Replies

1. 
   chills1994 | May 03, 2005 08:24am | #1

   check this out 19921.8

   you can probably tweak the  diameter of your dowels by lowering the router bit just a fuzz.

2. 
   jackplane | May 03, 2005 05:06pm | #2

   Chills has a good idea. Or you could chuck 'em in a drill press and grind em down with a sanding block.

    

1. 
   scooter1 | May 03, 2005 07:36pm | #3

   I have much easier solution. Make a dowel sizing jig and pound them through. A dowel sizing jig is just a piece of dumb plate steel- no more than a 16th thick with holes drilled into it. You place the oversize dowel onto the jig and pound it through, thus reducing the size. I do this all the time with commercial dowels, which are too thick to dry fit.Regards,
   Boris"Sir, I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow" -- WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934

3. 
   none | May 04, 2005 04:58am | #4

   Most commercial dowels are not turned, too costly. They are made by passing stock between two half round cutters. If you will mike a dowel it will be a different diameter on it's perpendiculer axis. Remember humidity changes the size of wood .  I would make a dowel plate just a tad smaller in diameter tha the needed diameter of needed dowels. Just prior to assembly, drive your dowels through it. If you make them today and don't use them till tomorrow, drive them through your plate again. Wood will swell overnight! Remember that your glue will also swell them up. If they are too tight in the hole, they will wipe the glue off ahead of them as they are pushed in. You might want to try making your own with a router on the lathe. Then you can make any size you want, either undersized or oversized. Best of luck, post a picture of completed door.

1. 
   chills1994 | May 04, 2005 07:35am | #5

   that's what is so great about woodworking/carpentry.  so many different ways of doing things.  and with this forum you can get a lot of different opinions.

   if factory dowels are too tight, you can heat them up in the microwave.  that'll shrink 'em.

   that steel plate trick will work too.  there is a picture of Roy Underhill in one of his books pulling wood through a piece of a steel.  the holes looked like they were peened over to form a bur.

   grooves in the dowels allow air and glue to escape.  a good way to do that is using those cheap slip joint pliers to press grooves in them.  i think veritas makes a dowel groover, too.