Well folks I got to put a couple more hours into our shelf. In case you missed last weekend go HERE to see what we did.

Today I just tooled around a bit, getting the shelf refined and doweling the shelves in for extra security and some nice walnut accents.

I fared the curves at the bottom and top of the shelf with my old Stanley shave. After a quick honing we were off and ready, and I got the curves nice and smooth to the touch with a nice easy transition in the radius. The shave is a great tool to take the lumps out of a curve.

We also flushed the sliding dovetails with the sides with my Veritas Low Angle Block Plane.

 

I wanted to insert some dowels into the sides of the shelf, first to give it added strength and joinery, and second, to give it a nice accent for the plane looking sides. I have a ton of walnut laying around so I decided to go with, walnut! I am not restricted with my dowel choices, because I make my own. And what better choice for an accent wood to go with maple then walnut?

You'll see below that I grabbed an old wrench for a long gone tool I had years ago, I drilled a hole in it the same size I wanted my dowels. In this case 1/4".  You can use any bar stock. The wonderful thing about making your own dowels is you get to drill the cutting hole, and you use the same size bit to drill your dowel holes in your piece, for a perfect fit.

 

I ripped down a strip of walnut 1/4" by 1/4", actually just a hair proud of a quarter inch.

 

Then I chucked the strip into my portable drill.

 

I clamped the home made dowel maker in my vise.

 

Remember to put the opposite side you drilled into facing up, in other words when you drilled the hole out of the bar stock or scrap metal, the exit hole was a bit jagged as usual, don't file this off, you want that to remain intact. So when you put the dowel maker in the vise, you want the jagged exit hole facing up, so when you insert the dowel blank in the hole, the jagged edge around the hole makes a great cutting affect and easily slices the dowel blank as you turn it through the hole.

 

I removed the dowel maker from the vise so you could see how it comes out the other side, it looks like a dowel doesn't it!!!!

 

And here is a set of dowels I made for our shelf, a total of 8. two for each shelf in each side.

 

I took my engineers square and set my lines across the sides centered over the shelves, and I pulled a measurement 1" from the sides for the location of my dowel holes to be drilled. Of course I used my nice Woodcraft Tape Measure! This tape is cool, it has a positive stop function, meaning when you pull the tape out, the tape stays in place automatically, to retract the tap you simply press the bottom of the tape housing. The tape also has numbered marks between the inches, so all the 1/8"s are marked out nicely with numbered values.

 

After drilling the holes out with the same size bit I used to drill the hole out in the dowel maker, I sparingly inserted some Titebond II Wood Glue in the holes, and I tapped the dowels in place.

 

I then took my Lynx Flush Cut Sawand cut the dowels flush. I like to come in from both sides when cutting dowels. The reason is, if you just come in from one side, and complete the cut from one side, you risk blowing out or splintering upon exit, and taking a chunk of the dowel out of the hole leaving an unsightly void in your nice dowel surface. Cut from both sides and you'll avoid this.

 

The dowels are flush cut and finished up with my low angle block plane, no sanding needed to make these accents sit nice and smooth to the woods surface.

 

I like making my own dowels, for many reasons, first of all you can have the dowel you want when you want it and from any species of wood you want or have on hand. I like small dowels, they look elegant and non intrusive, and they add structural integrity as well.

So there we have it. I sanded the entire shelf out to 120, tomorrow I'll sand it to 180 and apply our TransFast Early American Maple Dye. It's coming along, it's clean, simple, but elegant. I am liking it more and more. Plus this has been really fun. Just laying down some lines that felt good, cutting it out, and putting it together, it has been fun!

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Great post John, I wonder, What if the metal starts getting dull? can you use a rattail file to resharpen it or will the edge actually need to be stiil rough as when you first cut the hole?. I'd love to be able to make my own dowels and i do make very short ones on the lathe when i need them, but I find that after a very short distance, the dowel gets either bigger or smaller because the scraper moves in or out while turning.

Also as an idea, if you have a welder or at least an acetalene torch, you can probably weld a brass ferrule on the end of your stick there and use it after sharpening a bit, if it even needs sharpening. Just a thought

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

Pretty cool dowel maker, John. 

Like the shelf, too.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Looking Good, John!!

Thanks for the idea on the dowel making tool!

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

It's not often that we get a class on dowell making when viewing a project.  Great idea, John.  Mind if I put that in my book of Tips and Tricks?  (Full credit of course will go to you, our supreme leader).

Great post, John

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
EX-21 (Presently on the floor. Using my 6-year old 788 ! ! ! ! !
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'

That's a neat way to make dowels!! I'll have to try that. It's just way too simple.

The shelf looks good too!

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Harry Brink
Bulldog Woodworking
Montana

Thanks guys!

Now I wish I could take the credit for this idea about the dowel making jig, I can't!

Dad taught me this over two decades ago. And I have no idea where he got the idea from. I have a feeling the concept has been around a very, very long time.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Charles, you do not need the jagged edge always, the dowel maker works good without the edges. You just have to push a little harder to get the square blank through the hole. I would not try to create another jagged edge by refiling, I would just simply make another one. The reason being is you'll mess up the diameter of the hole trying to file a new edge on it.

Can you elaborate on the brass furrel. I am not envisioning it. Thanks

Charles Nicholls said:

Great post John, I wonder, What if the metal starts getting dull? can you use a rattail file to resharpen it or will the edge actually need to be stiil rough as when you first cut the hole?. I'd love to be able to make my own dowels and i do make very short ones on the lathe when i need them, but I find that after a very short distance, the dowel gets either bigger or smaller because the scraper moves in or out while turning.

Also as an idea, if you have a welder or at least an acetalene torch, you can probably weld a brass ferrule on the end of your stick there and use it after sharpening a bit, if it even needs sharpening. Just a thought

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Sure. Some of the brass ferrules have a very nice edge on them so it would seem that if you welded one or brased one to the end of your flat bar there that you could probably use it a lot longer than just the flat bar with the hole drilled in it. This of course all depends on what size dowel you need because the ferrule that I am referring to is about 3/8" dia.

Just thinking about it now though, with the ferrule, youd likely end up with a threaded dowel since the ferrule is threaded and that may or may not be a good thing. There are also some ferrules that have no threads at all. They are just straight, The ones below are threaded but i cant see if that bottome edge is sharp or flat so I may need to look for a different image.. Of course I'm just thinking out loud here

 

 

Heres the one im really referring to

 

 
John Morris said:

Charles, you do not need the jagged edge always, the dowel maker works good without the edges. You just have to push a little harder to get the square blank through the hole. I would not try to create another jagged edge by refiling, I would just simply make another one. The reason being is you'll mess up the diameter of the hole trying to file a new edge on it.

Can you elaborate on the brass furrel. I am not envisioning it. Thanks

Charles Nicholls said:

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Thanks for the clarification Charles. Something to consider for sure.

Charles Nicholls said:

Sure. Some of the brass ferrules have a very nice edge on them so it would seem that if you welded one or brased one to the end of your flat bar there that you could probably use it a lot longer than just the flat bar with the hole drilled in it. This of course all depends on what size dowel you need because the ferrule that I am referring to is about 3/8" dia.

Just thinking about it now though, with the ferrule, youd likely end up with a threaded dowel since the ferrule is threaded and that may or may not be a good thing. There are also some ferrules that have no threads at all. They are just straight, The ones below are threaded but i cant see if that bottome edge is sharp or flat so I may need to look for a different image.. Of course I'm just thinking out loud here

 

 

Heres the one im really referring to

 

 
John Morris said:

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

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Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

That's a great tip with the dowels John and the article made me realize that I haven't bought a flush cut saw yet.  Ah. another toy for the shop.

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

You bet Ron! I always thought the flush cut saw was just a whimsical luxury that could be passed up, but once I got mine I have realized it is worth its weight in gold.

Ron Dudelston said:

That's a great tip with the dowels John and the article made me realize that I haven't bought a flush cut saw yet.  Ah. another toy for the shop.

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Ditto that on the flush trim saw. MIne works great!

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee