Making dowels

[Porter Bassett]

I understand that dowels used to be made by forcing a square of wood through a series of progressively smaller holes which shaved off the corners. (Dowels are now bought at the hardware store. ;))

Is this dowel-making tool something that I could make myself with 1/4" plate steel and some drill bits, or is there more to it? Does anybody make this tool any more?

[Tom Esh]

...Is this dowel-making tool something that I could make myself with 1/4" plate steel and some drill bits, or is there more to it? Does anybody make this tool any more?

I'm no machinist, but I think you'd at least need a milling machine to make a decent one. Plus to have a useful life they really need to be harder than the typical mild steel plate. Woodcraft sells two:
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5155
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5410&wcs=5155&pcs=fam

[Dewey Torres]

Here are a few more options:

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=53

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/193

There is also a type that is made far a certain size that works kind of like a pencil sharpener. Below is a link to Japan Woodworker (for the half inch size).

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=99.017.04&dept_id=13621

[Walt Caza]

Hi Porter,
Yes, you can hammer stock through dowel plates.
Long ago, I once saw a magazine article showing how to make your own plate.
As Tom said, the trick is you want hardened steel for a cutting tool.

I demonstrated another dowel making approach in the Morris chair thread.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=85886

It's a long thread. (in the ww projects forum)
I do not know if you can link to a specific posting in a thread?

If you want to search for it, the actual post is titled 'quest for dowels'. (with pics)
Many sizes and any wood can be used with that approach.
good luck,
Walt

ps you did not mention what you need the dowels for? hmm

[Lee Schierer]

You can make any size and length dowel you want on a router table with the round over bit of the right radius. It takes four passes. I've used the router table to make dowels from wood that you don't ordinarily find dowels made from.


Cut a square of wood that equals the final dimension of the desired dowel. Set up the router with a round over bit of the desired radius. Use feather boards to keep the piece of wood tight to the table and tight to the fence. the fence should have a zero clearance or at least minimal clearance opeinging for the bit. Run the dowel through one pass and then rotate the stock 90 degrees so that first pass cut is up but still against the fence. Make the second pass and rotate the piece int eh same direction. After the final pass wrap sandpaper around the dowel and sand it smooth.

[Chris Padilla]

Lie Nielsen has a dowel cutter as well (http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1239)

[Porter Bassett]

I want to make my own dowels so I can make them out of the same wood that I'm making the rest of the project out of.

I don't need to make that much, so your quick-n-dirty router table trick should do the job nicely.

Thanks!

[Chris Padilla]

Porter, just keep in mind the (sometimes subtle) difference in radius and diameter. I can't tell you how many goofs that's caused in my humble little gara...errr, shop. :)

[Michael Faurot]

Is this dowel-making tool something that I could make myself with 1/4" plate steel and some drill bits, or is there more to it?


I've not made one myself, but I believe that's the gist of it.



Does anybody make this tool any more?
I bought the standard version from Lie-Nielsen (http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?sku=DP) (a metric version is also available). I use it all the time for making small dowels out of various types of hardwoods. It's especially useful for making the pins used to drawbore mortises. Something to keep in mind about this tool, is its purpose is not to make dowels of the same length you find at the hardware store. You probably won't want to make anything longer than about 6" with it. The longer the stock is that you need to hammer through the device the more chance there is to break the stock and deform it.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

A fair number of dowel making gadgets show the user making a round dowel from a round dowel - - Just smaller or maybe more accurately dimensioned since most dowel stiok is anything but consistent.

You can start with square stock using the two types of rigs linked to and then use a hardened steel plate or a little dimensioning plane type rig like the Scotts used to use to shave the final dimension true.

I've made dowels hammering stock through a hole (with a burr) in a steel plate. I find it works best if you sneak up on the final dimension running the stock through progressively smaller holes the last one taking maybe 0.010" off on the diameter. Even that way I get tear-out quite often. I think the little Scott round plane might be the best but I can see that grabbing and digging in taking off more than you'd want.

[Brad Shipton]

Many of the big production guys make dowels on a moulder. The top and bottom heads are equipped with cutter plates with half circle cutters and dowels come out the end. Well, thats the general idea.

[Carl Hill]

I have the Lie-Nielsen and it works great. Here's a little trick though. Say you want to make a 5/16" oak dowel. I cut a 3/8" square piece of oak, then with my stationary belt sander, I roughly round one end to a 3/8" diameter. Then I stick the piece into to my cordless drill and using my belt sander again, run the drill opposite the direction of the sander, and sand it down to approximately 3/8". Then taper the end away from the drill down to slightly less than 5/16". Then instead of removing the piece from the drill, I leave it in the drill and stick the tapered end into the Lie-Nielsen and simply drill it through the 5/16" hole. I can make dowels up to about 12-14" using this method and you don't have to worry about them breaking as you pound them through the jig. Hope this makes sense.

Try it, it's fast and easy,

Carl

[Greg Hines, MD]

I did not see how long you need the dowels to be. For short ones, you can use a plug cutter.

Doc

[John Downey]

Dowel plates are easy to make. You can use mild steel, they wear out quicker but a part time woodworker will still get years of service from a mild steel one. Drill your holes and relieve about 3/4 of the plate thickness with a counter sinking bit (the machinist's kind, not like a Fuller bit). Minimum plate thickness is about 1/8", maybe a bit thicker for mild steel. O-1 steel is very easy to harden and temper if you want to try that.

Two extra tips. First, if the dowels are for pins you can drill the plate hole slightly oversize, just mabe 0.01" by using a machinist's numbered bit, or maybe a metric. Then your dowels will fit nice and tight. Second you can chuck your blank into a drill so it will rotate as you press it through rather than bashing it with a mallet. This works best if you have a series of five or so holes decreasing in size down to your desired size (starting nearer your square blank size of course). The dowel comes out a little rough if you use a drill (might also want to relieve the back of the plate a bit more if you plan to do it this way), but for pins that won't matter.

[Paul Steiner]

Dowel plate cutters work but there are better alternatives. All these alternatives are from the past when you could not buy a dowel at the hardware store. Here is an example http://cgi.ebay.com/Stanley-77-DOWEL-MACHINE-CUTTER-1-2-diameter_W0QQitemZ280280349821QQcmdZViewItem?hash= item280280349821&_trkparms=72%3A1424%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

There are many variations, most of them are like pencil sharpeners. I have used a stanley dowel cutting machine to cut a 5' dowel in the past.
I think you would be happier and more productive with a dowel cutting machine.

[Chris Stolicky]

You could consider a lathe? ;)

Sorry, I guess that's the turner in me talking....

[Michael Schwartz]

I understand that dowels used to be made by forcing a square of wood through a series of progressively smaller holes which shaved off the corners. (Dowels are now bought at the hardware store. ;))

Is this dowel-making tool something that I could make myself with 1/4" plate steel and some drill bits, or is there more to it? Does anybody make this tool any more?

You can make your own dowel plate. Just start with any piece of steel, I have used as thin as 1/8" and drill a hole in it. You could get fancy and tool steel that has been hardened and tempered and then flatten and polish the face to make it sharp but I have had good results just using a random scrap of steel.

To make the dowel just split off the stock to insure strait grain, use a spoke shave if you need to round off the stock a bit to make it smaller, and hammer it through.

I use this method when I need to make small dowels to plug screw holes or to peg tenons etc... out of my choice of hardwood.

[Tony Bilello]

Porter:
I have done it before just as you described..."by forcing a square of wood through a series of progressively smaller holes which shaved off the corners."
Except, I did not use progressively smaller holes. I did it as a one shot deal.
I needed 1/2 dowels. I cut the wood just slightly larger than 1/2" squares.
I slightly pointed one end, kinda like a pencil sharpener would do and hammered it through a 1/2" diameter hole in 1/4" steel plate. It went fast and easy.
Easier than you would think.
I wouldn't do this as a steady diet, but it worked for me on several small projects where I needed the dowels in a species that I could not ordinarily buy.