3/8" Dowel Cutter

[Stingray45]

I wanted to see if anyone out there uses the Veritas 3/8" dowel & tenon cutter to make shafts? I've been having some trouble lately. If I run 3/8" square stock through it, there will be some flat sides left but then I run that through the jig I made up to compress the shafts and round them all out and then I can do final sanding. Typically those dowels spine anywhere from 45# up to as high as 90#. Most oftenly coming right around 60#. Now I just recently started using some 1/2" x 1/2" square stock through the dowel cutter so there are no flat sides. The problem is before I compress and do any sanding these shafts are coming in at 35#'s and I can't figure out why that's happening. The dowels at Home Depot that are 3/8" spine much heavier than that. Has anyone else had this problem? Can you provide any advice? I'm using poplar in all scenarios mentioned above. Thanks.

~Barry

[Justin Snyder]

Sounds like a wood issue. Weigh them and see if they are light weight. Compressing the shafts will increase the spine.

[Stingray45]

That's what I thought but the compressor on 3Rivers says that it lowers the spine. Some of the ones I've compressed thus far hasn't really changed the spine much.

[stringstretcher]

I have been working on some compression and other things with the larger jig that you are using Stingray45.  No two pieces of wood will give you the same spine, but each piece of wood will give you a comparable spine.  It depends a lot on if it is sapwood, sapwood mixed with heart wood, or all heart wood.  The larger the spine you are getting is not only heavier in grain weight but more so heartwood.  And you will never gain spine in compression.  On an average you will loose 2-5 lbs of spine per 1/64 you compress.  I have done a few hundred doing testing and from what you describe, it has nothing to do with what size wood you start out with as squares, but rather the properties.  I just did some form sap wood and the lowest spine came in at 44lb.  The same wood, only heart wood came in at 70-80 lbs and these were all 23/64 out of the dowler compressed down to 11/32 and on every one I lost a min of 2 lbs spine to a max of 5 lb spine.  You said you were  running 3/8?  What are you compressing them too?  I have run a lot of 3/8 and have never gotten under 60 lbs yet.  It has to be the lumber you are using

But on another note, compressing shaft you will not loose grain weight.  Or at least mine have not.

[Stingray45]

Thanks stringstretcher. Now that you mention it that is a possibility. What I was using was just some square dowel's I got from Home Depot because I haven't had a chance to cut my own lately. However the 3/8" dowels that I ran thru I bought a while ago and the 1/2" x 1/2" I just bought a couple of days ago and the wood looks lighter in color so it could be sapwood. I just found it so odd because I had never had anything come out that light but that does make a lot of sense. Because with the 3/8" that do appear to be darker in color the lowest I came out with was somewhere in the 55# to 59# range and some as high as 92#. Also I even bought some 3/8" round dowel's from home depot which are alot lighter in color and those typically spine in the mid to high 40's. What I did to compress them was I bought 10 5/16" cut washers because at the store I could see they were compressing the shaft when I slid them on back and forth. They aren't being compressed quite down to 11/32" though because I ran a POC shaft at 11/32" thru and there is a bit of room so I would guess somewhere in between, say 23/64. It seems to work really well, just run some 100 grit and then 400 grit over them and they feel store bought. I have a make shift spine tester, I can't spine as accurately as to the pound, but I can spine within a particular 5# range, so I haven't dropped out of the range they were in before spining, but as you said everything I read said the spine would go down from compression. I'll be sure to pay close attention for heartwood next time I'm looking for wood stock to either cut myself or by already cut.

[CraigMBeckett]

I wanted to see if anyone out there uses the Veritas 3/8" dowel & tenon cutter to make shafts? I've been having some trouble lately. If I run 3/8" square stock through it, there will be some flat sides left but then I run that through the jig I made up to compress the shafts and round them all out and then I can do final sanding. Typically those dowels spine anywhere from 45# up to as high as 90#. Most oftenly coming right around 60#. Now I just recently started using some 1/2" x 1/2" square stock through the dowel cutter so there are no flat sides. The problem is before I compress and do any sanding these shafts are coming in at 35#'s and I can't figure out why that's happening. The dowels at Home Depot that are 3/8" spine much heavier than that. Has anyone else had this problem? Can you provide any advice? I'm using poplar in all scenarios mentioned above. Thanks.

~Barry

Barry you are supposed to run larger stock through a 3/8 cutter not the same size stock. Veritas recommend !/2 inch and supply a square drive for the purpose.

Craig.

[Stingray45]

Yeah that's what I've been doing lately so that I get a completely round dowel. But when I ran the 3/8" square stock it bascially only cut all the edges off and still had some flat sides. But I ended up with heavier spined arrows in that instance over when I used the 1/2" stock.

[CraigMBeckett]

Yeah that's what I've been doing lately so that I get a completely round dowel. But when I ran the 3/8" square stock it bascially only cut all the edges off and still had some flat sides. But I ended up with heavier spined arrows in that instance over when I used the 1/2" stock.

It must have been better/stiffer/mot dense wood???

Craig.