Thread: Pencil sharpener!

Ugh, forget that bit about the shoulder being 45 degrees to the tenon. Obviously that needs to be a right angle (even if the peg is angled up from the board)

Pardon me while I think out loud!

I think the easiest answer probably is an ordinary dowel ... I just need to work out a good way of holding the varying shaped bits for the drill press so the dowel hole is cut at right angles to the cut face ...

How many have you got to do,
How long and strong and strong are the pegs?
What sort of diameter are we looking at?
Photos would help

Hey Bob, thanks for taking an interest in my ramblings!

The answers are it depends on if it works, could be a few. It varies (size and strength) but I think an ordinary 10mm dowel plus glue will be plenty strong.

I will post some pics shortly.

At the moment I'm thinking I will swing the drill press over the bench vice and then jiggle each one around until it measures square to the drill bit ... that's the plan anyway!

This is interesting question you have asked and I hope to be able to answer it.

My wife wanted to make a few coat racks for her friends and the hooks as we shall call them needed to be pointing upwards. I had a floor standing drill press and a forstner bit. I angled the table and secured the piece to the table and supported it to the floor. I drilled very slowly and move to the next position.

The hooks were made after and shaped to fit every hole individually as the coat rack was not completely symmetrical.

If this is going to be a coat rack of sorts then the angle needs to be less than 90 so the coats do not slip off.

The other way that I am thinking of doing this would be by hand drilling with a bit and brace.

Originally Posted by mcsblues

Hey Bob, thanks for taking an interest in my ramblings!
The answers are it depends on if it works, could be a few. It varies (size and strength) but I think an ordinary 10mm dowel plus glue will be plenty strong.
I will post some pics shortly.
At the moment I'm thinking I will swing the drill press over the bench vice and then jiggle each one around until it measures square to the drill bit ... that's the plan anyway!

If you don't have too many and the wood is straight and strong enough I would have a go at using a spokeshave to get things close and then turn the end into a round cross section by hammering the spokeshaved end though the right sized hole in some steel plate. The gentlest way to do this is to use holes in steel plate that are of ever decreasing size that creep up onto the right size.

Thank you both.

I should have mentioned my laziness

I was thinking originally along the lines of jig which once produced could do them in a flash, but it does help to put what you want to do in writing ... because almost immediately I could see it didn't really make sense and I was probably making work for myself ... rather than saving it.

It is still a proof of concept (very silly idea putting a phone in a shed!) but I think my method will work as well as it needs to and no one will know I didn't hand craft it with a spokeshave (sadly I'm old enough to know what one is )

I may still drill the dowels by hand (spend a silly amount of time with the drill press to get it almost in the right place ... and will have to put it back together again to what it was ...)




This one actually has a relatively straight cut due to the handy bend in the branch, but the dowel hole will be drilled as close to right angles to the cut face regardless of the angle needed for that cut face;



Plenty strong and you can't see how it is attached .... mission (almost) accomplished.

Thanks again.

Dowel looks fine, nice idea BTW.

The dowel could also work.

What type of glue would you be using?

Originally Posted by Christos

The dowel could also work.

What type of glue would you be using?

Sorry Christos .. been away.

The dowel works well on its own so the glue isn't a big concern I use either Titebond or Aquadhere ... whatever comes to hand.

Strangely enough, while looking at something else I discovered a tool (isn't there always a tool?) that does pretty much what I originally envisaged apart from the square edge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maWBJbMjEFU
http://www.carbatec.com.au/veritas-p...cutters_c11050

... but I'm not racing out to spend 130 bucks!

I keep needing to remind myself, that the simplest solution is ... if not the best, certainly the quickest and easiest ... and cheapest!

Must sleep ...

If you want to spend even more, there is the pro version with a tapered tenon with matching countersink;

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...80,42288,45539

Must admit I quite like that ...

If anyone is still following this

I made up one of these jigs,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuM_dOXw-f4

- because i liked the idea of running up quick round tenons on DAR stock as well as natural limbs.

Works a treat! The tenon here is slightly tapered (which isn't a huge deal) but probably will be better with a bit of care, feeding in straight. It might not look it, but he shoulder is beautifully flat and square with a very sharp clean edge.

Originally Posted by mcsblues

Not sure if this is the right place but bear with me ...

I want to attach natural timber (with bark) 'pegs' to a board (like a coat rack), not necessarily at a right angle.

Of course I could glue and screw or make up a dowel jig of some kind, but if it was possible I like to have a jig that would cut a dowel shaped tenon leaving a clean shoulder at any angle up to say 45 degrees to the tenon.

At least part of the difficulty is the varying shapes and sizes/lumps and bumps of the raw material (which also makes drilling a fitted dowel at right angles to the cut face hard ... although that may still be the best option ... but if any of the brains trust here can think up an idea that would do the same thing like an electric pencil sharpener ... maybe using a router cutting a very small circle (??) I'm all ears!

BTW its been a long time since I posted here (3 years) ... not enough time for doing important stuff like spending a day or two experimenting in the shed ... but I notice my pic album is still here but the links to it have been lost??

if you still want a dedicated tool, you could try something like one of these

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...180,42288&ap=1


or these

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/pag...80,42288,45539


or these

http://www.thewoodworks.com.au/sub-a...ers-data-sheet

Thanks Ian,

If you look further up the thread you'll see I already looked at the Veritas systems (I especially liked the one with the matching countersink) but after making this jig (you should check out some more of his videos which are a lot better than the run of the mill Youtube) I'm pretty happy with something I can also used for very quick dressed timber joins as well (may need to pre-notch on the table saw sled to prevent chipped edges on rectangular stock)

With the natural timber limbs I will still have to dowel the ones I join at an angle - but that isn't really a big deal.