Uploading an image of a small metal half inch round shape solid cylinder. Point at one end , flat on other.
I wanted to know what it was used for. I have 4 different sizes.
L
Uploading an image of a small metal half inch round shape solid cylinder. Point at one end , flat on other.
I wanted to know what it was used for. I have 4 different sizes.
L
Last edited by Anna McGrath; 10-11-2020 at 12:52 AM.
It's a center finder for dowels. Say you've drilled a hole for a dowel, and you want to make a matching hole in some other piece of wood. You put that pictured thing in the first hole, put the two pieces of wood together, and bang them so the point of the thing marks where to drill on the other piece of wood.
Lee Schierer
USNA '71
Go Navy!
My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute
And for the most part, they aren't very useful. That pattern in particular will make a dimple too large and too difficult to center a drill bit to do precision alignment of parts. Occassionally useful for some specialty jobs, but nothing you want to build a joinery "practice" on.
Right use, wrong tool.
Transfer punches are longer, and do not have a flange. They work with a through hole in one piece, to mark the corresponding centers for holes to be drilled in the (often metal) mating workpiece. They are struck/pressed directly, through the hole in the first piece, driving the point into the mating workpiece. They are usually made of steel, and hardened, for marking steel/iron.
These are dowel centers, which are designed to work in a blind hole in one piece, to mark the corresponding center for the hole in the mating workpiece. The first piece is used to press the dowel center's point into the mating workpiece. As such, they are often cast out of softer metal, and are thus not useful in metalworking.
-- Andy - Arlington TX
The dimple made depends on how hard you press the two mating parts together. I find that light pressure works pretty well and leaves a nice center point for a brad point bit. Dowels like biscuits add little strength to edge joints, though the can help with alignment of pieces.
Lee Schierer
USNA '71
Go Navy!
My advice, comments and suggestions are free, but it costs money to run the site. If you found something of value here please give a little something back by becoming a contributor! Please Contribute
Thanks Andy for the clarification and Osvaldo for the video.
Now for creating a project to use them.