Dowel Maker that you can make!

[Buckeye Guy]

Steve
I have no doubt you could have dreamed one up on your own but if you want credit for being fist you may have to go back a ways !
I built my first one the summer after we bought this house 1980 and had been wanting one for awhile then !
A old fellow across town had shown me how about 1975 ! and I don't think he was first !
For tapered shafting I find sanding works the best for me .
Either mount shaft in a lathe with  a flat sanding block mounted beside it , or put shaft along side a sanding belt ! Maybe look up how pool cue sticks are done , if you have questions !

[Jim Davis]

And, Steve, you and I and George Tsoukalis all joined this forum in June of 2006. I looked through a lot of members' data and didn't find anyone who joined before 2006, and I think all the ones I saw joined after we did.

We all just reinvented the wheel--or doweling setup.

It's just nice it works so very well!

[mikekeswick]

I used to know the chap who invented the set-up I use. His name was Bill Searle. Unfortunately he is dead now, he had a mind that I envied....unbelieveably inventive and extremely intelligent to go with it and also very mild mannered - the sort of person it's easy to be jealous off! He produced a booklet showing exactly how to make the whole set-up...maybe it would be possible to find a copy.
On my set-up a staff bead cutter is used not a flat bit. It has an infeed hole and a finished diameter hole. The infeed hole is 1/2 inch as 3/8ths stock is a fraction over 1/2 corner to corner.
As for tapering then sanding is the way to go. Make a base board. Have two side boards that have sand paper attatched and are adjustable. Rig up a dust extractor and chuck the shaft in a drill.
If you time how long you are spinning for it's easy to keep sets of matched parallel shafts matched after tapering.

[Badger]

Buckeye, when I built mine I never really thought about it like an invention. I just needed some arrows and put one together. I imagine a thousand other guys have probably invented it the same way. I just noticed after I posted mine I started seeing them show up. I thought of it as a jig which wood workers commonly make to fit an assortment of tasks.

[Badger]

  I meant around 2000 not 1990 I started building bows in 1996 after my divorce.

[artcher1]

This is the new PA forum that you joined in '06 Jim. George, Steve and many other where already here on the old forum when I joined in '02.

Like George, I still do mine the old way, hand plane 'em that is...........Art B

[Jim Davis]

There goes the old memory again. I thought i had been on this forum longer than that.  I wish we had access to the history and posts from the first forum. Even the Leatherwall has tossed out the first early years of posts.


If you want anything  to approach permanence, put it on paper--photos, finances, instructions. The internet and computers crash or become obsolete. Anyone remember Fortran? Or even Basic?

Jim

[artcher1]

Old homestead just isn't the same since the LAW came to town Jim. No mods back then! Lots of interesting discussions. And I do mean interesting ! You would have fit right in I'm guessing, LOL!

[Jim Davis]

Don't know if I fit right in, but I was there. Just forgot that I was there

[Badger]

  I do the same thing Jim, sometimes I think a little memory loss is a bit of a blessing.

[DavidV]

http://leatherwall.bowsite.com/TF/lw/thread2.cfm?forum=23&threadid=243796&category=

This one's pretty easy if you have a plane iron lying around.

[mje]

Here's an amazingly simple method I don't think I've seen here:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dwDjedeJCZ0&feature=user&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdwDjedeJCZ0%26feature%3Duser