Dowel plate - DFM, Lee Valley or Lie Nielsen??

[John Keeton]

I realize the LN is out of stock, but I am curious if there are strong opinions on the three options?

[Tom Giles]

I have the DFM plate. I’ve used it several times in the last 2 months and it works well. I wouldn’t say I have a strong opinion about it. It is a simple plate and it works.

[chris carter]

Get the DFM one. I made one that had the same holes as the LN one and while it worked, you really had to pound hard because of the size difference between holes. I got sick of it and rather than go through making a new one, I got the DFM one. Absolute night and day difference having way more holes closer in size. You can shave off a little wood quickly with less effort as opposed to slowly taking off massive amounts of wood pounding away like John Henry.

(EDIT) I have no experience with anything like the LV one. But it seems very inconvenient to switch from hole to hole if you have to make a bunch of pegs (who makes just one?). From their promo video it looks like you have to prep the wood with a block plane just larger than the hole and do it in one shot. That sounds rather inconvenient. With the DFM (or LN for that matter), I just split a piece of wood and narrow one end less than my desired diameter all with a chisel very quickly and then just work my way down the holes. This also guarantees zero grain runout.

[mike stenson]

I also have the DFM plate. It works better than the plates I made prior. If I had a permanent fixture for making pegs, I'd get the LV one, but since I rarely do, the DFM of LN plate is way more convenient (it stores better and is easy to use over a dog hole). I just rive the stock most of the time, if I need a nice smooth dowel then I'll plane it octagonal. Comes out cleaner that way, but that's true with all of them.

[glenn bradley]

The DFM has been working fine for me.

[Jim Koepke]

The Veritas Dowel Former (https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/hand-tools/dowel-and-tenon-cutters/101492-veritas-dowel-former) works fine for me. Dowels have been made without having to do much other than cut them down to size before bashing them through the die.

Here is a project where 24 mortise & tenon joints were draw bored > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?262272 < Scroll down to the 12th post. This was set up for a production run of pins. Normally when only a few pins are needed the molding plane isn't used.

A dowel plate was made for my grandson recently. It didn't use progressive steps. My thought on progressive steps on a dowel plate would be that one would likely do better with a set of letter size bits instead of only fractional bits. With the letter size bits the steps are closer together than the fractional. One would also need fractional bits because some sizes do not have matches between the sets.

jtk

BTW, the Veritas Dowel Former above is clickable to get to the LV page for the tool, at least until the web site is revamped again.
Also, the gate wasn't glued and is still holding together without any looseness and keeping the cats at bay.

[Tom M King]

This looks like an interesting one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D5ZT1RR/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0?psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFQNUw3Uks4VUJJWFAmZ W5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAzNjA1NzcxT0hXWUFJN1MyVTRDJmVuY3J 5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5ODU5MjMzR01QNTlQWEFVS1JWJndpZGdld E5hbWU9c3BfaHFwX3NoYXJlZCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmV jdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[John Keeton]

Tom, I saw that one in a video link somewhere. It certainly is interesting. I wouldn't be using a drill as shown in the video, but I suppose it would work as well with driving the dowel stock as with the other plates/systems.

Jim, I should have referred to the LV as the Dowel Former as that was one of the three in consideration. As an aside I have 2-3 dowel plates made by Elia Bizzarri and they work very well, but they are individual sizes - a round disc for which I have made a block to clamp in my leg vise when used. Using those does require one to get the stock pretty close to dimension as mentioned by some of the other posters.

[Jim Koepke]

Tom, I saw that one in a video link somewhere. It certainly is interesting. I wouldn't be using a drill as shown in the video, but I suppose it would work as well with driving the dowel stock as with the other plates/systems.
[edited]

The cutter openings would leave wood on the stock being driven through. Your finished dowels would have ribs.

jtk

[Rob Luter]

I have the LN version. More holes would be nice for sneaking up on the final size, but this one seems to work well.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51545812722_d579c7cf1e_b.jpg

[chris carter]

This looks like an interesting one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D5ZT1RR/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0?psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFQNUw3Uks4VUJJWFAmZ W5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAzNjA1NzcxT0hXWUFJN1MyVTRDJmVuY3J 5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA5ODU5MjMzR01QNTlQWEFVS1JWJndpZGdld E5hbWU9c3BfaHFwX3NoYXJlZCZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmV jdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

I made something like this to make long and straight 1/2" dowels. It works well and there are lots of variations of this that you can find on youtube. Great for dowels, but not pegs because of the potential for grain runout (which is why riving wood and using a dowel plate is best for pins). You just chuck up a square piece of stock in a power drill and push it through the hole. They always leave a slightly rough surface, so while still in the drill you just run some 220 over it.
470231

[Tom M King]

The first one I ever used was a hole drilled in one of the legs of my Powermatic 62 contractor saw. It worked. I remember that was in 1982, because our Son was born during the time I was working on that job.

[Phil Gaudio]

Here is a device that works very well, although it might be hard to come by as it is one of the One Time tools that Woodpeckers comes out with from time to time. I have the LN dowel plate, and it may be a complete lack of talent on my part, but I could never obtain good results with it.

https://i.postimg.cc/1RgP138Q/One-TIME-Tool-DOWEL-PRESS-2016-from-Woodpeckers-in.png (https://postimg.cc/QVrvpsg4)

[John Keeton]

Phil, that is a neat device, but it seems more of a production type tool. My volume is limited to a few spindles at a time. Sent you an email.

[John Keeton]

Sounds like the consensus is for the DFM - thanks so much for the feedback!

[Izzy Camire]

I use a Merrill draw knife I bought from you along with a spoke shave to get them close to size...less than 1/64th over and then put them through a LN plate which works quite well for me.

[John Keeton]

Izzy, I do the same using the single hole plates I got from Elia. I have 3-4 of those, but there are times I venture out on sizing and am looking for an option that will cover a range of sizes.

[Jim Koepke]

Izzy, I do the same using the single hole plates I got from Elia. I have 3-4 of those, but there are times I venture out on sizing and am looking for an option that will cover a range of sizes.

It is easy to make one's own dowel plate to knock out a bunch of short dowels.

Do you have a drill press? Are there any machine shops in your area?

A piece of scrap steel and you are ready to go. It doesn't have to be hardened to make a few dozen pieces.

In the back of my mind is one like Chris made. That could even turn out some long ones.

There is even something in my accumulation of tools that will help. There are sockets available for 'stove bolts'. Those are the kind that have four sides instead of six. These sockets are often eight point but they can still hold a squared piece of wood.

Then there are also easy to make items like this:

470388

When this is set just right it makes a beautiful 3/8" dowel. So far my longest has been about 2'.

jtk

[John Keeton]

Jim, it probably is a fairly easy task, but I don’t have a way of tapering the underside of the holes. That probably isn’t a necessity, but I would think it is helpful. That, and aside from enjoying renovating drawknives I avoid metal work.

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, it probably is a fairly easy task, but I don’t have a way of tapering the underside of the holes. That probably isn’t a necessity, but I would think it is helpful. That, and aside from enjoying renovating drawknives I avoid metal work.

The plate made for my grandson was just drilled straight through a piece of scrap 3/8" steel plate. Just checked, no images were made of the plate made for him. We did give it a test run.

jtk