How do you create a small cross-grain spindle?

[Tom Deering]

Newbie turner here. I need something like a dowel, but with the ends showing face grain, not end grain. It's maple, and it's very small: 1/8" diameter, 3/4" long. If I start with a square piece of wood, say 1/4" on a side, how do I rough it out, and how do I shape it? And what are the options for holding it--what kind of chuck or center is right for something that size?

I've tried using the tailstock with a 6" long piece of wood, and I've tried sticking a piece in the (3-jaw) chuck with just an inch protruding. I've tried using a gouge and a skew. Everything I try results in the piece breaking. Is that just an inescapable problem with the grain direction, since it's not the usual orientation, or is there some technique that is foolproof that avoids breaking along the grain?

Or is this not even a job for the lathe? Any advice out there?

[Joe Watson]

Sounds like a "plug cutter" would be better.
Not sure how small they go:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22plug+cutter%22

_ (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%22plug+cutter%22)

[Curt Fuller]

The method you've tried starting with a piece of wood long enough you can hold it it the chuck and then carefully turning it down to the 1/8" diameter should work. You'll have to be very careful and just barely touch it with the tool and maybe even make the final cuts using some sandpaper. You might also try saturating it with some CA glue to reinforce it.

[Richard Hutchings]

I have done this with a countersink/drill screw starter with the drill bit removed.

[Wally Dickerman]

I think that your best bet is to use a bedan type tool. It would be used by by pushing the tool straight at the headstock, taking small cuts with a sharp corner of the tool. I've made cross grain dowels that way...not sure if I've done them as small as 1/8 inch but I'm sure that it can be done.

You can make a tool like that by grinding the side back for an inch or so at about a 15 deg. angle.

I've been using that type of tool for a lot of years for many uses. Hollowing a box. for instance. Back in the pre-bowl gouge days (dark ages of turning) I did some of my bowl hollowing with a bedan type tool. Right now I have several of different sizes. Every one of my students learns how to use it in the fashion described above.

My bedan type tools are ground back on both side as is the bedan but only for a bit over an inch. The only real difference is that I grind the sides back at more angle than the bedan. Gives me more clearance.

[Tom Wilson66]

How about making a regular dowel, with the grain running the long dilrection, and glueing a "tip" on the end with the face grain showing on the ends only. Could be 1/4" long or so, and would be much easier to make than a full length cross grain dowel.

[Tom Deering]

Tips on the ends sound eminently practical. Thanks!