I have a project where I need to use a few dowels to connect two boards together in a T shape. The other day I bought some 3/8" ones from a local hardware store and they fit very loose. You can just drop them into the hole and they have a slight wobble. These dowels have the straight grooves down them for glue so there's no need for them to fit this loosely. My plan was to use Titebond 2 but I don't know if the gap is too big. I'm going to stop by another hardware store tonight that has a different brand and pick up another package. The ones they picture on their website have a spiral around them for the glue.
How tight should a dowel be? I assume tight enough so you can push them in by hand but not need to tap them in with a hammer. If I can't find any that fit tighter should I use epoxy to fill the joint vs Titebond? I was hoping to glue this up tonight. If I have to I guess I could try to make my own on the lathe but I'd rather not make this more time consuming.