I have to manufacture some poles out of broomsticks. I want to use broomsticks as they are cheap, but they are not long enough. they would be strong enough if they were doweled together or screwed using dowel screws.
How do I ensure they are aligned correctly to look as if they are one piece. Is there a Technique/Jig
I will stain them so colour etc is not an issue.
Chris
UK
I, and only if I had no other way to get a continuous dowel, would use a
6"-10" long scarf joint.Dave
On this side of the pond we can get closet poles 8' (2.4 meters) fairly easily. A standard length dowel is going to do nothing to strengthen and end grain joint like that unless it is decorative. What are you trying to make and how long?
As someone else pointed out, it won't be very strong; but if you want to do it...
I just put dowel holes in the center of 22 pieces of wood. I put my RAS sideways, put a drill chuck on the accessory head, put a small vise in the right place. All 22 holes were perfectly centered.
You hit on a specific implementation of what I was going to suggest as the general solution--a fixed horizontal boring tool (which could be as rudimentary as fastening a hand drill to a bench) and a centering jig adusted to proper height on a supporting table/bench. A good-quality, sharp bradpoint drill bit should suffice. A fixed-base router would serve the purpose w/ an uptwist bit. (You could also turn the jig around and fix the dowel and use a plunge router, of course.)
As for the looking like a continuous piece, unless broom handle material available to you is far different than stock commonly used as such here in the US, color from a stain alone unless it is an opaque stain won't hide the grain differences between pieces at the joint(s). You could minimize it w/ judicious selection of which to join to which, of course, but unlikely to get a "jointless" impression unless seen from afar or not too closely. Again, these joints will be largely non-structural. If there's any load, the idea of the scarf joint would be better but more difficult/time-consuming to effect if speed is of any issue (like there are a large number of these). Still a continuing search for material might be in order...
The Jig...
6x4" square pieces of 1/4" ply,1 piece of 7/8"x18"x4" pine.Clamp the ply pieces together making sure they're square and uniform to each other,mark an x shape from corner to corner,drill a pilot hole the size of the double ended screw thread that holds the poles together(dowel screws).
Take the clamps off and leave aside two of the ply squares and dont touch these yet.
Clamp the remaining four ply pieces back together making sure they're uniform with squareness. Again drill a wider hole the same size as the broom handles exactly.
Take the Pine base and route 6 evenly spaced 1/2" deep rebated slots the ply width 1/4".
Glue and screw the ply pieces into the Pine base in this order...
2 broom hole size pieces,2 dowel screw pieces,2 broom hole size pieces.Put the dowel screw in the center and offer up the dowels you want to join into the holes then start screwing the dowels onto the dowel screw.
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