Do dowel plates really work for their intended purpose?

[Marc Rochkind]

I've never used a dowel plate, but from what I read here on a few threads about them, the dowels that they produce aren't perfect, with various defects. People say that they turn out better if you go through the sizes in small steps and if the grain runs straight. But, still, I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with the result.

The issue is that I would only use a dowel plate if the dowel were going to be exposed (at least its end grain). If the dowel were hidden, I wouldn't care about the wood species, and would just use store-bought dowels.

Can someone who uses dowel plates successfully help me out here? Are you getting dowels with sides smooth enough to be used in exposed places in fine woodworking (not carpentry)? What worries me is that even if only the end grain is visible, the dowel has to be perfectly round to fill the hole.

[Christopher Charles]

Yep, work great and making dowels is good anger management:).

I made my own from a piece of angle iron by drilling a series of holes-I’m sure the fancy ones are a bit nicer but mine works fine.

Rive the stock and taper the ends first by whittling. Expect 1/3 to crack or be otherwise undesirable.

[Andrew Hughes]

I have a Lie Neilson dowel plate and make dowels for my attempts at fine furniture. The dowels do come out a bit snake looking sometimes but that mostly depends on how straight the wood I’m riving or splitting is. The dowels I hammer through the plate are definitely stronger then a rod of wood bought at the store.
I would never use a store bought rod called a dowel for a drawbore joint.
The fit very good as far as roundness I would also like to point out a dowel with a couple bends might be stronger. Less likely to creep out with seasonal changes.
Good Luck

[Rob Luter]

I have the LN Imperial sized version. I got it to make short dowels for pegged tenons where I wanted to use something other than Poplar or Red Oak from the Borg. I've used it a few times and it works pretty well. It is a bit fussy. The workpiece needs very straight grain, and it needs to be whittled very close to the right size before driving it through the plate. The results are quite good. The dowels are round and smooth. So far I've used White Oak, Walnut, Rosewood, and Cherry.

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

[Mike Cutler]

I have the LN Dowel plate. Mine is probably 25 years old.
Yes, you can make some very pretty dowels with it, but I use it more as finished sizing tool. I've never just whacked through a piece of wood.
The best dowels I've ever made, and I don't make a lot of them, were done on a lathe, and finished with the LN tool. You can make a lot of dowels, really fast, on a lathe, and you don't have to be very proficient with a lathe to do it. ;)

[Kent A Bathurst]

....riving....never use a store bought rod called a dowel for a drawbore joint......

Dead-on. For drawbore, gotta be rived [riven?] and then put through the plate. Store-bought version too prone to breaking midway through the joint, and then you have a very interesting situation to correct.

I often used quartersawn wood, so the stock was readily available.

[Andrew Hughes]

I happened to need some dowels today so I thought I’d share some information and pictures for the record.
These are popular as you can see I cut my lengths to what I need. Splitting them from the small straight grain scraps. Hammering a longer piece through then cutting the length after is doable and might save time. But lots of failures happen.
The last point to make is I use a brass hammer. Something I gleaned from George Wilson’s posts some years ago.
Even with the use of a brass hammer to top of the plate is showing some dings and nicks. I believe my saw service can grind it back flat.
Thanks Kent for clarifying the draw boring points I left out. :)
Good Luck

[Richard Coers]

Dowel plates are great if you are making authentic wooden garden rakes. For all other uses they fall short of making a quality dowel. Either make or buy the tool that looks like a pencil sharpener with a plane blade skewed at an angle. If you want to make all your dowels from now on, buy the high end dowel maker from Lee Valley. There is nothing on the market to compare to the quality dowels you get from that fixture. Way better than store bought dowels even!

[Warren Lake]

they showed us the metal plate thing and it works. I could buy better quality dowels and with outside serrations not in lengths of dowel rod but pre cut pre made from some supplier that had decent quality. Like lamelloes there was some and likely smaller amount of compression to them so they expand when wet with glue. R

Richard haven't seen the lee thing but will take a look id still prefer a dowel with some outside treatment over a smooth thing. Havent done draw bore, I peg with square pegs. Will look at it how to get the offset to make some pre load. Dial on the mortise machine likely. How many thousands of offset for draw boring?

[Jamie Buxton]

This kind is different from the ones shown earlier in this thread. https://www.amazon.com/Creker-Speed-Steel-English-System/dp/B08D5ZT1RR?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A5EUKG10X1P8Z&th=1 The extra ears in the holes provide actual cutting edges. You drive blanks through the plate by driving them with a drill. I've had only good experiences with mine.

[Kent A Bathurst]

How many thousands of offset for draw boring?


I suspect the answer might vary by species, but for quartersawn white oak, I used 1/32", or just barely under, for 5/16" diameter

The leading end of the dowel gets distorted as it makes the bend, and looks partly flattened on the other side.

[Marc Rochkind]

OP here. This dowel plate stuff is so confusing! So, while I try to sort it out, I dropped into my nearest Woodcraft retail store to just buy some dowel rods. But, instead, I bought this dowel-maker on clearance (30% off!). Built-in motor, and the guy said it can also make pens, bowls, and croquet mallets. Go figure!

https://mrochkind.com/public/woodworking/20230810_153315.jpg

[Andrew Hughes]

A lathe is a great machine for making dowels 1 inch diameter.
Fancy bowls and spinning tops are more fun.
Good Luck

[Mike Cutler]

OP here. This dowel plate stuff is so confusing! So, while I try to sort it out, I dropped into my nearest Woodcraft retail store to just buy some dowel rods. But, instead, I bought this dowel-maker on clearance (30% off!). Built-in motor, and the guy said it can also make pens, bowls, and croquet mallets. Go figure!

https://mrochkind.com/public/woodworking/20230810_153315.jpg

Yep, you can make some fine dowels with that "dowel making machine".
People have been doing it for a long time.

I do recommend that when you're not making dowels with it, you store it at a friends house. Those machines have a tendency to "take over a shop", and seem to get "bigger" overnight. ;)

Congrat's on your new machine. They're a lot of fun.

[Tom M King]

I remember building some Heart Pine built-ins to replace some roof leaking damage in an old house in 1981. I needed some Heart Pine pegs that were exposed. I had never heard of a dowel plate then, but a hole drilled in the leg of my Powermatic 62 contractors table saw worked just fine.

I keep boxes of tenon cheek offcuts that get used for such things, and are worth the little bit of space they take up. I needed to replace some small beaded squares in a mantle once. Sure enough, the box of tenon cheek offcuts had just what I needed.

[glenn bradley]

I have a dowel plate and a Domino plate. Both work well. I use blanks about 6" long or shorter. Longer stock gets hard to control and you get snakes. Stepping through the sizes, like stepping through grits of abrasives, yields the best result.

[Andrew Hughes]

I have a dowel plate and a Domino plate. Both work well. I use blanks about 6" long or shorter. Longer stock gets hard to control and you get snakes. Stepping through the sizes, like stepping through grits of abrasives, yields the best result.

You have plate for punching out dominos? Why wasn’t I told about this I also like making my own dominos from scraps.

[Doug Garson]

I need some short dowels for a game I making as part of my Christmas toy donation. Exact diameter is not critical but around 5/8" and I wanted them from cedar to match other pieces in the game. Made a dowel plate from a steel bed frame component with several diameters using the drill bits I have. Ripped some straight grained cedar scraps about a foot long to just over 5/8" x 5/8" and used a hand plane to knock the corners off until they were nearly round. Hammered them thru progressively smaller holes (just two) did a little sanding and in under an hour had a few feet of around 5/8" cedar dowels. The key was planing till the blanks were nearly round so the dowel plate wasn't removing a lot of material.

[Bill Dufour]

Any way to mount a box turning tool on the tailstock?
Bill D

[Doug Garson]

This video shows a method using a router with a roundover bit but not in a router table, looks easy to do as an alternative to a dowel plate, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_P62RjRcBGE

[Jesse Brown]

I haven't tried this method myself, but I've seen several examples on the 'net: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2vn9CD5z1Q

[Andrew Hughes]

Did you guys know the term Fair and square cams from shipwrights. They would constantly have to tell the apprentice to hit the wood through the dowel cone fair and square. Or precious timber is wasted
And if they didn’t no more rum to wash your gullet. Back to swabbing the deck. You forgo the main brace
I would be a great apprentice I have a good swing

[James Jayko]

Riven stock is key. If you want them to be closer to perfect, chuck the piece into the drill press and run it through the plate. But by the time you hammer it home, you're not going to see any of the bend in the wood or whatever.