Making Thin Dowels

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Clifton C

Don, I needed pins and decided to use bamboo skewers, but since they are not really round, I had to make them that way. I drilled a series of holes in a card scraper using numbered drills. The skewers were already tapered so I just pushed them in, grabbed them with pliers and pulled them thru, worked better then expected. Might work with cherry.

cc

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Dick Coers

Difficult to make dowels less than 3/8" diameter with a plate. The wood fiber just crushes if you have to drive it through with a hammer. If you can pre-turn the wood into a oversized dowel, you might be able to use the plate for final sizing.

I use the Veritas dowel maker for knitting needles, but even it is difficult when doing dowels at 1/4" diameter.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Tom Norton

I have done it by drilling holes in a steel plate and driving a larger peg through it. It was quite easy.

What diameter?

Dick Coers

You might consider the mini X Miller dowel. They sell them for joining 1/2" stock, can find the actual diameter.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

roger lance

I bought a dowel plate from Lie-Nielsen years ago.....not cheap, about $50.....but, I wanted something from LN, and that plate was about all I could afford from them......

Still available.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

John K Jordan

Don, what diameter and length? And how many? The reason I ask is I'd be inclined to turn them on the lathe with a skew unless they were long. I've turned down to about 1/16".

I've heard people say they made dowels by spinning wood (in a drill) and sanding but I never tried that. If I did I'd probably use the sanding sticks I make by gluing sandpaper onto flat pieces of plywood.

JKJ

An idea....

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

If faced with this task here is what I would try.....Use a chain saw file to file a 1/8" half circle in the edge of a scraper. Some how I would produce some slightly oversized 1/8 x 1/8 sticks. I would start the rounding with a file and then pull the sticks through the scraper to make them round. They probably don't have to be perfect for the pinning task.

I scrape molding profiles and if the scraper profile is sharp the process goes quickly.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

john lucas

Don I have done it. I made my plate from 1/4" steel. I drilled holes using numbered drills so the sizes stepped down in very small increments. If you use 1/16" increments the wood needs to be pretty strong. It does need to be straight grained and riving works better because the grain will follow the wood. I drilled most of the way through the steel with a larger bit. I'll use fractions instead of numbers so If I was going to drill a 1/8" hole I would first drill most of the way through with 3/16. This leaves a tapered hole at the bottom that helps the wood feed through. Whittle the first inch or so down so it will fit in whichever hole you start with and then grab it with Vice Grips and pull it through. Make spares because sometimes you pull the end off if the wood is being a problem. Taking very small size steps really helps with this.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Jack Guzman from Maine

Don,I use an LN dowel plate on a regular basis. Before I got one I made my own. Just drill a hole through a piece of steel plate the size you want. Cut the cherry into a block about twice as long as you need and rive the block into pieces of the approximate size with a wide bladed chisel or a knife. You'll need a fairly straight grained piece for this. Whittle a piece to a point on one end and just drive it through with a light hammer. Easy once you try it. ---Jack

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Don Stephan

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll try making a dowel plate tomorrow diminishing by thirty-seconds to 1/8".

JKJ: You're killing me (lol). Having fun with some wands, but 3/16" my narrowest effort. 1/8" diameter, I'd really have to be in the zone.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Robin Corell in Atascadero

you won't get round dowel if you make your draw plate with a standard twist drill. The proper way to make it is to use a slightly under size drill bit and then use a reamer. Finish by deburring the back and lapping the front. The smallest size I have on my plate is 1/8" but I have no doubt that some woods could be succesfully driven through smaller holes.

Re: Making Thin Dowels

Philip Duffy

Works for me every time!

Re: Dies

TomD

Don, do you have a tap and die set? If not why not, , At today's prices where the whole set costs about as much as a single die used to, how can one not? But anyway, they are basically taper reamers you can run wood through them, then use your hammer die to clean up the piece when you get to that point. In some applications you can just use the threaded dowel

The hammer dies are just holes drilled in steel ideally reamed as has been mentioned, and then a taper reamer run into them to undercut the top diameter an allow the cutting action. If you don't have a reamer, you can substitute a file.

Ideally, if your dowel comes out a little oval, then you can orient the dowel so the wider segment goes into the end grain. That is the right way to do it.

Making Dowels with a Homemade Dowel Plate

Barry Irby

I just went to YouTube and "Making Dowels with a Homemade Dowel Plate" popped up in my suggested viewing.

May have to get somebody from down under to translate. Good enough to make me want one.