Thread: Safe way to cut 6mm dowels

Thanks for all these idea above, they are great.

I have decided on a variation of the one hiroller suggested. Drill a number of 6mm diam holes in the flat side of a piece of 25 x 50 pine, push the 6mm dowels snugly right into these holes. Run the pine on edge through the table saw for half its length at a cut thickness equal to the length of dowel I wanted, then stop the blade and withdraw the timber, pushing out the dowels. Should be able to do half a dozen dowels safely each cut.

Could be just as easily dome with a bandsaw

Use a Japanese pull saw and a vee block. Quick, easy, low tech, and heaps safer.

Do yourself a big favour & forget the bandsaw and table saw. Otherwise it will eventually become a trip to the emergency department, to reattach fingers or extract a piece of flying dowel lodged in an eye etc!

Yeah I've heard it all before you can do it safely if you pay attention ...BUT comes the day when you don't pay attention.

Thanks for this comment, mobyturns, much appreciated, but would have to disagree with you.

The 6mm dowels are totally buried in the timber of the jig ( 50 x 25mm on edge), and the dowels are snugly held in the timber while being cut ; and the blade is lower than the height of the timber carrying the dowels, so there is no exposed blade, and you follow normal table saw safe practice. Can't get much safer than that.

One improvement would be to put a push handle on the uncut part of the timber to push the loaded jig in to the saw blade, do the cut, and then stop the blade and pull the jig back, unload and re-load with new dowel to be cut.

My hidden agenda here is that arthritis prevents me hand cutting lots of dowels in the Vee block - not the cutting, but the holding the little dowels down while cutting is the problem

Originally Posted by Dengue

Thanks for this comment, mobyturns, much appreciated, but would have to disagree with you.

The 6mm dowels are totally buried in the timber of the jig ( 50 x 25mm on edge), and the dowels are snugly held in the timber while being cut ; and the blade is lower than the height of the timber carrying the dowels, so there is no exposed blade, and you follow normal table saw safe practice. Can't get much safer than that.

One improvement would be to put a push handle on the uncut part of the timber to push the loaded jig in to the saw blade, do the cut, and then stop the blade and pull the jig back, unload and re-load with new dowel to be cut.

My hidden agenda here is that arthritis prevents me hand cutting lots of dowels in the Vee block - not the cutting, but the holding the little dowels down while cutting is the problem

Dengue,
Good points for your solution, covered blade, handle, stopping the blade before removal.

We all have our own risk threshold - how much risk we are prepared to accept. You have at least considered the hazards and risks and your personal circumstances (i.e arthritis etc) and have come up with a workable solution that suits you. Great work, however like all woodworking processes some hazards & risk still remains.

I have a couple of concerns with your method,
1. Over time the dowels will become less firm in the "carrier" holes or a dowel will be undersized and can then move from the vibration possibly jambing against the saw blade creating a kickback hazard;
2. how you control alignment of the carrier through the saw, again a potential kickback hazard given the blade is running in a slot & the proximity of your arthritic hands to the saw blade if a kickback occurs.
3. the typical hazard of becomming overconfident/blase & overlooking stopping the blade, not checking feed alignment, or making a new carrier if it gets sloppy.

But that risk is related to how many dowels you wish to cut & how often etc.
I would still be inclined to go with the pull saw & vee block but make a simple hinged lever with a grip block to hold the dowel in position with your arthritic hands. No fiddly bits to grip then.

Stay safe, & keep up the great work on considering the hazards in what you do.

I'd use my small pipe cutter, meant for 15mm - 4mm copper tubing.
Cut, not chewed with a saw blade.