Dowel maker

[longbow steve]

http://www.ibuildit.ca/Workshop%20Proje ... ker-1.html

[jcm]

Good One Steve,
Interesting for the making your own from scratch.
Regards

John

[hazard]

very simple and very clever.

Thanks Steve

[Bill]

Check out the Highland Woodworking, Router and Drill Dowel Making Jig.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/dowelmakingjig.aspx

The link as you see it, will present a picture of a router along with the jig and all instructions.

But you must remember to check that your not cutting across the grain of the wood for arrow making.

..........Bill

[Bill]

This is my set up.
It's all still new in production.
The first go produced a favourable outcome.
A 1/2" short socket drive fits the 1/2" square piece of timber, stepped down to a 3/8" drive to fit the drill.
It's not perfect but it's doing the job I'm after, it may need another guide or two.
Finding the straight grain timber is the hardest thing.
Been around to a couple of old buildings being renovated in replacing the Cedar frames this helped.

Ok.........Bill

[Stickbow Hunter]

Interesting concept Steve.

I have seen similar to yours Bill years ago and we even tried it but I stuck with the hand plane even though it is much slower.

Jeff

[Bill]

Hi Jeff and yes, it is an interesting concept.

I've been looking at and thinking about the Highland Woodworking idea for many years.
I always thought it was a idea.

Your way of building a shaft using the plane and wooden book, I've used in the past, until a project of either getting hold of or making a large number of wooden shafts in a very short time at a very cheap cost happened upon me. (please forgive me, if I'm wrong in assuming that you use the wooden book)

Using the old woods, has made the project a lot easier than first thought.
A number of test runs were done using very close grain pine first, then the cedar and Douglas fir.

I must admit it has been one of the messiest jobs I've ever done, but very satisfying afterwards.

[Stickbow Hunter]

Yeah Bill the hand plane is slow for sure and certainly not good when you are wanting to mass produce shafts. I use a little hand plane with wooden blocks glued on as Steve Wallace showed us many years ago now.

06.jpg (76 KiB) Viewed 2845 times

I haven't done any hand made shafts for quite a few years though as I have been using hardwood and Bamboo shafts.

Jeff

[yeoman]

Interesting trick I saw recently was to put a 3/8" bolt into the chuck with the head out. The you get a socket set driver which fits the head, then the square ferrule goes over the square dowel blank.

Let's see if I can find the link.

Nope. Can't. Can't remember where I saw it. Hopefully my description was enough.

[Bill]

Yeoman is this the idea you had in mind, it works well, less connections, thanks.........Bill

[yeoman]

That's exactly the one!

Dave

[looseplucker]

I made a doodad for dowels using this design - pretty good but you have to be careful to get the holes done right.

[GrahameA]

Morning Looseplucker.

I made a doodad for dowels using this design - pretty good but you have to be careful to get the holes done right.

Would you mind explaining a bit more. What are the pitfalls? I have been thinking about making another "shaft maker/jig/tool" for some time.

[looseplucker]

If you don't get the holes right you can end up with a funny looking dowel - might best be described as a 'character' arrow. I would recommend a few practice runs first. Mind you, once I had everything lined up and stuff I came out with some very nice dowels. I initially made the thing to run up some osage knitting needles for the missus not for arrows but am looking forward to running up some shafts.

[GrahameA]

Morning Looseplucker.

Thanks for the reply.

If you don't get the holes right you can end up with a funny looking dowel - might best be described as a 'character' arrow. I would recommend a few practice runs first. Mind you, once I had everything lined up and stuff I came out with some very nice dowels. I initially made the thing to run up some osage knitting needles for the missus not for arrows but am looking forward to running up some shafts.

I made something similar machine/device a few years ago and had very few issues with it. Most issues were a result of poor timber choice on my part and imprecise timber preparation.

[looseplucker]

No worries Graham

Bear in mind I was making osage dowels too - pretty hard timber. I found I had to take them down a fair way to get a good dowel cut. What I did do was cut the billets, then plane the edges, then run it through a large cutting hole first, then one slightly smaller and so on.

You also have to be careful when feeding the billet in the hole as that can cause anomalies.

And timber prep in making the billets is, I agree, important to get a nice straight dowel.

On the upside it was enormous fun making the jig and a hoot doing the dowels.