the chisel and drill. It works well apart from some tear out. I'll need to make sure the chisel is extra sharp.......

Might I suggest after sharpening the chisel you try it a different angles. I would guess that 45 degrees to the wood might be optimal.

I just thought of swapping the chisel with a spokeshave blade. It works much better - I can also use a screw to adjust the blade much easier than the chisel and clamp. The finish on the timber was much more consistent than using the chisel. I'll need to make up a new block for it to fit the blade better.

.IMG_4967.jpg

That's good to hear.

Originally Posted by lewisc

I just thought of swapping the chisel with a spokeshave blade. It works much better - I can also use a screw to adjust the blade much easier than the chisel and clamp. The finish on the timber was much more consistent than using the chisel. I'll need to make up a new block for it to fit the blade better.

.IMG_4967.jpg

Yes, a plane blade provides a better cutting edge than a chisel.

Sorry I didn't have time the other morning to find a suitable example

here's some more ideas for shop made dowel making jigs
http://lumberjocks.com/llwynog/blog/28244
http://toolmonger.com/2007/12/24/old...unding-planes/