Replies

1. 
   JohnWW | Nov 06, 2004 01:02am | #1

   I'd suggest talking to someone that makes bedposts or columns, "dowels" in that size aren't a standard item anywhere that I know of.

   John W.

2. 
   Jamie_Buxton | Nov 06, 2004 01:41am | #2

   I don't think you'll find a supplier that stocks solid dowels in these large diameters.  

   You can make them fairly easily.   Start with a blank with square cross-section, and use the tablesaw to give it an octagonal cross-section.   From there, use a handplane to knock off the edges.  I'm not particularly a handtool guy, but I'll tell you it turns out to be fairly quick work.

   If you can use veneered hollow tubes, there are suppliers of those in diameters like you're talking.   Check http://www.aitwood.com, http://www.tapease.com, or catalogs like Woodcraft for Hollowood veneered tubes.

   
   

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   Edited 11/5/2004 9:03 pm ET by JAMIE_BUXTON

1. 
   chills1994 | Nov 06, 2004 06:36am | #3

   I'll post some pics tomorrow of a jig that I have for making dowels.  It requires a plunge router.

   You could up-scale the jig to those huge dowels that you need.

1. 
   Rojo | Nov 07, 2004 12:25am | #5

   Thank you!

   I look forward to your pictures.

3. 
   Pondfish | Nov 06, 2004 10:42pm | #4

   Turn them on a lathe (or find someone with a lathe who can do it for you).

4. 
   PlaneWood | Nov 07, 2004 12:54am | #6

   I made some 10' dowels once that were octagonal.  I first cut the stock square then made a jig for my planer.  The jig was a 2' long, 2" thick, block of wood with a large 90 degree V groove cut down the center.  I clamped the jig to the bed of my planer then run all 4 corners of the square stock through the planer.  Made for interesting curtain rods.

   PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
   PlaneWood

1. 
   chills1994 | Nov 07, 2004 02:32am | #7

   Hey AW, here's are the pics I promised you.

   To use the jig, you feed in square stock in one side and if the router is set up right a perfectly round dowel comes out the other side.  It really is slick as snot.

   I don't know quite how to put this without it sounding like a geometry lesson...The diagonal of any true square is 1.414 times the length of a side.  So if you want a 1/2" dowel you start out with some stock close to 1/2".  Multiply 1/2" by 1.414, and that becomes the diameter of your infeed hole.  I've got all the dimensions written down on the front of the jig.  It's a circle inscibed by a square circumscribed by another circle.

   So to build the jig I laminated 2 pieces of 3/4" birch veneer plywood together.  And then I glued another 2 pieces together.  Cut the 2 beefy plywood blocks to the exact same dimensions.  Then I set up a fence with some stops on my drill press.  I would drill the smaller outfeed hole in one block keeping in tight to the fence and stop.  Then swap out drill bits (Forstner style) to the corresponding larger infeed size.  Put the infeed block on the drill press table against the fence and the same stop and drill the infeed hole.  Move the stop, swap bits to the next larger outfeed hole and put the outfeed block on the table.  Drill the outfeed hole.  And so on....

   Two smaller pieces of 3/4" plywood act as spacers.  It gives some room for the shavings to go and some space for a 1/2" dia. straight bit.  I've screwed a dowel screw or a hanger bolt into the end of the blank and then chucked into a drill.  The blanks get spun into the whirring router bit.

   If I had to do this jig over again, I would add a piece of T-track to the top for some hold downs just for the router.  I would also add a port for a vacuum hose to suck out all the shavings or cut a larger sweeping hole to let the shavings fall out.  If you clamp the jig in your vise and have room for the outfeed side then the shavings should fall out on their own.  For large dowels like yours, you'll probably be better off cobling up some hand crank to spin the blank.

   
1. 
   Rojo | Nov 07, 2004 02:48am | #8

   thank you very much!