How to: Make your own dowels

[mds2]

You can easily make your own dowels in your shop using tools you probably already have. 

I don't have a lathe and really the only dowels I can buy locally are poplar or red oak.  Occasionally I want a dowel of a different kind of wood.   I saw this technique somewhere on the internet long ago and I use it any time I need a dowel. 

Here is what you are going to need:

A scrap piece of steel.  The one I use is about 1/8" thick.

Scrap wood.

Hand drill.

Drill bits.

Sander/block plane/knife.

Drill press - optional. 

 

Step one- Take a scrap piece of steel and drill three slightly overlapping holes in it.  The middle hole needs to be the diameter of the dowel you want to make.  The other two holes I make a little smaller. 

Next I take a scrap piece of wood and rip it into strips.

Next, chuck one of the strips in your hand held drill.

From here I take the square dowel over to my sander and put a point on the end. Click to play video.

Next I take my pointed square dowel and drive it through the middle hole in the steel plate. Click to play video.

Different angle:

 

Overhead.  Skewing the dowel as I drive it through seems to make it cut better.

Finally, remove the dowel from your drill and cut to length.

 

 

[Tpt life]

Thanks Mike. 

[mat60]

Great Idea.