comments on the state of dowels. long

[jared herbert]

Hello I use 1/4 in dowels as hinge pins on some small boxes I make. I have noticed that it is becoming more difficult to find dowels that are actually close to 1/4 in in diameter with an actual round cross section. People, especially sales people look at me funny when I have a dial indicator measuring all of the dowels in the display rack. I recently bought dowels from three stores, a lumber yard, a home improvement center, and a menards. two of them had stickers that said made in china, the third not identified. One said made of poplar, one was made of a very dark wood which I didnt like at all. None of them were even close to .250 diameter. The closest measured less than .230 and all were very oval in cross section with the small dia measuring .030 to .020 under that. I realize that they are made of wood and will have some variation but this seemed a little ridiculous. I had to order an item from Woodcraft this past week. I happened to see that they had hardwood dowels in the catalog. I ordered an assortment and lo and behold they were of good quality, a uniform and correct diameter, appeared to be made of birch, a nice white color, and no more expensive than the poor ones I had prviously bought. The sticker on them did not identify where they were made. Just some random thoughts from someone who apparently has too much time on there hands, anyway, thanks to Woodcraft for a quality product. Jared

[Rich Engelhardt]

"Perfect" dowels are but a short trip to your router table away...

[Russ Buddle]

Do a Google search for Chicago Dowel. Thay can help you.

[Darl Bundren]

Lee Valley also sells a dowel making jig with different sizes of cutters available. It'll set you back some cash, but then you could make proper sized dowels out of custom woods if you wanted to. There's probably other similar things on the market, too.

[Myk Rian]

A 1/8" roundover bit in the router table, and 1/4" stock is all you need.
I make them all the time. Makes it possible to match the wood perfectly.

[Bruce Wrenn]

For some reason, most think dowels are turned. Instead, they are made by passing stock between two molding heads. That is why on most you can feel two little ridges, running the length.

[Dave Lehnert]

Hello I use 1/4 in dowels as hinge pins on some small boxes I make. I have noticed that it is becoming more difficult to find dowels that are actually close to 1/4 in in diameter with an actual round cross section. People, especially sales people look at me funny when I have a dial indicator measuring all of the dowels in the display rack. I recently bought dowels from three stores, a lumber yard, a home improvement center, and a menards. two of them had stickers that said made in china, the third not identified. One said made of poplar, one was made of a very dark wood which I didnt like at all. None of them were even close to .250 diameter. The closest measured less than .230 and all were very oval in cross section with the small dia measuring .030 to .020 under that. I realize that they are made of wood and will have some variation but this seemed a little ridiculous. I had to order an item from Woodcraft this past week. I happened to see that they had hardwood dowels in the catalog. I ordered an assortment and lo and behold they were of good quality, a uniform and correct diameter, appeared to be made of birch, a nice white color, and no more expensive than the poor ones I had prviously bought. The sticker on them did not identify where they were made. Just some random thoughts from someone who apparently has too much time on there hands, anyway, thanks to Woodcraft for a quality product. Jared

I had a customer at work who owns Cincinnati Dowel Works. I was going to give you her address and noticed this on her web site. Looks like this is where Woodcraft is getting the dowels from.
http://store.cincinnatidowel.com/blog/?p=54

http://store.cincinnatidowel.com/dowels

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

Purchase the dowels a bit larger than the size you need and run them through the Lee Valley dowel making jig to get a perfect size.

Personaly if I want perfect dowels for furniture or clocks I make them on my lathe.

[Dan Duperron]

Don't forget this is wood we're talking about. Even if you make your own dowels the cross-section will change according to the moisture content. The wood moves more across the grain than with the grain (I think I said that right), so dowels that start out perfectly round turn oval or egg-shaped in cross section when they absorb a little moisture.

No doubt buying dowels that are more accurately machined in the first place helps, but if I needed a bunch of quarter-inchers I think I'd make them myself just before using them.