LN question

Re: LN question

Tony - Memphis

>I've used a similar home made job that worked very well. We were using birch. Not sure about the length, ours were fairly short - less than a foot.

Tony

Re: LN question

Matti Kuikka

>How did you make it?

Re: LN question

R.J.Whelan

>Matti ... I have a LN dowel plate; I have made dowels from scratch with it, but primarily use it to size store bought dowel material.

I usually cut my 1/4" (or larger) dowel material into 8" lengths and pound them through the appropriate hole with a mallet; on smaller material I use shorter lengths as the material often breaks when longer that 3-4" ... rj

Re: LN question

John Stegall

>I made my own by drilling the appropriate sized hole through a piec of 1/4" stell plate. I probably wiped it down with a bench stone but cannot remember as it has been so long. It worked just fine and now I own the LN version which works just as well but looks much nicer :0)

Re: LN question

paul womack

>how long dowels were possible

The main use I find for a dowelling plate is for making "fixing dowels" where the ends will show in the workpiece. As such, they're always made from the same timber as the workpiece, and they're only as long as they need to be. I don't think I've ever needed dowels longer than 80 mm. This is very easy.

You won't be making plate rack dowels with a dowel plate.

BugBear

Re: LN question

Matti Kuikka

>"they are always made from the same wood as the workpiece" See for ex Maloof. I think it would be covenient to make dowels from expensive/rare woods for future use when you happen to have a suitable piece of scrap handy; that's why the question.

Also I don't have a lathe so small handles came to mind.

Matti

Re: LN question

paul womack

>...when you happen to have a suitable piece of scrap handy

If I'm making a project, I'd be astounded if there weren't enough offcuts for any required dowels.

BugBear

Re: LN question

Tony - Memphis

>Our instructor made it. He said that he used some soft stock and drilled the holes, then heat treated it by heating it up on the charcoal grill and dumping it into a pot of oil.

Tony

Re: LN question

Matti Kuikka

>Sorry I wasn't explicit enough, meaning dowels can be made of contrasting wood for decorative purposes.

Matti

Re: LN question

Alan Hamilton

>Matti,

Not too surprisingly Saint Roy of Underhill made his own dowel plate and makes his own dowels. I seem to remember he shows how in his first book, The Woodwright's Shop. Though my memory is not what it used to be, it's definitely in one of his Woodwright's Shop books.

If my rememberer is working today, he first drilled a hole the size of a finished dowel, and then, from the other side, drilled another hole, one size or so larger than the first, about half way through (or maybe it's the other order, big first, then right size. You'll have to look and see).

His doweling plate has many different size holes in it. In practice, he splits the wood he wants to dowel (to maintain strength) and then puts it through the smallest hole it will fit. He then runs it through progressively smaller holes until he gets it to the size he wants.

In one of his book,s and on his TV show, he uses this method to make dowels many feet long: e.g., he uses his dowel plate to make the braces for his wooden rakes, which are four or five feet long.

Alan