Round end on dowel - How?

[LCHIEN]

How can you put a round end on the end of a dowel?

I'm talking maybe a 1" radius on the end of a 3/4" dia. dowel.


Maybe put the dowel into a hand-held drill and guide it into a disc sander?
Still hard to get a smooth radius.

Any ideas?

[Thom2]

I saw a jig not long ago (shopnotes maybe???) for holding the dowel in a cross cut fashion while you fed it into a roundover bit and then rotated the dowel.

[monte]

I've done it by chucking it into my DP and then using a file to shape it while the DP is running. Watch the speed though.

[lkazista]

I saw a jig not long ago (shopnotes maybe???) for holding the dowel in a cross cut fashion while you fed it into a roundover bit and then rotated the dowel.

WOOD magazine actually, 3 issues ago I think. I will look for it when I am in the shop later.

Lee

[mdutch]

The jig I saw was a right-angle fence coming off the router fence, so the bit was only 90 deg. exposed. Dowel was laid at right angles to the router bit, against the right-angle fence and table, then "rolled" in place against the bit.
By raising the bit a little at a time you can avoid chip-out.

[Tom Miller]

How about something based on a bandsaw circle-cutting jig?

Cut a v-groove, or even a <3/4" dado in a ~2" wide piece of ply. Put the pivot pin in the middle of the groove, and lay the dowel in the groove. Pivot the grooved ply and dowel to make the first cut, then rotate the dowel in the groove and cut again. Keep going until good enough.

Regards,
Tom

[lcm1947]

Sorry Loring, you're on your own on this one as far as counting on me.

[scorrpio]

1. Chuck a roundover bit into router table. MLCS has 1" radius roundover for $33, though if 3/4" radius is good enough, those are $21.

2. Take a piece of scrap and route a V-groove or a dado in it. It should be large enough to hold the dowel securely, but narrow enough so that when you place the dowel into the groove, it protrudes about 1" on one side, and at least 2" on the other.

3. Clamp this piece to your router table so that bit center is in line with the groove, and as close to the bit as possible without actually touching it. In fact, you could feed the piece into the bit to give it a round cutout.

4. Set bit height so that bearing's lower edge is just a hair under center of a dowel placed in the groove.

5. Now, while holding the dowel down in the groove with one hand, feed the dowel slowly into the spinning bit in a corkscrew motion. Keep turning and feeding it until you make one full turn with dowel butting against the bearing. Make sure to twist the dowel clockwise, so it's lower side travels right to left.

P.S. If the dowel is too short to hold by itself, I'd take a piece of pipe of proper diameter (3/4" PVC conduit comes to mind), cut a couple kerfs along its end to form a 'collet', insert the dowel and use a zip tie or something else like that to compress the pipe around the dowel.

[scmhogg]

Loring,

Garrett Wade has some cutters to dome dowels.

www.garrettwade.com/sdx/209141.jsp

This site shows a variation of the router table method.

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

Steve

[LarryG]

Easier than you'd think.

If you have a bullnose bit, two passes spaced 90deg apart will do it. With a roundover bit, four passes 90 deg apart. There's no need to turn the dowel as you're making the cuts.

[Russianwolf]

If you have a bullnose bit, two passes spaced 90deg apart will do it. With a roundover bit, four passes 90 deg apart. There's no need to turn the dowel as you're making the cuts.

Larry, You are still going to have straight edges since you are only rounding over 2 planes. If loring wants the end "domed" he will have to spin the dowel in the cutter.

I think the second link above is just what is needed.

[scorrpio]

If you have a bullnose bit, two passes spaced 90deg apart will do it. With a roundover bit, four passes 90 deg apart. There's no need to turn the dowel as you're making the cuts.

This will not produce a dome. A straight pass through a roundover or bullnose bit creates a cylinder shape - and intersection of two cylinders does not form a sphere.

[LCHIEN]

thanks everyone - I think I've got it.

[boblon]

Loring, This has been an interesting thread. Any chance of seeing a pic of what you ended up with and a description of what method you ended up using?

BobL.

[retired wrench]

I really like the drill press idea........I did something similiar to a part from my cub cadet steering box,,,, the tapered part that fits into the grooves of the steering gear,,,,,,,, I cut off a grade 8 bolt, used slow speed, and a file, came out like new.......and was very controllable..........