Sticky Fingers and Dowels

[Prashun Patel]

Just a question to you dowel and loose tenon users:

How do you apply glue to your dowels or tenons? I can't find an elegant way to do it. I've tried brushing as well as just dropping each one in a small pot of glue and then picking it out...

Either way, it ends up being messy. Any solutions? Am I missing something obvious?

[Eric DeSilva]

For dominos, I use those cheap-o brushes... brush glue in hole, brush glue on half (more or less) of domino, slot in, then brush glue on the other side. I usually get more on me wiping off excess squeeze out than in the gluing part...

[Peter Quinn]

For dowels I glue the receiving hole, push in the dowel, plunge it in and out real quick once or twice while spinning it, and that's it. I use a glue brush to glue the other end using the squeeze from the first end, and add a bit less glue to the second hole. I am using dowels that are .010" under sized, those pesky dowels that are sized exactly to the hole size will not allow this, nor IMO much room for glue either.

For loose tenons I use a glue brush and great care, sometimes a chip brush if i really need to move quick on an assembly. I glue just short of the half way point and count on a bit of squeeze covering the rest but not my fingers.

[Bill Huber]

I use compressed dowels, the ones with little ridges on them.

I put a small amount of glue in the hole and push the dowel into it all the way down. This will force out glue around the ridges, if there is not glue all the way around I pull it out and add more. Then with a brush I spread the extra on the surface. I then use the brush to put glue on the dowel that is sticking out and on the matting surface and put them together.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Guess I haven't used a dowel in years now, but loose tenons are done as the others said. Those cheap brushes are great for this job. Search for acid brushes on ebay for a big pile for cheap. They also work for testing finishes. There is a very fine line on how much is too much glue on this sort of thing BTW. Sucks to have to trim 1/8" off the end of a stuck tenon that is bottomed out on a pool of glue that has no where to go.

[Larry Edgerton]

Those cheap brushes are great for this job. Search for acid brushes on ebay for a big pile for cheap. They also work for testing finishes. .

Steve, check at the dollar stores. I have been buying these fairly nice artist brushes at the dollar store, about a dozen in a package with some very large sizes, like 1", for a dollar. That makes them cheaper than the acid brushes, and worlds better. I go through a lot of them as I use a lot of epoxy.

Oh yea, another good glue applicator is thread a 3" screw into a cigarette filter, dip it into glue on a piece of paper, and swirl it around the hole. Works great for plugs especially.

[Prashun Patel]

Yeah, I've done it this way too. I love acid brushes.
The prob is that on wide boards, when I'm doing say 10+ dowels, it's a race vs time. Also, by the time I brush the 10th protruding dowel, the 1st one has dripped either down the side of the piece or onto the assembly surface, so there's always a lot of frantic wiping too.

I still really love pocket screws for this very reason - no rushing. Of course, with pscrews I'm always crossing fingers as I drive the screws home that alignment's perfect..

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Steve, check at the dollar stores. I have been buying these fairly nice artist brushes at the dollar store, about a dozen in a package with some very large sizes, like 1", for a dollar. That makes them cheaper than the acid brushes, and worlds better. I go through a lot of them as I use a lot of epoxy.

Oh yea, another good glue applicator is thread a 3" screw into a cigarette filter, dip it into glue on a piece of paper, and swirl it around the hole. Works great for plugs especially.


Thats an interesting way to use a cigarette! I bet it does work well, and gets around the one big glitch of brushes, which is a brush that is bigger than the mortise or hole makes a mess. I did get a pretty good deal on my last batch of acid brushes, 500 for $25. I'll look at the artist brushes next time I'm at one of those types of stores as well.

[Prashun Patel]

Thats an interesting way to use a cigarette! I bet it does work well, and gets around the one big glitch of brushes, which is a brush that is bigger than the mortise or hole makes a mess. I did get a pretty good deal on my last batch of acid brushes, 500 for $25. I'll look at the artist brushes next time I'm at one of those types of stores as well.

Or you could just use a 1/16" undersized dowel...

[glenn bradley]

I use a brush to coat the mortise walls and a thin coat at the leading edge of the tenon.

[Charlie Jones]

I use an acid brush or a smaller dowel. After years of buying various glue bottles and applicators I came to the little acid brush. Picked up some at the flea marlet this last week.

[Jerome Hanby]

I buy those cheapo acid brushes from Harbor Freight, but I still end up with as much glue on me as on the joint. I've been lusting after one of those Lamelo glue bottles for biscuits, but haven't been willing to pony up that much green for a glue bottle...