Cutting dowels on a bandsaw?
- Thread starter Ives
- Start date
Help Support UKworkshop.co.uk:
cambournepete
Established Member
Why not use a handsaw?
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
:roll: fer gawds sake - just cut them on a band saw! Wosser problem? Just do it! Keep your fingers out of the way and be prepared for them to spin if you force it too hard.
This is probably the 2nd most easy thing you can do with a band saw. Easier is cutting flat bottomed stuff which sits still on the bed.
Just have a go - if you can't do it after half a dozen goes perhaps woodwork is not for you!
PS I used to make a lot of toys. Cutting dowel to length was a regular feature and first machine was a Burgess BS, followed soon after by a Startrite 352. My kids could use the little Burgess quite safely, including cutting dowels. Perhaps for 6 years old and above.
This is probably the 2nd most easy thing you can do with a band saw. Easier is cutting flat bottomed stuff which sits still on the bed.
Just have a go - if you can't do it after half a dozen goes perhaps woodwork is not for you!
PS I used to make a lot of toys. Cutting dowel to length was a regular feature and first machine was a Burgess BS, followed soon after by a Startrite 352. My kids could use the little Burgess quite safely, including cutting dowels. Perhaps for 6 years old and above.
kevin dwyer
Established Member
- Joined
- 16 Mar 2012
- Messages
- 100
- Reaction score
- 0
lets forget jacobs macho approach as I've already called child services. basic advice, regardless of what you're making on either a bandsaw or table saw is keep your hands four inches away on either side and this creates a good awareness of where your hands are. A vast amount of the content of the city and guilds for carpentry is health and safety and not without good reason.
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Hardly macho. The (small) bandsaw is about the safest machine you can use. Not risk free, but safer than a pen-knife frinstance.kevin dwyer":3movnjj7 said:
PS probably about as hazardous as a sewing machine.
Ives
Established Member
Pete Maddex":3hvgznng said:Ives":3hvgznng said:
Just stop cutting the 1" lenghts on the bandsaw before the blade gets to close to your hands
Pete
So, I'd hold the end of it with my right hand, and would need a mitre and fence (I think I always get those names mixed up and wrong)? Yours sounds like the nicest way somehow!
jimi43
Established Member
I think that if someone says they don't know much about bandsaws and asks for advice about cutting dowels on them then it is nothing short of totally irresponsible to encourage it.
I know what I'm doing, I've done it, they're my fingers, I do risky things in a workshop but I wouldn't dream of telling a novice bandsaw user to do it without knowing anything about him or his setup.
A handsaw is far easier....you can bunch the pieces up and do it in batches...what's the problem!
Jim
I know what I'm doing, I've done it, they're my fingers, I do risky things in a workshop but I wouldn't dream of telling a novice bandsaw user to do it without knowing anything about him or his setup.
A handsaw is far easier....you can bunch the pieces up and do it in batches...what's the problem!
Jim
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Nonsense. The quickest way to find out is to do it. He has been forewarned that round things can spin and to keep fngers out of the way.jimi43":10nuwr71 said:
It's more difficult - that's the problem!
Odd though it may seem I have cut thousands of dowels by hand and then later by machine, when I made toys for a living many years ago. The Startrite 352 paid for itself in days by virtue of increased productivity. The little Burgess 3 wheeler wasn't bad - and was very safe.
PS and you can't bunch the pieces up and do it in batches, it's surprisingly difficult. Try it and see.
I periodically have to cut small dowel (up to 3/4") in batches and have cut many hundreds. I always do it on the bandsaw with a mitre fence. I hold it firmly and feed steadily and have never had even a hint of a problem. You should have no problems as long as you are sensible - firm grip, especially with larger dowel, slowish feed rate and don't try to cut anything you can't hold properly, so nothing shorter than about 4". If you can't bear to waste pieces that short, cut them by hand.
Jim
Jim
Benchwayze
Established Member
A 3" square piece of timber 1 inch thick.
Drill a hole to fit the dowel right through the centre.
Push the end of the dowel in until it sticks out to the thickness of your bandsaw blade. Mark the dowel at the back.
Push the dowel through until you see the mark emerge. Then holding the block against the fence, cut it off, repeat until your dowel is all gone, and push out the last piece from the block.
But it's safer and more accurate using that Jury-rig with a hand saw. HTH
You could do the same thing using a small length of 3 x 3 timber.
Bore a hole along the axis, and then push the dowel in until it's flush. clamp it to your mitre fence,
Mark the dowel to length at the other end, then push the dowel in until the mark is level with the entrance of the hole. The dowel should then be sticking out the required distance at the opposite end. Cut and repeat. You might need some candle wax with this one though!
Drill a hole to fit the dowel right through the centre.
Push the end of the dowel in until it sticks out to the thickness of your bandsaw blade. Mark the dowel at the back.
Push the dowel through until you see the mark emerge. Then holding the block against the fence, cut it off, repeat until your dowel is all gone, and push out the last piece from the block.
But it's safer and more accurate using that Jury-rig with a hand saw. HTH
You could do the same thing using a small length of 3 x 3 timber.
Bore a hole along the axis, and then push the dowel in until it's flush. clamp it to your mitre fence,
Mark the dowel to length at the other end, then push the dowel in until the mark is level with the entrance of the hole. The dowel should then be sticking out the required distance at the opposite end. Cut and repeat. You might need some candle wax with this one though!
jimi43
Established Member
John....the voice of sense as usual!
=D>
Jim
=D>
Jim
