Making Square Plugs?

I did this for a customer several years back. The piece was embellished with the pyramid shaped pieces.

Mine were larger but you can probably adapt. My pyramids were made 3/4" square.

I cut a piece of wood about 2' long x 3/4" x 3/4". I then used a disk sander to put a pyramid point on to the ends of the piece by applying the wood to the disk and at the desired angle until 1/2 of the end was beveled. I then rotated 90 degrees and repeated until I had a pyramid end. I then cut off each end to the require height and started the procedure over again. I can post pictures if you like.

Thanks Leon, yes that occured to me as a solution also but the time frame to complete 98 of these little buggers.....doing it that way....arggghhhh thanks gotta be a better way.......

Have you considered round pegs with a square top (i.e. only the visible part)? You should be able to turn those out pretty quick with a good plug cutter and some creative sawing. Drilling the mounting holes would be easier as well.

../another doug

After you get the hang of it, it does not take long at all. I tried cutting and the results were mixed.

What about a miter saw set at at 45 degrees? Take a 3/8" square stick a few feet long, 4 chops off the tip to make the faces, then a final chop to cut the end off, then wash rinse repeat?

-Nathan

Theres an step by step article in this months Fine WoodWorking showing how to do it.

Cheers Mike

Belt-sander with a tool-rest?

Hi, I have not tried this procedure for your application, but I have made a number of high volume parts.

Cut a number of parallel V's in a board, rotate it 90 degrees and cut more V's. I would use a router in a table for this. This creates your pyramid tops. Then slice them apart. Getting all of the distance right might be a problem, I suggest that you make a number of spacer strips with a width of the plug plus a saw kerf. Then you can offset the board the right amount each cut.

Hope this helps Roger Haar Tucson

It might take a bit of experimentation

Doug wrote:

Have you been reading that abominable article in the last FWW ?

Any more like that and the subscription goes! I don't spend $10 a copy to read about chav-tastic tips to dress up chipboard flatpacks.

Roger, I like it..never even considered the router table! I'll tweak your idea and give it a try thanks

Nope, haven't seen it. I don't subscribe, but I do on very rare occasions buy a copy from the newsstand. What article is that, or should I ask?

They are only 3/8 square, use a sharp knife to bevel the tops. Cut or sand, that's about it.

Pyramid-headed square pegs, formed on the ends of round pegs so that they're easy to drop into arbitrarily placed drilled holes.

Now I do tend to over-react a little to some issues of artistic purity. Think of it as OCD with chainsaws. I take my view of "Art & Crafts" _very_ seriously. I regard Ruskin as a dangerous compromiser and moderate voice, whilst Gimson was a bourgeois dilettante.

My idea of learning to make "arts and crafts furniture" begins by spending a few years working with timber framers until you understand pegged tenon joints. _Then_ you can think about putting pyramid headed pegs into small carcase furniture.

I don't (and won't) use pegs for decoration alone - they're a structural component of the joint. Quite often the whole piece is unglued anyway, and it really is just the friction of the peg holding things together. So not only do I care how I form the heads, but I care where I place the pegs too. If you see a peg in any of my work, it's holding a joint together. I'd no more use a superfluous peg than I'd use rainforest timber.

My favourite method of making pyramid heads is a short article in the back of FWW some year ago. A short highly skewed chisel with a rounded ball handle. Use it to pare off each face in turn.

My quickest way of making them (usually for the 1/8" blackwood pegs I use to hold trays together) is a low-angle block plane and a custom-made angled shooting board. I bandsaw lots of strip, cut it to double lengths, plane the ends, then separate in the middle. A twist of the fingers between some sandpaper and they're ready to go in the hole.

Double angle router bits are available. Start with a stick 3/8x3/8xhowever long, two passes across the router, one pass through the mitersaw.

I see.

Tue, Jul 11, 2006, 4:13pm (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@telus.net (Doug) doth query: up to 100 3/8"x3/8" square plugs (pyramid on top) to simulate through drawpegs Anyone have an idea how to produce these fairly rapidly?

Yeah. The usual way. Pound a square peg into a round hole, cut off excess, trim to shape with a "sharp" chisel.

JOAT Politician \Pol`i*ti"cian\, n. Latin for career criminal

See the article in the most recent Fine Woodworking magazine