Making small dowels?

[Scott M Perry]

Hi, all -

I'm making a small box of QS sycamore. The box is joined with lap joints at the corners; I'd like to pin them, and since I'm using walnut as a contrasting wood for the bottom and handle, it makes sense to use walnut dowels to pin the joints. I've made small diameter dowels in the past, but I'll be dipped if I can remember how. I'm thinking that I'll mill some walnut (I have nothing to rive, unfortunately) to a little proud of 3/16" square, then drive the wood through a piece of steel with a 3/16" hole drilled in it. Will this work? I'm not sure how I'm going to drill through steel thick enough to work for this, though. Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Scott

[Sean Hughto]

The choices are a dowel plate - LN offers a nice one, a lathe, or patient work with blades and/or rasps to hand shape and size the stick. A dowel plate is the best bet IMO.

[jason thigpen]

+1 on a dowel plate. And with dowels that small, you could get by with using some 1/8" steel for the dowel plate.

[Charles Wiggins]

Check out this recent thread: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?197752

[Jim Koepke]

Another way this can be done is with a beading plane. My experience doing this is with a Stanley 45. Cut a bead on one edge, then come at it from an edge 90º from the beginning edge.

If you already have the small stock cut, a beading blade can be mounted in a vise and just draw the stock through the cutter.

The thread Charles linked to has a lot of ideas.

It is also possible to just whittle the stock in to a taper to a close fit. Then it can be tapped in and cut flush. Many different effects can be done with this method. Cut a very shallow mortice around the hole and leave the end of the dowel square. Then the exposed part can either be cut flush or left a little proud with a chisel and cut to a slight pyramid. If any one asks, just say it was easier to cut a square hole than make a round dowel.

jtk

[Scott M Perry]

Just to close this, I got a piece of 1/8" thick steel angle from work today. Flattened one face on a 220 water stone, drilled a 1/8" hole in it and mounted it in a vise. I have some 3/16" thick walnut left over from milling the bottom of the box I'm working on. Sliced a few pieces off, square profiled. Brought my daughter out, handed her a tack hammer. Set her to work tap-pounding. Ended up with some beautiful 1/8" walnut dowel pins. Bored holes in the lap joints on the drill press, had Maddie tap the pins into place and cut them with a flush cut saw.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8532/8472606158_a41e9a1cd2.jpg

Lots to do on the box yet, but the walnut dowels worked out great!

[Lloyd Robins]

Just a note - Lee Valley is showing a new dowel plate on their site. It is, of course, a different take on making dowels. You can see it here- http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,42524&p=70555 .

[Chris Griggs]

I have no comment about dowels. But I just thought I'd comment on how much I love QS sycamore. Lovely wood, especially for panels and drawer fronts ....very nice to work too.

[Scott M Perry]

Thanks, Chris. I like QS sycamore, too - used it on the drawer fronts of my daughter's dresser. But I don't like it for this box. The sides are curved, and working the wood from opposite directions with a plane is an exercise in frustration. Lots of tear-out. I can't bring myself to rasp this, so I'm unfortunately going to resort to sanding. Ugh. But the ray figure on a curved surface is truly wonderful.

[Chris Griggs]

Yeah. Its funny stuff. Super easy to saw and chisel. Super easy to plane with the grain, but rips out pretty easily against the grain. I prefer planing too, but no one will ever know you sanded it but you.

[Tyler A Anderson]

I like to leave the dowels I use a little short of the surface (1/8" to 1/4") depending on the thickness of the wood I am joining. I then cut plugs with a plug cutter, and glue them in the holes to cover up the dowels. I do this for a few reasons: I can make the plugs out of any type of wood I want, and then I can use face grain instead of end grain. I can also then use oak or poplar dowells that are easy to get.

[Don Dorn]

Good idea, not sure why I didn't consider that as opposed to making the dowel itself the same species. The end/face grain reasoning is enough on its own.

[Charlie Stanford]

Hi, all -

I'm making a small box of QS sycamore. The box is joined with lap joints at the corners; I'd like to pin them, and since I'm using walnut as a contrasting wood for the bottom and handle, it makes sense to use walnut dowels to pin the joints. I've made small diameter dowels in the past, but I'll be dipped if I can remember how. I'm thinking that I'll mill some walnut (I have nothing to rive, unfortunately) to a little proud of 3/16" square, then drive the wood through a piece of steel with a 3/16" hole drilled in it. Will this work? I'm not sure how I'm going to drill through steel thick enough to work for this, though. Any other ideas?

Thanks,
Scott

Rockler sells 1/4" walnut dowel stock. Maybe you could just sand some of this down or use a block plane to work it down. Otherwise, buy a dowel plate.

[Scott M Perry]

Charlie, I made a dowel plate from some 1/8" thick steel (see above).

As to making face grain plugs to avoid showing end grain on the dowel pin, well, the end grain doesn't bother me, and I think the engineering involved in eliminating the little bit of exposed end grain is diminishing returns. YMMV, my $0.02...