best way to cut thousands of rectangular dowels?

[dustin wassner]

I need to cut 1/2" x 1x4" dowels, thousands of them.

I was thinking about buying surfaced boards that were 1/2" thick already from the local wood distributor and stacking them as high as possible and then running them through the bandsaw. Obviously I would have the fence 1/4" from the blade.

I tried a sample of this with only one board and the cut was not only not as straight as I had expected, but I was getting tons of "fuzz" that had to be sanded off. Hard to describe, but if I push the board against the fence before and after the blade, it closes the kerf on the back side of the cut and seems to bow the board toward the blade and makes, especially if I am pushing beyond the fence, then it really bows it.

Having the table saw blade a 1/4" from the fence and stacking the boards then cutting them seems like a kickback waiting to happen...

I can cut them out of either poplar or clear pine, whichever is cheaper, as long as there are no knots.

I have a 14" planer that I could take them down to thickness, but if the price is right to buy them surfaced to thickness already, I would much rather go this route.

Any suggestions?

DW

[Jamie Buxton]

For thousands of parts, you might consider outsourcing the whole problem. For instance, Chicago Dowel makes and sells round dowels and square dowels. They mention that they'll make custom sizes like your rectangular shape. They also say they'll precision crosscut. http://www.chicagodowel.com/rods.html

[James Zhu]

Use a table saw sled, place the sled fence stop 1/4" from the blade, put the 1/2" board on the sled until it touches the stop, then move away the stop and cut.

It would be better if you could make another stop on top of the sled fence, so you can position the vertical stop to the 1/4" position quickly.

[dustin wassner]

Jamie, I will take a look at this. Never even crossed my mind.

James, I really like that idea. The boards I planned on buying are 12ft long. I can cut them in half. But how would I put something this long on the sled to rip?

[Adam Herman]

could you set up a woodmaster style shaper/moulder as a gang saw?

table saw seems like a bad idea. edit, a sled would make it much safer.

maybe a job for an ras turned parallel to the fence, as you could mount a featherboard to each side to keep the wood on the table and feed each wider board through. then turn it 90 and set up a stop to cut the length. At the door factory, we would cope our stop, and then we had a jig for the ras to cut about 20 at a time to length at the same time mitering the bottom, registered off the flat spot in the cope.

[James Zhu]

Jamie, I will take a look at this. Never even crossed my mind.

James, I really like that idea. The boards I planned on buying are 12ft long. I can cut them in half. But how would I put something this long on the sled to rip?

It would be a problem to rip such long narrow piece using the sled on the cabinet saw. Piece of cake doing this type of ripping on the sliding table saw :)

[dustin wassner]

My RT31 had an option from the factory to come with a sliding mechanism, but unfortunately my saw doesn't have it...

[Wayne Lomman]

If you can get half inch stock, go for it as half the work is done. If not, machine to half inch first, then do the quarter inch

Do this on the table saw with a fine tct blade. It is too thin to get a decent finish off a planer.

Don't attempt it in 12 foot lengths. Too much hard work. Dock your raw stock into a manageable length that is a multiple of your finished length with allowance for waste. Remember to allow enough waste to hold onto when docking your last ones off each length. 3 or 4 foot is long enough for this.

With your stack of raw stock beside you, just work your way through the stack of timber one cut at a time. If your dowels are 2 inches long and you get 20 out of each length, you will will cut enough quarter by half strips in half an hour to make 3000. Stick to one cut at a time. If you cut 2 at once, you can't see the bottom one and it can go undersized.

Docking to length can be done on your mitre saw or whatever. Cut any sized stack you feel you can hold onto.

You will need to sort out feather fences or whatever to suit yourself. Cheers

[Bill Adamsen]

I need to cut 1/2" x 1x4" dowels, thousands of them.

Based on some of the followup comments, I'm thinking that specification must have a typo (or the fence wouldn't be 1/4" from the blade).

If I were doing this, like Wayne said, work with material in the 3 to 4 foot long range. Plane, stack, cut (on a large high tension bandsaw), rotate and plane (or thickness sand) then flip and sand to final dimension and finally cut to length.

[dustin wassner]

What are your thoughts on stacking, say, 12 boards on top of eachother and lining them up, then running a screw through all of them at each end, then trying to cut them on the bandsaw, moving the fence in 1/4" at a time? This way the dowel being cut is not between the fence and blade like on my initial failed attempt. I could probably construct a jig that would allow quick adjustments of the fence for each cut.

For what its worth, my bandsaw has a 18.5" resaw. It may not be realistic, but in my imagination I picture stacking 36 1/2" boards and somehow clamping them at each end so they stay aligned with one another and then running this huge stack through. If I could do something like this, even if I had to adjust the fence every cut, it seems like it would be really fast. Just might not be realistic.

[dustin wassner]

The cut surface can show the tool marks, I just can't have the fuzz/blowout that I am getting on the bottom board when they are stacked if I use the bandsaw

[Mike Kreinhop]

The cut surface can show the tool marks, I just can't have the fuzz/blowout that I am getting on the bottom board when they are stacked if I use the bandsaw

Can you use a sacrificial bottom board as you run the stock through the bandsaw?

[dustin wassner]

of course i can, and i never even thought of this...

I was going to try to use a zero clearance insert on my bandsaw but i think this might work better

[Nathan Callender]

I'd personally look for a power feeder on a table saw with a good rip blade. Or s power feed on a band saw too. With so much repetitive cutting a power feed takes a lot of risk out of the work

[keith micinski]

Is no one else wondering why he needs thousands of small square pegs?

[keith micinski]

Also moving the fence repeatedly to get a 1/4 inch exactly sounds like a recipe for disaster. Even using an incra positioner would worry me keeping it accurate and be a pain. I cut 1/4 inch stock by 3/4 for trim all of the time on the table saw and never have any problems doing it that way. Set the fence once and don't move it.

[Keith Westfall]

I don't see the issue of using the table saw. Run your board through the planner to get the 1/2 in thickness, and then set your table saw for a tad over 1/4 inch rip. Use a push block that fits over the wood and the blade, (that you can saw into) and make the cut. Not all that unsafe. Cut your boards short enough to handle easily, 2 - 3 feet.

Then lay them down side by side, and run them through the planner to make them 1/4 inch. no fussies, no problem.

[Jordan Epstein]

I think it would help if you gave us all the details. What are the exact dimensions of the final piece you are looking for?

If you don't need a 6 foot long dowel, I would not try to cut a 6 foot long dowel to a small dimension. If you have a good table saw and good technique, table saw cuts should only need a light sanding to be good to go after cutting.

[Wayne Lomman]

I'm not sure why you are set on doing them with your bandsaw. That's ok. The job still isn't a long one. You can still produce about a thousand an hour without resorting to tall stacks which will reduce accuracy. Good luck. Cheers

[Kerry Wright]

Is no one else wondering why he needs thousands of small square pegs?


Giant Jenga :D

[Jerome Stanek]

I'm not sure why you are set on doing them with your bandsaw. That's ok. The job still isn't a long one. You can still produce about a thousand an hour without resorting to tall stacks which will reduce accuracy. Good luck. Cheers

To put into round holes

[Bill Orbine]

Use a bread slicer:D

[Marc Jeske]

OP needs to tell what size dimensional tolerance is allowed for finished pieces.

IF it's critical, as may be the case depending on final use, it's possible it would be a disaster doing it "in House"

Also, will they need a vibrated tumbled deburr procedure, or will he hire the Neighborhood to do on their front porches ?

Maybe best off handing off to a Sub such as Jamie sed in Post #.

Just thinking out loud, Marc

[Marc Jeske]

How bout this w a custom cutter ?

Note - Lunch NOT included :D

[Marc Jeske]

And don't forget the Highway Hypnosis effect side of repeated repetitive repeats repetitively repeated.

Your mind will wander from "Tell yourself there's only 1,971 remaining to cut" to "Why did I take this Job ? to "What's for Supper", and ooops, there goes that finger !

Marc