Drilling out a dowel

Re: Drilling out a dowel

Barry Irby

Throwing out some thoughts.....

You could make a Vee block and attach it vertically to the side of a sturdy block you could clamp to your drill press table and then carefully center the two end pieces and drill them.

By using shorter pieces of Vee block you could drill some of the others, allowing some of the protuberances to tuck under the V.

The base should be easy enough.

Also, Read the stuff below on Hardware Bonding. The idea is to drill a considerably oversized hole and fill it with Epoxy and then insert the hardware. In your case you could drill a 3/8 or 7/16" hole and use a short piece of 1/4" treaded rod or even a dowel. This would give you some wiggle room to straighten everything up before the epoxy sets.

Another idea is to use a really long drill bit, like maybe 18". It gives you a much better "sight line" to see if you are straight.

This all would be easier if you can remove the candle holders, but I am guessing they are glued in with dowels and won't come out easily.

Glue known?

kneale brownson

Maybe you could soften the glue (heat/moisture) and extract by inserting something like a drywall screw with coarse threads and pulling? I'd reglue with something like hide glue that can be undone next time.

Re: Drilling out a dowel

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

My experience with dowels is that they are never glued in with a robust bond of dowel to hole. So.....I drill the dowel with an undersized drill and start prying at the wall of the dowel with a chisel. The dowel usually will split away from the hole.

Re: Drilling out a dowel

William Duffield

If you have one, an incanal gouge works even better than a flat clhisel.

Re: Drilling out a dowel

William Duffield

If you can manage to get a grip on the pieces with a scroll chuck, a lathe really works better than a drill press. Install the appropriately sized drill bit in a Jacob's chuck in the tail stock. A brad point bit works best for this. Install a scroll chuck in the the head stock. If necessary, remove one of the jaws to make room for the piece that sticks out the side of the piece you need to drill. Run the lathe at a very slow speed, and adjust the scroll chuck until the center of the dowel is centered on the drill bit. You already know that the other end of the piece you are drilling is centered. Slowly advance the drill bit in the tail stock, until the hole is deep enough. It helps a lot if you know how many turns per inch the tail stock advances. The lathe will do a much better job of keeping the drill bit centered on the turning piece than a drill press will..

Re: Drilling out a dowel

TomD

I drill them out on my mill with an endmill, which I am sure is not a useful suggestion.

Refer to the recent hardware bonding thread.

Use a drill to safely enlarge the holes so all the residue is gone. Cobble together a jig so that you can hold the pieces in vertical alignment. You might be able to turn candle ends on pieces of, say 3/4x1.5 inch wood. If you mount a piece of plywood vertically in a vise, you could clamp these "candle ends" so they stick out along the edge on the side of the plywood. With some adjustment, you could hold your pieces vertically maybe 2 at a time.

So now, mount one piece vertically in your jig. Take an undersized piece of threaded rod, and put a dab of hot melt on the end, and position in hole so it stands vertically in the hole. Or wedge it with toothpicks. Cast with epoxy so the rod is fused in the hole. Now flip over and set up so you can repeat with the other hole, casting the stud now mounted in the end of the adjacent piece, into it. Your drill holes do not need to be perfectly aligned in this case, and they should be oversized, so bonding the threaded rod in does not require precise drilling.

Just keep repeating the process whereby your threaded rod is mounted in one piece by casting it in with epoxy, then flip over and cast in the other end. Use some kind of jig to hold the parts steady while you cast.

Re: Drilling out a dowel

ebd

I would just use a doweling jig. That way you can get the hole perfectly centered. I have an old Stanley 59 and it would do the job in just a few minutes.

stronger method

John K Jordan

I also have used the method of drilling out at least some of the dowel and replacing it not with another dowel but with a steel rod epoxied into place. I usually use a piece of threaded bolt with the head cut off since the epoxy will hold well to the threads. (degrease the thread well first - I use brake parts cleaner from the auto parts store.) The hole should be drilled larger than the rod, perhaps at least 50% larger.

Since the hole is larger than the rod the pieces can be aligned easily during glueup without having to worry about perfect hole alignment when drilling.

Filling the loose hole with epoxy and holding the pieces in place until it cures will make a permanent fix much stronger than the original dowel.

JKJ

Re: Drilling out a dowel

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Joe, for smaller dowels, drill into the centre, then insert a screw through the dowel. The screw will push the dowel out.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Drilling out a dowel

romclark

keep us posted

Re: Drilling out a dowel *LINK*

romclark

Generally speaking, no. You could try to grab them with a pair of channel locks and twist out, but unless they're really old (as in decades) and their glue has deteriorated, it's not likely. Cut and drill out as suggested by https://protoolsadviser.com/best-dowel-jig/


https://protoolsadviser.com/best-dowel-jig/