Woodpeckers has come out with a new One Time Tool – a monstrous dowel press. It’s designed to cut dowels out of any wood species of your choosing.
For comparison, here are dowel forming plates and dies from Veritas, and a dowel forming plate from Lie Nielsen, priced from $42.50 for the Veritas, to $55 for the Lie Nielsen.
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This Woodpeckers dowel press costs a bit more – $399 for the inch or metric set. If you want the fullest capabilities, it’s $399 for the inch set and $80 for the add-on set of metric dies.
Obviously, this is only going to be a purchase for those who work with lots and lots of wood dowels.
Its operation is relatively simple. You start off with a square blank, although you could probably start with hex or roundish stock. You start with a rough cut, to take the corners off larger blanks. Then there’s another cutter 0.10″ wider than your desired finish diameter. Lastly, there’s a finishing die.
The inch set can create dowels 1/4″, 3/8″, and 1/2″ in diameter, with smooth or fluted surfaces, and 3/4″ with a smooth surface. The metric set can create dowels 5, 6, 8, and 10mm with either smooth or fluted surfaces.
Woodpeckers recommends that you start with a blank 1/16″ wider than your desired dowel size.
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The dies are easily swapped out, and additional features include oil-less bushings, a 5/8″ Acme screw, drop-down auto-centering guide, swivel handle made from aircraft aluminum, and what look to be final push-through plungers.
You can easily sharpen the dies on a whetstone or similar sharpening equipment. I’m thinking that the laser-etched markings can last through a few resharpening sessions.
In the “behind the scenes” video, it’s mentioned easier replaceability is a benefit of the individual cutting dies – “You could replace them if they’re ever lost” – but I don’t see how you’d be able to buy just one die once the One Time Tool is long sold out.
It looks like this will pair well with their ultimate doweling jig One Time Tool.
Price: $399
Order Deadline: 10/31/2016
Shipping ETA: April 2017
More Info(via Woodpeckers)
Buy Now(via Carbide Processors)
Personally, I would love the ability to quickly create dowels from any species of wood. But I have a knock-through Veritas dowel former I don’t even use all that much. Besides, if I really need to turn a dowel from a certain type of wood, I could buy pre-formed dowels. $400 is close enough to the price of a good small lathe.
There’s great appeal to being able to crank out dowels without power tools, and without having to pound them through a die. But you’ve got to make a lot of dowels before this press will pay for itself.
Don’t forget that it occupies a bit of benchtop real estate too. The Woodpeckers dowel press measures 15-1/2″ long x 2-7/8″ wide x 4-5/8″ tall, and weighs around 10 pounds.
Why post about a tool that’s beyond the needs and justified budgets of most woodworkers? I find the design to be inspirational. If you want similar functionality but the $400 price point is way beyond reasonable for your needs, use the design as a stepping point and build your own. It’ll be easier if you have machining tools, but there seems to be ways one could build a DIY version out of off-the-shelf parts.
Following are Woodpeckers’ promo videos, the first being a tool intro, and the second a “behind the scenes” type look at the dowel press’s development.
BonPacific
Good lord Woodpeckers is just rolling on. I get that their stuff is expensive, but it’s also frequently useful and extremely accurate. This just seems ridiculous.
BonPacific
If you don’t like the push-through dowel plates, Lee Valley also has a dowel cutting setup for half the price of this. It’s more adjustable, using cutters rather than just dies. From some reports it’s also more effective with brittle or figured woods that tend to tear or break when pushed through a die.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=42331&cat=1,180,42288
You can see it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2sdZBSaHSg
Koko The Talking Ape
That 90 deg. cutting edge just makes me wince. This Veritas system is faster, making dowels in one step. It probably leaves a smoother finish too. It also allows you to adjust the dowel diameter as much as 1/16″ in either direction. It is also cheaper.
http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=42331&cat=1,180,42288&ap=1
Koko The Talking Ape
Oops, the Veritas rig lets you undersize the dowel only.
And here are dowel makers from Veritas that are even cheaper, but are less versatile. They may not leave as nice a finish, because they use just one blade. Also, the blades are curved, which makes them a little harder to sharpen, probably.
http://www.leevalley.com/us/hardware/page.aspx?p=52401&cat=1,180,42288&ap=1
I don’t use dowels, but I know other furniture makers complain about store-bought dowels being expensive, out of round, lacking straight grain, and available in only a few woods. And a few specialized crafts need very long, straight, strong dowels. Arrow-making is one, obviously.
Anton
Pardon my ignorance, but why would you need a dowel of a specific wood species? Aren’t they by design, never seen?
Wayne
What if its being used as a tenon in something that is going to be stained? It should match the species of wood being used. What if you’re making a wooden six pack carrier and want to use a dowel as the handle and want it to match? Just a few uses that come to mind.
fred
This is an elegant looking tool – that like other items from Woodpeckers – may be overkill for most of us.
When I mentioned it under the recent Kreg Pocket Hole plug cutter post – I had my tongue way out in my cheek saying “If you want – you can also add a set of metric dies for an extra $80. So spend $480, and (from the Woodpeckers site) it looks like it might arrive on your doorstep by April 1, 2017 – an appropriate date IMHO”
Actually I should have been a bit kinder – because it may be useful for well-heeled folks who want to use dowels made from specific wood species as through tenons or handles (although 3/4 inch max – seems a bit slim) as Wayne says , or as other sorts of exposed elements (like stretchers) in woodworking projects. For the latter purpose – most of us would rather turn square stock on a lathe to have a pleasing profile along its length.
BonPacific
Breadboard ends and drawbored tenons often have exposed dowel-ends, and they can be a quite pleasing part of the design.
fred
For breadboard ends, I like to cut oblong holes in the tenon ends of the tabletop – and square through holes in the breadboard ends – with the square holes centered on the oblongs. I then pin the breadboard end on with square pins through the center of the oblong – giving a nice craftsman style look and enough room in the oblong slots to accommodate wood movement. As you say – I could do the same thing (more easily actually) using round pins (dowels) instead of square ones. I’ve never used drawbore pins – but they do result in a nice look for pinning stretchers and corners – particularly with a contrasting wood/stain. I have to admit that I have simulated the look using plugs.
Stuart
Some woodworkers like to turn through-dowels into a design feature. The added contrast can add visual interest to a piece. Dowels can also be used as custom plugs for recessed screw holes.
Stephen
I am one of the woodworkers who is ordering this tool. I know its expensive but can easily justify the cost, and thought I would let some of you know why.
I’m a professional woodworker, its my full time job, so its not just something I’d use once in a while for a pet project.
I’m fairly young (30), so am hoping to get many many years of use.
My first thought is using it to do plugs. I use a lot of plugs (can be a great and eye catching feature) of contrasting woods. I don’t like plug cutters that much, and have never been happy with them. So lately I just buy dowel of different woods and slice them up (I need end grain plugs often which dowel are great for)
I have tried many homemade tools, and sometimes they work great, and sometimes I am left wanting more. I also need plugs to be a certain and exact size so making dowels on the lathe or with something I made myself doesn’t make sense.
This dowel press is not for everyone, but for me I like the idea of making my own dowels out of anything I want and can see it paying for itself in just a year or two.
Evan
Or you can do it for free for any size ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5QVkyOTZZY
This is just one example. there are all kinds of videos on YouTube for dowel jigs
fred
Some added posts on this topic – over on ToolGuyd Community Forum – under the heading of Homemade Tools
Stuart
Thanks!
Link: https://discuss.toolguyd.com/t/homemade-tools-and-ideas/209/6