How would YOU roundover the ends of 3/4" dowels?

[Tom Spallone]

I need to round over one end of many 3/4" dowels which are about 5" long. I want these to be a pretty good roundover, like the end of a broom handle for instance.

What's the best (easiest, fastest) way of doing this. My kneejerk reaction is to get the belt sander (I don't have a table sander) but, I wonder, could I use a roundover bit in the router for this.

I mean, it would be a little difficult spinning the dowel properly but, I'm concerning about tear out.

Any suggestions. I have to do 14 of them.

[David Duke]

I believe you'd have trouble with the router....working in end grain all the way around as you stated I think you'd have trouble with tear out. I'm sure all the spinny guys will tell you to put in in a lathe.

[Chris Padilla]

Belt sander or Disc sander...don't even try cutting the ends unless you have a lathe...too dangerous.

You can set up some jigs to "grind" a few angles as you slowly approach the roundness you want.

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I've done it on a disk disk sander. You spin the dowel and change the angle at the same time to get the right round over. Don't stop the dowel or you'll get a flat spot.

[Tom Jones III]

What about tilting a table to 45* on your BS to knock off the corners, then belt sand it.

[Jim Becker]

Sander. And you can often fasten a belt sander in a bench vice with a little creativity or care if you don't have a stationary tool. Just rotate the dowel with your hands as you vary the angle of attack.

[Anthony Anderson]

What Jim and Chris said it will work great. Approach it slowly until you get the feel of the operation. I personally would never use a router to try this. You're just asking for trouble. HTH, Bill

[Gary Sutherland]

This might be of interest:

http://www.binkyswoodworking.com/PegTip.htm

[Bruce Page]

This might be of interest:

http://www.binkyswoodworking.com/PegTip.htm

This is the way to go if you have a bunch to do.

[Tom Spallone]

Wow, that wasn't exactly how I was going to use the router but, it sure does makes sense. I'm going to give this a try. Can always revert back to the good old belt sander. I'll let ya know and maybe give pix.

[Lee Schierer]

This is the way to go if you have a bunch to do.

I've done it the same way. It works pretty slick. Several light cuts work best.

[Dave Richards]

I was going to suggest what is shown in Gary's link but there were enough posts that were anti-router, I thought I'd better not. I've done it that way. Raise the bit a little at a time until you get the round over you want.

[Alan See]

I have done it with a router in a table just as shown in Gary's link. Router speed is critical. You want that baby screamin'. I intially tried to use the router at a slower speed, and got lots of chatter and tear-out even with light cuts. Running my router (PC890) wide open solved the problem.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Put them in the jaws of a collet chuck on a lathe and gently massage with a skew till rounded.

Just another reason for flatboarders to become TURNERS!

Bruce

[Bill Huber]

I know this is a really old thread but I found it on a search on Google.

I wanted to round over some 3/8" dowels, I wanted them to be round, not close but round. Set up a 3/8" round over bit in the router table and make a block to hold the dowels, it worked out so nice, they are nice and round and smooth also.

I never felt there was any safety problems, the block holds the dowel and I just moved it in very slowly until it hit the bearing and then turned it.