Buying dowels is an expensive hobby. Yeah they’re nice and all with fluted edges, but they really aren’t cheap. In fact they add up pretty quickly unless you buy rods and cut your own. I had a 1/4″ dowel stick I bought (3′) for a few bucks and needed a smaller diameter dowel. Instead of, well, doing nothing with it, I tried using a drill guide to coax the dowel into a smaller size. Depending on your source and target dowel size, you need to “inch” (get it?) the sizes down gradually or else fail. It does work though- great.
- You’ll need a dowel rod of some sizer bigger than you want
- A drill
- A drill guide of some sort made out of metal (homemade or otherwise).
One caveat is that you really can only do about 6″ at a time as the chaff that adds up will start slimming the rod at some point beyond your target. If it’s hardwood it’s a pain in the ass to cut it off and keep going. I stick with about 6″ at a time- takes about 30 seconds and makes four custom dowels.
The unit itself cost me $25 but I’m certain there are cheaper ones (it was a stainless guide made by a reputable company) that would accomplish the same task.
New to me but I’m certain “The Simpson’s Did It” before.