1. Drill and push through steel flat bar 2. Hammering through a holed plate 3. The Chisel Method 4. able saw Method 5. Router Method 6. My current Method (Dowel Maker with cutting plate)
Below are my personal assessments. You may or may not agree with them. Regardless, I encourage you to make your own determinations of what works best for you. I wrote this blog with the intention of showing all the ways I've tried and work best for me.
Notes:
1. I couldn't check 3 - 5 as "Made with readily available material and inexpensive" It depends if you have these components already. Having to buy chisels or router bits if you don't have them can be expensive. If you have them already or can buy good quality ones inexpensively then great. Also these methods require a lot of setup to get perfect. Once you do then great. While all three can yield good tolerance results once set up properly, I feel the table saw method to be the most accurate of the three.
Which is the Best?
If only the setup wasn't a pain I would go with the table saw method. However, after all the jigs and all my testing and lots of dowel making I have to say that my current method of using my "Dowel Maker" is the best all around. Once its made it satisfies all the criteria. There are a few improvements I'm thinking about making. Then I will prove it out and share.
Thanks for looking at my blog!
Feel free to comment, ask questions and "thumbs up 👍" if you like it!
A few times a year, I’m very happy I hunted down and bought a Stanley 77 and cutters for the even sixteenths for it. I have made walnut, oak, ash, poplar, pine, and other dowels. Once tuned up and adjusted correctly, it works pretty slick.
That's awesome Dave! I didn't even know Stanley had one. Where do you even find these? How accurate is it? Plus or minus what over the finished diameter?
Find them on eBay. One with all the cutters will set you back nearly a grand, I reckon.
As for the size, the cutters are adjustable. You can go about a 64th up or down, but because it’s cutting around the dowel, you can get some tear out if you’re not careful. As with cutting threads on wood, some woods benefit greatly from a soak in linseed oil before cutting. But once you dial in a cutter, you only have to readjust it when you sharpen it.
I have mine all set to about 1/128” fat, so I can run a piece of 60 grit down the length to take off any small splinters and be pretty much right on the money. Walnut, birch and beech all go dry. Oak and ash get soaked first. Poplar is also pretty well behaved. Pine is a pain in the ass pretty much no matter what.
Gads!! A grand... unbelievable. Out of my range due sure. On a side note...I just saw a Japanese guy make perfect small dowel using a jigsaw blade setup like the chisel technique. I tried it and was very surprised.
I have a question, and I apologize if you already mentioned this in previous post: Isn't straight grain one of the goals for making good dowels? I believe that is something that Lie-Nielsen mentions about making dowels with their dowel plates. If I remember correctly, they advise to choose straight grain pieces for making dowels, and that the method of hammering the pieces through their dowel plates will "automatically" follow the grain, thus ending up with stronger dowels. These are then supposed to be stronger than store-bought dowels.
I cannot find the official Lie-Nielsen video, but "Worth the Effort" mentions this in his review:
DrTebi ....... Isn't straight grain one of the goals for making good dowels?
Definitely shooting for using straight grain stock cutting to finished size yields the highest degree of success forming nice dowel. While it's not always possible it should be a primary pursuit for best results. Keep in mind the latitude of this topic depends on what the dowel is being used for in your project. You can still form dowel with not so straight grain available and get what you need for dowel joinery. But the importance of straight grain may be required let's say if you are doing hinges.
Yes, maybe straight grain dowels are a bit overrated. I built plenty of projects with the dowelmax and store-bought dowels (which I believe are not necessarily straight grain), and they all held up very well.
I use the Lie-Nielsen dowel plate, it was a gift. I use it when I want to have exposed dowels, and when I care about the color of the dowels... e.g. for a nice contrasting little effect.
The Lie-Nielsen plate is not ideal I have to say though. There is really one whole missing between... somewhere... I forgot. But it becomes really hard at some point to get the dowel through. And it's a bit of work to make e.g. 12 dowels. Yet the results are rewarding.
Missing from this is the less-scary-than-the-table-saw method, which is using the band saw.
Guess I need to go back and dig up my jig built to the end of using the bandsaw to make dowels. Think in terms of just holes big enough to push square stock past a moving blade. A clamp here, a clamp there. . . .
Another thing of note is, how long do the dowels need to be? If trying to make a three footer, that pounding through steel thing isn't going to happen.
Then there is that longer dowels made using table and band saws may not be super smooth. How fast they wood is pushed through and the blade you use will alter the end product. The end product may have to be sanded.
A long dowel not perfect all along its length may not be an issue, if minor variations in dimensions are unimportant, other than keeping them somewhat close for aesthetic purposes.
When not looking for long dowels, we, generally, are looking for dowels to join pieces, which may include leaving the caps/tops of the dowels visible. Such as using a walnut dowel on a maple stool top and leaving the dowel top visible.
[Leaving now - I think I've confuse myself too, and might start sounding like Ducky. . . . ;)
I've never heard of making dowel on a bandsaw. I created this post to reflect methods I've used and therefore it wasn't mentioned. To be honest I'd never use a bandsaw anyways. I'd be concerned that there isn't enough blade mass to minimize flexing and twisting while pushing the dowel through and maintaining accuracy. Not to mention safety. I generally keep stock length to 18" and less. If I'm going to go longer I make sure I can hold or grasp the moving dowel output. Sometimes I've even used an output holder spaced "x" distance from die output. Feed rate or speed should be consistent. Experience eventually provides memory or feel that becomes fairly consistent. My goal is to output dowel that needs no sanding. There is zero control on consistent finished dowel diameter. You want your die to produce accurate consistent diameter output without the urge of sanding.
Keep in mind, many dowels used for joining have their surfaces altered to allow glue and such. As such, a rougher dowel would, rather than be a problem, be beneficial for such uses.
As to flexing of the bandsaw blade, that is not a problem with even a 1/4" blade, and especially not with a 1" blade.
Try a Net search using the terms "using a bandsaw to make dowels," or variations of that. You'll get many hits. Examples of search hits are below. The first one is the method I used.
Thanks Kelly. I don't own a bandsaw. But if I get one I'd be willing to see how it turns out. Having said this, I doubt it would be my choice for making dowels. Cheers!
Your "top choice" makes sense in that it is always ready to grab and go. Thinking more about it, the simplicity of the side pits with their burrs is, well, simple and un-complicated. However, being one to always be pimping out stuff, now I'm thinking of trying a steel plate with some slot mounted cutters on the outfeed that can be adjusted in/out for fine tuning the size. Eventually I'll probably end up with something that looks like the Stanley 77 🤔
First will probably be the router method since I have that with a lift and Incra fence for adjusting.
