dovetailed peg holes

countersink bit?

the stepped hole would probably be stronger. look up "counterbore"

It's for a set of shelves; that peg holds the shelf up, as if the shelf were hanging from the one above it (the peg is glued into a hole in the turning above it). So, no rotating, it will all be glued together. The physics of it all should be similar to how normal dovetails work.

How about not making the end not a dovetail, but instat a single step like this:

--- ---------------------- | | - - | |

--------------------------- It's easier to execute and looks exactly the same after assembly.

\Steve

Countersink

If it's just one or two I'd whittle it out with a die grinder (or Dremel) or an X-Acto knife. If you've got a bunch of them and can't find a suitable countersink or router bit then get a spade bit of the appropriate diameter and grind it to the right profile.

There are "tapered end mills" but usually once you get up to 1/2" diam hole there is only a couple degrees of taper.

There are also vertical panel raising bits that are similar to the bowl bit you mentioned but they don't have a bearing at the end. I think the small diameter is close to 5/8" still though.

And final idea, since you are making the pegs yourself, who says it has to be a straight taper? You could use something like a 3/4" radius plunge roundover and not plunge it full depth.

-Leuf

Those are 41 degrees; I wanted 10-15 degrees.

Before I route the bevel, the hole is 1/2" diameter all the way through, so the bit has to fit in that size hole. If it did, I could put it through after chucking it. The largest bits that are 1/2" diameter are:

I might be able to use the 10 degree one; that makes the radius 1/8" bigger on the bottom (3/4 diam "head").

Strength. I'll probably not go *all* the way through, just to avoid making the exit hole any bigger. But, it's the side grain in the dovetail peg that's doing the heavy lifting; the more of that I have, the more it should hold.

Here's a thought if all else fails. :-)

It's possible to use a sliding dovetail slot, with a slat, to do the same kind of shelf-holdup. That's something I've done.

Your stepped hole idea is much easier to make accurately, because the wood dowel can wedge its way tighter in the hole, and the shelf will slip down. The stepped hole and the dovetail dowel both suffer from short-grain weakness... the larger contact area of a sliding dovetail gets around that problem.

What holds the peg above? Will it be dovetailed or just straight and glued?

If the end doesn't show, I would make a tapered hole, use a straight dowel split the end and drive in a wedge.

It's straight, glued into a drilled hole in the bottom of another turning.

It shows. Yes, I thought of that idea too :-)

:-)

Dovetailed it at both ends would be a neat trick...

Actually he could use straight dowels split and wedged at both ends.

Build a test case.. I'll bet you can stand on it.