I'm interested in making some hardwood poles 1" plus in dia 6' in length. Unable to find a supplier and without a lathe it seems something similar to a tablesaw taper jig could be constructed to make them. Anybody ever try this or have any recommendations or source for jig plans?
-- Eric P
A router jig miight be safer.
I know I've seen one, somewhere...
Ah, here it is:
djb
if you're talking about making large dowells entirely on the table saw.... well.... I'm sure it could be done, but it's not a very appropriate tool.
for ripping the planks down to size before running them through the router, perhaps....
Half in radius roundover bit in the router, 4 passes, you're there.
Router table and roundover bit of the right radius will do this, takes
4 passes to get it round. Or make 2 halfrounds and then glue upJohn
Wilson
The only closet rods I've seen are pine or other softwood. I have seen some harwood rods but they are generally 4' or less. What I'm after is a way to make my own in diameters of 1-2". The router bit suggestions people have made is a good route but when you get into the larger radius bits they are fairly expensive. I thought maybe someone had a a decent way of turning them on a tablesaw.
Thanks for the input and maybe I'll just spring for some large dia roundover bits.
Eric
thing is, you *could* do it. it would be pretty hard to get a decent surface finish- figure on doing a lot of sanding. it would probably be hard on saw blades, which are expensive. assuming you have a good drill press the jig would be no big deal to build, but kinda fussy to adjust. it'll make a horrible noise and probably do bad things to your saw's bearings, but if you *really* want to make dowells on your table saw I'll show ya how.....
I use a home-made rounding plane to do this. It's just an old plane iron mounted in a wooden block with a hole up the middle. Not entirely unlike a big parallel pencil sharpener, or a chairmaker's / wheelwrights round-tenon cutter.
When you get to 6' long, a lightweight hand tool is often easier to bring to the work than a heavier power tool, or taking the workpiece to the fixed machine.
You could also rig a setup like a poor man's lathe, using a router and plunge cut bit, sorta like some of the router PEN making rigs out on the market. Mount the raw wood between centers (screws), then slowly rotate the stock while using the router to do the stock removal
John
There are ways to make a jig that uses a router to size the dowel while an electric hand drill is used to rotate the stock as it's fed through the jig. He's one example from Highland Hardware's web site:
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