Dowel jig

[mailee]

With all of the gates I make I always peg the M&T's with dowels and this gets a little expensive buying dowel of 3/4" Dia each time at around £5. I was browsing the 'Net' and came upon this jig:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/inde ... stom&ID=53
I decided to have a go at building one and have got to admit it works great! it took me a couple of hours to knock it up but once built and fine tuned it turns out 3/4" dowels in seconds!! I needed a few lengths of dowel as I am at present building a shoe cupboard and just for the dowel alone it would have cost me £20! A worthwhile time spent in the workshop today I think.

 

[Bean]

Nice find Mailee

 

[RogerM]

With all of the gates I make I always peg the M&T's with dowels and this gets a little expensive buying dowel of 3/4" Dia each time at around £5. I was browsing the 'Net' and came upon this jig:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/inde ... stom&ID=53
I decided to have a go at building one and have got to admit it works great! it took me a couple of hours to knock it up but once built and fine tuned it turns out 3/4" dowels in seconds!! I needed a few lengths of dowel as I am at present building a shoe cupboard and just for the dowel alone it would have cost me £20! A worthwhile time spent in the workshop today I think.

I've been looking for a dowel jig, and being by nature a "cheapskate" want to make something simple rather than throw £s at it. I found this one on the net http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/dowelmakingjig.aspx and having decided to make one I see that you have beaten me to it.

Any tips? I need to make some English Oak dowels to peg some loose tenons and breadboard ends for a blanket box I'm making. What is the smallest diameter dowel that you find it practical to make? I'm thinking of 6mm and 9mm dowels, and would attach the jig to my Incra fence on my router table for fine adjustment.

 

[Bean]

I have in the past made lengths of dowel by drilling out a suitably sized nut to the diameter required. Then cutting six slots with a triangular file into the face of the nut.

I prepare the dowel in much the same way as with a dowel plate, but I put one end into a drill and drive the length of square dowel through the nut.

You have to play tunes with the rpm of the drill and the speed that you feed the wood through the nut (which needs to be held in a vice). As and when the finish starts to roughen recut the slots with a file.

It sounds rough but works really well.

 

[Mike Wingate]

I built the Patrick Spielman version with about 7 different sizes. It has come in useful. Always do a few extra lengths and build up a stock from scrap offcuts.

 

[Sportique]

I have made short lengths (about 15-25cm) of dowel just using a router table and round-over bit, this method does not require a jig.

Select a round-over bit of suitable radius and set the height carefully.

Make sure you have a suitable table guard in place.

Take a suitably sized square section of stock about 10cm longer than needed. Run the work over the bit (leaving at least 5cm uncut at BOTH ends for support against the fence), rotate the work piece 90 deg and repeat this for all four corners. Care is needed when cutting the final round-over.

If you feel more comfortable you can take two cuts or more for each round-over.

The shaped-length to dowel-diameter ratio should not be more than about 12:1 and the finished dowel not less than about 12mm diameter otherwise the work becomes "whippy".

Dave

 

[Anonymous]

Mailee, I tired something like that a few years ago but was not overly happy. Since then I have found Bean's nut idea works well, but my favourite method is Rob Cosman's which uses an old plane blade (in my case a very cheap old Stanley blade) - I have made a steel Cosman jig that cuts dowels in 2mm steps from 6mm up to over half an inch