How to enlarge a 1/2" hole

[dennis thompson]

I build a lot of toys for my grandson. Very often I use a dowel which goes through a hole. In most cases ,for example, if I drill a 1/4" hole, a 1/4" dowel is too tight to fit in the hole I drilled, so I drill the 1/4" hole a 64th larger and everything works fine. However I am now drilling a 1/2" hole for a 1/2" dowel and the dowel will not fit, I don't have a drill bit which is 1/64th larger than a 1/2". Other than buying the 33/64 drill bit, is there any way to very slightly enlarge the 1/2" hole to fit what is obviously a 1/2" dowel which is slightly oversize?
Thanks

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Prolly easier to sand down the dowel a bit.

[Scott Snyder]

Take another piece of the 1" dowel, maybe 4-5" long. Sand a sizeable flat spot on it, wrap w/fine sandpaper, and sand the whole open however much you need.

[Wade Lippman]

I presume you are cutting your own dowels out of dowel rods. Yeah, when I have done that they are always out of round and needed to be sanded down. You can stick it a drill and sand as necessary, but commercial dowels are pretty cheap and much easier to use. The big boxes have them 20 for $2.50.

[Bill Space]

I am not sure what Scott is suggesting, but I would take a dowel of smaller diameter, cut a slot lengthwise in it with my band saw, insert a piece of sandpaper to make a pseudo flap wheel of sorts, put the dowel into my battery drill, and insert the dowel/sandpaper combo into the hole and sand as needed to enlarge the hole to the required size.

Bill

[Prashun Patel]

Drill a 1/2" hole in a piece of angle iron, and then hammer your '1/2' inch dowel through the correctly sized dowel plate.

Another trick that can sometimes work is to super-dry the dowel in the oven or even microwave.

[lowell holmes]

I would wrap or glue sandpaper to a smaller dowel and enlarge the hole.

[Bill Dufour]

You could use an expanding reamer designed for metal work.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

I build a lot of toys for my grandson. Very often I use a dowel which goes through a hole. In most cases ,for example, if I drill a 1/4" hole, a 1/4" dowel is too tight to fit in the hole I drilled, so I drill the 1/4" hole a 64th larger and everything works fine. However I am now drilling a 1/2" hole for a 1/2" dowel and the dowel will not fit, I don't have a drill bit which is 1/64th larger than a 1/2". Other than buying the 33/64 drill bit, is there any way to very slightly enlarge the 1/2" hole to fit what is obviously a 1/2" dowel which is slightly oversize?
Thanks


As previously mentioned, I like the idea to sand the dowels to fit. For half inch dowel it is not difficult to attach it in your drill and easily sand it
Another possibility is to buy a 13 mm (yes, metric!) and either use it to drill or to enlarge the existent half inch hole... the difference is near to 1/64" you are looking for. Personally I used a few times this trick with 1/2 inch dowels as I have 13 mm drill bit


Good luck!

[dennis thompson]

I am not sure what Scott is suggesting, but I would take a dowel of smaller diameter, cut a slot lengthwise in it with my band saw, insert a piece of sandpaper to make a pseudo flap wheel of sorts, put the dowel into my battery drill, and insert the dowel/sandpaper combo into the hole and sand as needed to enlarge the hole to the required size.

Bill
Bill

I Tried this and it worked fine, thanks for the recommendation

[Charles Lent]

A dowel sizing plate or a hole of the correct size drilled through a piece of steel is the fastest way to solve this problem. Just hammer the dowel through the hole. It usually won't take much effort, but the dowel will then be the correct size. You can buy a dowel sizing plate with holes for the common sizes of dowels, or just make your own. If the dowels are over size because the humidity in your shop is high (like in the Summer months), a short time in a micro wave will shrink them some. You should try this first if you suspect the shop humidity, then pass them through the sizing plate if they are still too large. The microwave shrinks biscuits when they are too tight as well, but I haven't seen a sizing plate for biscuits.

Charley

[Rich Engelhardt]

.54 Hawken...... :D ;)

[Bill Dufour]

[QUOTE=Osvaldo Cristo;2763972]

As previously mentioned, I like the idea to sand the dowels to fit. For half inch dowel it is not difficult to attach it in your drill and easily sand it
Another possibility is to buy a 13 mm (yes, metric!) and either use it to drill or to enlarge the existent half inch hole... the difference is near to 1/64" you are looking for. Personally I used a few times this trick with 1/2 inch dowels as I have 13 mm drill bit

Good idea! and then do some math and look at letter and number drills. Literally think outside the box of fractional drills. I have seen some wierd endmill diameters like 27/64 etc.

[Bill Dufour]

ebay has 33/64 drills for sale in Silver and Deming style. Who knew? not me.
Bill D

[lowell holmes]

I used to have a dowel plate before Harvey came through and decimated my shop. :(

[dennis thompson]

Bill

I Tried this and it worked fine, thanks for the recommendation

As I said , I used this method, (i.e. sand the hole with sandpaper on a smaller dowel inserted in a drill) and it worked well, but I did order a 33/64 drill bit for future use.