Making a dowel plate
During my try square project (as of yet unpublished) I ran into a situation where I wanted some nice hardwood dowels in fairly short lengths. I didn’t want to order up stock, and the dowels I have on hand are rather bland, various borg softwoods and oak.
I had previously seen the L-N Dowel plate, but at $50, it seemed an extravagance. $100 if you want the metric version, as well. It seems like such a simple tool. A steel plate with some holes. As I’m in a toomaking frenzy, I decided, once again, to dive in and try it myself. I had some 1.5″x.25″ flat plate stock, so I got myself a 6″ piece and went to work with the milling machine. You could just as easily do this in a drill press. I elected 7 holes, to correspond with the wood bits I use most, a quality 7 piece Colt 5 Star brad point set. It includes: 1/8″, 3/16″, 1/4″, 5/16″, 3/8″, 7/16″, & 1/2″ sizes.
It ended up being relatively trivial. I used some Ti coated twist drill bits. I still lack a 7/16, which is why you see a gap in plate. I saved room for it.
I merely cut some stock to size, whittle off the corners, and pound it through. If I have any trouble, I run a small burr up the edges with a burnisher.
Works perfectly!
I may whip out a metric version too.
