I needed to cut some dowels to 5/8” length. I wanted square cuts, smooth cuts and no tear out on the cross cut of the grain.
I was using mushroom topped hole plugs as “buttons” for a toy IPhone. It was pointed out to me that those caps have been known to fall out and would be a choking hazard. I needed a better choice for the buttons.
I decided to use dowels set 1/2” deep and glued. So I needed to cut the dowels to 5/8” long uniformly.
In the picture below, on the right is my original prototype using hole plugs. To the left is the same design using dowels set 1/2” deep into the 3/4” stock.
I first tried to cut the dowels on my bench-top band saw. It was not up to the task. The blade twisted a bit and it struggled with the 1/2” dowels.
So I made the fixture shown below. It will cut 1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2” dowels to 5/8” length and 1-3/4” length (for another project). The pictures pretty much show the operation.
I first cross drilled a piece of 2-1/2” stock with the three diameters I was going to cut.
I then set the fence on my table saw to 5/8” and made a cut.
The hole size is critical. It must be tight enough to act as a splinter guard, but not so tight that you cannot push the stubs out easily. I call it a “slip fit”.
I added a push block to the top because I needed an easy way to pull the sled back from the blade.
I would note that the first piece I cut disappeared in the shop as I ejected the stub while on the table. The breeze caused by the blades teeth is enough to scatter the stubs around the shop. I now lift the sled and eject into small container.
As an aside, I found that I can chuck these stubs into my electric hand drill and run sandpaper against the edges to smooth out the ends.
Below is a tight photo of a 3/8” diameter dowel with the ends sanded in the drill chuck.
In retrospect this seems pretty obvious, though it took me time to come up with it. It has almost certainly been done in the past. It is a successful operation. It is efficient, results in highly repeatable cuts that are very accurate, and there is no splintering in the cuts.
I believe this change addresses the small-parts-falling-off-the-toy issue. I cannot imagine that these will fall out as they are well-glued and pretty deeply set in the stock.
Addendum: I just looked at a few YouTube videos on this subject and a couple used similar techniques. One involved a far more complicated setup. Another used the miter gage slot in a dedicated sled (also a more involved build). Another used the band saw. I don’t believe that the band saw will ever make as clean a cut as a good blade in the table saw.
So, I did not invent the wheel (I never claimed to), but it appears my wheel is rounder and travels faster and smoother.
I was using mushroom topped hole plugs as “buttons” for a toy IPhone. It was pointed out to me that those caps have been known to fall out and would be a choking hazard. I needed a better choice for the buttons.
I decided to use dowels set 1/2” deep and glued. So I needed to cut the dowels to 5/8” long uniformly.
In the picture below, on the right is my original prototype using hole plugs. To the left is the same design using dowels set 1/2” deep into the 3/4” stock.
I first tried to cut the dowels on my bench-top band saw. It was not up to the task. The blade twisted a bit and it struggled with the 1/2” dowels.
So I made the fixture shown below. It will cut 1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2” dowels to 5/8” length and 1-3/4” length (for another project). The pictures pretty much show the operation.
I first cross drilled a piece of 2-1/2” stock with the three diameters I was going to cut.
I then set the fence on my table saw to 5/8” and made a cut.
The hole size is critical. It must be tight enough to act as a splinter guard, but not so tight that you cannot push the stubs out easily. I call it a “slip fit”.
I added a push block to the top because I needed an easy way to pull the sled back from the blade.
I would note that the first piece I cut disappeared in the shop as I ejected the stub while on the table. The breeze caused by the blades teeth is enough to scatter the stubs around the shop. I now lift the sled and eject into small container.
As an aside, I found that I can chuck these stubs into my electric hand drill and run sandpaper against the edges to smooth out the ends.
Below is a tight photo of a 3/8” diameter dowel with the ends sanded in the drill chuck.
In retrospect this seems pretty obvious, though it took me time to come up with it. It has almost certainly been done in the past. It is a successful operation. It is efficient, results in highly repeatable cuts that are very accurate, and there is no splintering in the cuts.
I believe this change addresses the small-parts-falling-off-the-toy issue. I cannot imagine that these will fall out as they are well-glued and pretty deeply set in the stock.
Addendum: I just looked at a few YouTube videos on this subject and a couple used similar techniques. One involved a far more complicated setup. Another used the miter gage slot in a dedicated sled (also a more involved build). Another used the band saw. I don’t believe that the band saw will ever make as clean a cut as a good blade in the table saw.
So, I did not invent the wheel (I never claimed to), but it appears my wheel is rounder and travels faster and smoother.
