Dowel maker bench hook (a.k.a. peg hook)

[sjk]

The Renaissance Woodworker posted about making a “peg hook” last fall (http://www.renaissancewoodworker.com/a-peg-making-hook-and-shooting-board-addition/ 
), and I thought it was a great way to simplify making dowels.  I recently enrolled in the Hand Tool School, so I made my peg hook using just hand tools.

The dowel former I have is the Veritas one (http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=70555&cat=1,42524)

It has a round plate with interchangeable bushings for the different sized dowels.

First up – cutting a piece of poplar to the size I need, while one of our shop dogs helps.

Then I flattened it using my low angle jack plane.  Here’s an action shot with the shaving flying out of the plane.

Then I planed one edge square to that flattened face, scribed a line and planed the opposite edge parallel to the first edge and square to the flattened face.  I scribed a line around the edges and flattened the other face, making it parallel.  I shot the ends and wound up with a board surfaced and square on all six sides.

I planed a hunk of scrap to use for the fence and for the cleat.  I crosscut them using my rehabbed crosscut saw, and the bench hook I made earlier in the Hand Tool School semester.

I drilled the holes for attaching the fences and the cleat using an eggbeater hand drill, again with shop dog help.

The dowel former needs a hole for the dowel to pass through.  I measured out a good location so that the hole would line up over a bench dog hole and bored it out using a brace and an auger bit.  It was the first time using those auger bits (bought them off of EBay), and I got to add “learn how to sharpen auger bits” to my to-do list.

The peg hook needs two V grooves running part way across it.  To make those, I started by making shallow stopped kerf cuts.

And then I pared from my knifed layout lines to the bottom of the saw kerfs.

 

And now some pics of the completed peg hook in action.  Here I’m using a chisel to split off an appropriate sized piece of hickory.  You split/rive the piece so that you wind up with grain running along the dowel – makes it stronger.

Then I put the piece in one of those V grooves, up against a short fence on the side and used a block plane to knock the corners off of it, making it octagonal rather than square.

I used a chisel to pare the end of it like a pencil, to make it easier to start in the dowel former plate.

Then it’s hammer it through the dowel former plate.

And here’s the resulting dowel.

 

[Robby W]

Nice! I have been thinking about adding a setup like this to my collection of goodies. Thanks for the write-up.

[Mick S]

I like! Thanks for posting. I may have to get one of those. I've been using a simple piece of flat steel that I drilled some various sized holes into. I just place it over a dog hole and pound away - with mixed results! This looks like a cleaner and more reliable method.

[shaneymack]

This is cool ! You have a photographer with you in the shop taking actions shots? That is awesome. Are you a hand tool only guy? Thats one cute dog, is he a husky?

[nerdbot]

Awesome!  I just bought the same dowel maker myself and it arrived this weekend.  I'll definitely have to build this jig as well

[sjk]

16 hours ago, Robby W said:

Nice! I have been thinking about adding a setup like this to my collection of goodies. Thanks for the write-up.

 

9 hours ago, micks said:

I like! Thanks for posting. I may have to get one of those. I've been using a simple piece of flat steel that I drilled some various sized holes into. I just place it over a dog hole and pound away - with mixed results! This looks like a cleaner and more reliable method.

 

38 minutes ago, nerdbot said:

Awesome!  I just bought the same dowel maker myself and it arrived this weekend.  I'll definitely have to build this jig as well

Thanks guys - having an easy setup for the sawing, splitting, planing, paring and pounding makes it go much smoother.

4 hours ago, shaneymack said:

This is cool ! You have a photographer with you in the shop taking actions shots? That is awesome. Are you a hand tool only guy? Thats one cute dog, is he a husky?

I'm a mostly power tool guy, but have been adding more hand tools over the years.  To up my game on hand tools I recently enrolled in the Renaissance Woodworker's Hand Tool School.

He's an Alaskan Malamute, they're like huskies, but bigger and more stamina.  He's got a long coat for the breed, which is just perfect for picking up plane shavings to bring back into the house.