Can painted dowels be glued?

[Glen Blanchard]

I have a project (jewelry box) on which I am now working and would like to attach decorative legs to the sides of the box via dowels. My intention is not to have the legs in direct contact with the sides of the box, but rather to be set off of the box by 1/8" - 1/4" - which means a small portion of the dowel will be visible. (Hope that makes sense). For contrast, I would like to paint the dowels a flat black. As I have never tried this before, I have some questions.

1. If the dowels are painted (without any finish being applied) will glue adhere to them?

2. What kind of paint should I use?

3. Any othere issues regarding the painting that I need to consider?

[Ben Grunow]

Just paint the portion that will show plus a little extra for insurance. Leave the majority of the embedded part of the dowel unpainted. Or epoxy would stick to painted surfaces but the paint bond will be important although dowels do fit tightly in their holes so prolly wouldnt matter. I vote for unpainted or painting them after assembly (I am voting since I'm sure you will get more ideas and you will have to pick one).

Good luck. Ben.

[Charlie Plesums]

Wood glue fastens the porous wood surface to a similar surface. Once painted, the wood is not part of the adhesion... you are gluing paint...and it isn't a porous surface that is required by wood glue

I would leave the dowel bare except for the exposed part. Even if 80% of the glued part were bare wood, you probably wouldn't have a problem.

Some glues work better on non-porous surfaces than wood glue... for example, polyurethane and expoxy.

[Bill Boehme]

Instead of paint, you could use a dye or even easier is a black felt tip marker. Just use the marker to color the exposed part plus a bit extra. Leave the remainder of the wood bare. I think that if you painted the dowels, there would be all sorts of problems. In the first place, if the fit was fairly snug then the dowel will no longer fit after it is painted. As already mentioned by Charlie, if you paint the dowel, then you will just be gluing the paint and not the wood. On top of all this, the paint job will create a mess when you try to tap the dowel into the hole unless you wail a very long time for the paint to thoroughly cure.

You could get really exotic by turning some ebony dowels ... you do turn ... I hope?

Bill (Renegade fromm the Turning Forum)