At left, a 3/8" dowel maker in use.
Unlike other dowel makers, these cut the wood by slicing the wood with a sharp knife cutting tangential to the surface, not by scraping like a lathe. The knife is curved to initially cut more aggressively, then curves away to takes shallower and shallower cuts as the dowel progresses through the dowel maker, resulting in smooth and precise dowels while requiring minimal drill power to make them. These dowel makers can be held in one hand while spinning the stock with a small 12-volt drill.
Because so little set-up is required, rather than making a batch of dowels for later use, you can just keep it in a drawer make dowels as needed. Just cut some square stock of the right size and spin it through your dowel maker.
A small 3/8" drill is sufficient, but the 1/2" and 5/8" sizes require a drill with a 1/2" chuck.
Spare knives are available if you want one. The tangential cutting action means the blade is pushed straight into the wood, minimizing wear on the blade. I have never had to sharpen or replace a blade in my dowel makers. The knives are cut from utility knife blades, so you could just as easily cut your own replacement blades from utility knife blades.
I also have square drivers available to spin the square stock with a drill.
For the 5/8" size, a driver is necessary.
For the 3/8" size, you can put the 3/8" square stock into a 1/2" drill chuck,
or you can round one end of your stock by manually spinning it into the dowel
maker like you would use a pencil sharpener, then putting the round end you
just made in the drill chuck.
The drivers are made of wood, not as strong as metal, but these dowel makers don't need a lot of torque to cut dowels.
I haven't made drivers for the 1/4" and 5/16" dowel makers as it's just as easy to put the square stock into the drill chuck of a hand drill.
| Size | Dowel maker | Driver | Spare knife | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1/4"
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|  Purchase link You can put the 1/4" stock | in a regular 10mm drill chuck
|  Purchase link 5/16"
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|  Purchase link You can put the 5/16" stock | in a 1/2" drill chuck or use the 3/8" driver
|  Purchase link 3/8"
|
|  Purchase link
|  Purchase link
|  Purchase link 1/2"
|
|  Purchase link
|  Purchase link
|  Purchase link 5/8"
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|  Purchase link
|  Purchase link
|  Purchase link |
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