Dowelling Question

[William Young]

I am in the process of rebuilding an old piece of furniture that was put together with dowels. I have some places where new parts including new dowels are required. These are typical fluted 3/8" dowels and I have a centering jig and a set of dowel centers. My problem is that the dowel centers fit so tightly in the dowel holes that they must be driven in. They are then very difficult to pull out requiring driving something under their lip in order to pry them out. This, of course, damages the area around the dowel hole, which is not a serious problem, but is a real hassle. Does anyone else have that problem. Do you have a way to solve the problem or do you just live with it?

[Lee Schierer]

Have you measured your dowel centers and drill bits to insure they are sized correctly for each other. I have dowel centers and they slip easily into the the holes and come out easily as well.

[Andrew Hughes]

Why don't you just sand the dowels a little bit so they are not tight.
Or another way that I use is to pass them thru a dowel plate several times

[Stan Calow]

presumably, the original dowels were glued in place so not surprising they would be hard to pull out. I just drill them out when that happens, rather than damage the surrounding wood by prying.

[Jim Morgan]

Wow, answers are all over the place. My guess is that old dowels came out when piece was disassembled & now you are trying to insert dowel centers in these old holes so you can mark dowel locations on new parts. Old holes may have some residual glue or may have become oblong over time due to wood movement. My suggestion would be to ream out the old holes with a 3/8 (if that is the correct size - original holes might have been 7/16) twist drill, preferably by hand to avoid enlarging the holes excessively.

[William Young]

Have you measured your dowel centers and drill bits to insure they are sized correctly for each other. I have dowel centers and they slip easily into the the holes and come out easily as well.

Yeh. I think my problem is in cheap tools. This is a one-time job. I don't usually use dowels. So, I bought a dowel drilling jig and dowel center set from HF. Keep in mind, I am measuring with a fractional caliper. I'm probably only accurate to within .01 on the decimal scale. The dowel centers measure about .375. I have one bevel point bit (metal boring) that measures .370 (good quality bit. Should be .375). The two brad point bits are cheap and also measure .370. My Freud forstner bit measures .375. There has to be some slight variation in the dowel centers; a couple of them will go into a hole bored with the forstner without too much trouble and two won't. Only one of the brad point bits and the bevel point will go into the drilling jig. Without shelling out money for better tools, I think I'm stuck with some aggravation for the few I have to do.

Yes. My dowels are a bit tight also. I'll just sand them down a little as suggested.

[Steve Jenkins]

Wow, answers are all over the place. My guess is that old dowels came out when piece was disassembled & now you are trying to insert dowel centers in these old holes so you can mark dowel locations on new parts. Old holes may have some residual glue or may have become oblong over time due to wood movement. My suggestion would be to ream out the old holes with a 3/8 (if that is the correct size - original holes might have been 7/16) twist drill, preferably by hand to avoid enlarging the holes excessively.
Just beat me to it