Bench grinding to shape wood?

[Augusto Orosco]

I have some 5/8 oak dowels I am going to use to drawbore the mortise and tenon joints on my workbench built. I need to chamfer the ends so they can penetrate the offset hole better. I could of course use a knife or a chisel to do this, but it occurred to me that I could use my bench grinder instead, which would be much faster given that there are 24 pegs to chamfer (I don't have a belt sander, which would be a no brainer). Is there any reason I should not do this? Mostly worried that I would be doing something unsafe. Not a biggie if I must do it with a knife/chisel, I am just being lazy!

[Myk Rian]

A grinder will do it.

[John McClanahan]

Works good.

[Augusto Orosco]

A grinder will do it.


Works good.

Thanks, guys!

[ian maybury]

Chuck the dowel in a power driver, and run it as it touches the wheel. Light touch on the wheel or it will burn though. Much less so if you do the same, but against a sanding disc or a sanding belt…...

[Bill Huber]

You could do something like this, you can use any bit you wanted in the router table.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?226647-Rounding-over-dowel-rods-revisited-with-new-jig&highlight=rounding+dowels

But to answer your question the grinder will work.

[Tom Stenzel]

I do it all the time. Like others have said burning is the problem. Use the coarsest wheel you have and have a dresser handy to clean up any loading.

-Tom

[ian maybury]

PS Another option if the rotating chuck is on a fixed device like a pedestal drill/lathe etc is to use a (coarse) sanding block/duragrit block/rasp/file (the latter two with handles on to avoid any risk of getting spiked by the tang in the event of any catching - and going carefully to avoid any risk of getting caught in or clipped by anything rotating) to form the taper. Move the block about to avoid burning out one patch...

Chances are a block plane would do a nice job too if the dowel is of large enough diameter to have the strength to support it - ref the Tage Frid cylinder turning method using a hand plane. Like a large pensil sharpener....