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I have a 2" diameter, 11" length dowel. I want to drill a 5/16" hole exactly in the center of each end, 2" min depth. It needs to be precise because it is for axles that the dowel needs to spin freely around without wobbling. I need to do both ends separately, not all the way through.

How do I find the center and drill a hole there? (Note: I have one handheld rotary drill. I do not have a drill press. I have access to one if necessary but it is not convenient. I also have these guides.)

I know how to find the center of rectangular boards, but not circles.

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    No matter what method you use to find the center, use a center punch or an awl to make a dimple that will assure that the drill bit does not skip to a point away from center when you begin drilling.
    – Ast Pace
    Nov 23, 2015 at 0:14
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    OK you're well covered for how to mark the centre (although note that commercial dowels are frequently not perfectly circular in section) but about the drilling, how deep do you need to go, what diameter and what drills do you own?
    – Graphus
    Nov 23, 2015 at 10:26
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    The drill guide is a great idea, highly recommended. Without that it would be next to impossible to do this reliably with an eggbeater drill. In case you don't know, drilling into end grain there's a great potential for conventional bits to wander.
    – Graphus
    Nov 23, 2015 at 19:31
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    Jason, not sure if you realise how easy it is to make the standard model of centre finder so I'll just briefly outline it. If you start with a strip of hardwood (which doesn't even have to have parallel edges) all you do is saw it into three, two short pieces for the 'fence', the long piece becomes the 'beam'. Plane or sand one short piece thinner by a little (just 1/64" will do it), then gang them together and saw off one end at an angle. While anyone can make a perfect 45° with no special tools here's the cool bit: the ends don't need to be @ 45. Although almost all are made this way [contd]
    – Graphus
    Apr 3 at 15:47
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    ...any angle from about 30 to 60, even 70° will work fine as long as it's the same angle. So you don't even need to mark out, you can saw it by eye if you want to. Then you just glue it together; the edge of the beam is aligned with the centre of the angle formed because of the step produced by the planing or sanding, so it's automatically accurate.
    – Graphus
    Apr 3 at 15:59

7 Answers 7

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Finding the center

Using Geometry

There are a couple of ways to do this. Since your dowel is big enough you can do this by hand relatively easy.

First would be to make 3 lines on the outside of the dowel the cross 2 different points along the circumference (each line). Then draw 3 perpendicular lines from the center of those lines. The point where all those lines intersect is the center of the circle. This picture makes way more sense than my words.

Unknown theorum

That seems like more work than it is worth though. Something simpler, that requires a square (or anything with a known 90 degree angle), called Thales' Theorem. This one is also easier to explain. Draw a right angle and the edge of the dowel. The sides from this angle will bisect the circumference of the dowel. Drawing a line between those two point will get the diameter. Repeating this process a second time (starting from another point.) will get you a second diameter. The point where the two diameters meet is your center. This is what I would do as I don't need to do this to often.

enter image description here

Just use a tool

A center square, or similar tool like the one in Jason's answer would work very quickly and efficiently and would take less time and be less error prone. If you need to be perfect every time and plan on doing this a lot than a center gauge, or similar tool, is the way to go. Press it up against the dowel and draw your line. Do this twice and you found your center.

Might even be able to make a home brew version of this depending on your acceptable tolerance.

Center gauge

Drilling the hole.

This might not work for your case but in general I would recommend using a drill press for something like this where accuracy is important. Take a deep block and drill a hole, with the press, that is the same diameter as your dowel. Hopefully your table moves down far enough. The depth of your block, if possible, should be close to the length of your dowel. Keep in mind that you still need to clamp it to the table but the deeper the hole the less error you will get from the dowel moving.

Then place your dowel in this void. That will keep it perpendicular to the table. Use a punch to mark your center and then guide your drill into that hole.

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    "Thales' Theorem"... http:// i.imgur.com/xh4Knp7.gif
    – Jason C
    Nov 22, 2015 at 21:16
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    @JasonC I love that gif so much........
    – Matt
    Nov 22, 2015 at 21:17
  • I don't have a drill press but I do have these, which are great. I usually punch a hole, put the bit through the guide and get it started while holding the guide out of the way up against the chuck, then drop the guide without lifting the bit out of the hole and clamp it down or hold it. They've been great. (I checked dowel ends with square for trueness.)
    – Jason C
    Nov 22, 2015 at 21:20
  • @JasonC woodworking.stackexchange.com/a/1456/128. I made a "budget" one from scrap wood.
    – Matt
    Nov 22, 2015 at 21:25
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    If you did have a press you could try to rotate the table. tips.woodmagazine.com/stands/… in case the work is too long. I know nothing about this type of use/jig so it can't be part of the answer.
    – Matt
    Nov 23, 2015 at 4:11
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My final solution was to just use a drill press to drill a 2" hole with a forstner bit partway through a block of wood, then a 5/16" hole the rest of the way, centered on the pilot hole from the forstner bit:

enter image description here

Then I just stick it on the end of the dowel and use it as a drill guide:

enter image description here

This worked well. It's not really sensitive to imperfections in the roundness, and since I have to go to a friend's shop to use the drill press, I only had to use the press once and now I can use my handheld drill at home for drilling the dowels.

Marking Gauge

Prior to making the jig, I was at least able to find the center using an Incra IG32, by setting it to 1" (the radius):

enter image description here

Marking a line down the center:

enter image description here

Then moving it and repeating:

enter image description here

I made a third line just to verify (I was worried about the center notch in the gauge but the effect was negligible).

Still need to drill the hole precisely but that's at least one working solution for marking. Any graduated marking gauge that you can set to the radius will do.

Squares

If you have two framing squares you could clamp them together in opposite directions to make a 1" x 1" (or whatever radius) square opening, line one up with the dowel edges, and the inside corner of the other will theoretically be the center, as long as you clamped your squares precisely. This should also work for finding the center of a circle drawn on something flat, unlike the dowel which is an actual, physical circle.

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I use maths from school for this sort of thing. (I can't believe this stuff actually came in handy!)

All you need is a ruler and a square. You draw two or 3 base lines and then a perpendicular line from the exact centre of each - the intersection will be the centre of the circle.

enter image description here

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  • You need a compass, too, to find the centers of the baselines (that's the arcs at A and B and near C; you actually don't need the square for that). Might be tricky to make sure your compass point is right on the edge of the dowel, though. And yeah I've also been digging deep into the high school geometry buried in my brain, ha.
    – Jason C
    Nov 22, 2015 at 21:10
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    I've never actually used a compass for this (doesn't work on wood dowels cause you don't have the rest of the bit of paper on the side to draw on!). What i do is just make the lines something easy like 30mm, and use the ruler to mark the centre and as the square to make the line perpendicular
    – Dave Smylie
    Nov 22, 2015 at 22:07
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    Geometric constructions, though elegant, are a bit imaginary when attempting to perform them on the end of a dowel.
    – Ast Pace
    Nov 23, 2015 at 0:06
  • see my comment above - you don't need the lines sticking out the back of the circle (this was just the first semi-relevant image i could find on google). on a dowel (or whatever) you just need 2 x right angle lines coming off the centre of another line.
    – Dave Smylie
    Nov 23, 2015 at 22:40
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    While 2 lines would do it the third line acts as an error catch.
    – Matt
    Nov 24, 2015 at 14:22
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I don't know. All those while geometrically correct depend at some point on some one visual judgement like getting your right angle perfectly bisected how to do that? Or drawling the two lines that bisect same amount circle?

I would make a circle 2" on paper with end dowel or compass, cut out circle, fold in half then half again center fold= center, stick it on end dowel and punch your nail starter hole.

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  • Welcome to Woodworking. This is a very helpful method that doesn't rely on math, however, it does rely on precise cutting and folding, so I'm not convinced that it's going to be that much more accurate. However, it is a good alternative for those who aren't that good at math, so thanks for contributing! While you're browsing the questions, please take the tour and look through the help center so you get a grasp on how our Q&A site differs from other discussion forums so you can get the most out of it.
    – FreeMan
    Jul 14, 2020 at 12:21
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    Hi and welcome to StackExchange. If one does draw a 2" circle on paper using a compass there's no need to fold it, it'll already have a centre hole in it from the compass pin. So just putting it on the end of the dowel and pressing a mark through seems the simplest and most direct method from this starting point. But this, or the folding method, are surely slightly less accurate than the centre mark provided by a centre finder (bought or accurately made in the shop) and definitely less accurate than @Jason C's chosen method.
    – Graphus
    Jul 14, 2020 at 15:38
  • I love the simplicity of this method. Unless you have a center gauge lying around, any of the other methods become cumbersome and imprecise for small diameters.
    – Christoph
    Nov 14, 2021 at 12:57
  • It's even simpler if you use a compass: the point will mark the center, so there's no need for folding. Also, you don't need to cut the circle out perfectly; just make three straight cuts tangent to the circle, and use those tangent points to align the paper guide to the part to be drilled.
    – Caleb
    Apr 1 at 15:24
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+100

enter image description here

An easily made solution for a dowel centre square is as the attached photo.

In a piece of ply (base) mark a centre line, drill a large hole with a hole saw at one end, and a small hole with a suitable drill about 6" from the centre of the large hole. Draw a tangent line connecting both sides of the holes from the small to the large. Cut out the centre section between both holes along the tangent lines. Cut a straight edged ply cover and fix over half of the base along the centre line.

The end of a piece of dowel can be presented under the cover and a centre line drawn. Rotate the dowel 90deg. Mark again to show centre.

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    If you mark 3 lines instead of 2, you'll be able to see any inaccuracy due to the thickness of your marking tool or the "cover" being a bit off. The three lines will either all intersect at the same point, which will be the center, or they'll form a small triangle; it's easy to eyeball the center of the triangle and get a very accurate center point.
    – Caleb
    Apr 1 at 15:32
  • @JasonC, isn't this just a variation (no offence intended David, a much-more-difficult-to-make variation) of the standard model of dowel centre finder from Matt's Answer? You can knock up one of those in the workshop in literally about 5 minutes if there's superglue available, from just a single long strip of ply or hardwood. In addition to being faster and easier to make, requiring fewer tools and less material, the usual type can be scaled up to work on circles several inches in radius with no additional difficulty.
    – Graphus
    Apr 1 at 17:43
  • @Graphus Yup; I guess it is. But I like this form better; just, subjectively. Plus new user warm fuzzies, I guess. I think they're both pretty easy to construct; the one in Matt's answer relies on being precise with a 45 and a 90 degree angle (and common vertex) vs. this one relying on being precise with drilling and cutting on straight lines -- so depending on your tooling and comfort, one may be easier than the other. I think that's the main difference between the two -- you can build this one without determining any angles. But they're both trivial with a 3D printer, heh.
    – Jason C
    Apr 1 at 22:42
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If the precision is important but time less so; mount the dowel in the drill instead.

Make the dowel spin and create a jig to make the end of the dowel not wobble. Any point that does not make the centre point drill bit wobble is in centre of the dowel and aligned.

Update:

If one uses a knife, or similar, to mark the centre one can possibly dig-carve-drill a cone shaped hole; before inserting the drill bit.
This drill bit then only has to penetrate a few millimetres to be steadily centred.
The next step is how to be aligned/perpendicular but that is another question.

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  • I don't have a 2" chuck but this is a good concept.
    – Jason C
    Nov 23, 2015 at 13:00
  • You don't need that big chuck. Put a drive belt around chuck and dowel or put a lego? tyre on the chuck and make the dowel spin. Then find the centre on the dowel. It is also here my idea wears down as the jig starts getting weak and wobbly. But for finding the centre it might still work.
    – LosManos
    Nov 23, 2015 at 13:29
  • Oh, great idea. I do probably have a Lego tire that fits. My Lego collection is a point of great pride, hehe.
    – Jason C
    Nov 23, 2015 at 13:50
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    Please return with accomplishment. I believe the community might be interested in if such a cheap/wobbly jig is sufficient.
    – LosManos
    Nov 24, 2015 at 11:19
  • I will still try this just to see, as soon as I have some more time, but for now I ended up making a jig to do it.
    – Jason C
    Nov 25, 2015 at 4:36
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Place the dowel on a flat surface. Place a piece of wood on the flat surface whose thickness is roughly that of the dowel radius. Snug this up to the end of the dowel. Draw a line on the end of the dowel using the piece as a guide. Roll the dowel a little. Mark another line. Repeat until you have 5 or 6 lines. The lines should form a little circle (OK, polygon). Punch the dowel at the eyeballed center of the little circle. (Actually more precise than you would think) Drill.

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    I mean, this is basically the second part of woodworking.stackexchange.com/a/2838/5572 though you just use a piece of scrap. Same mechanism, though.
    – user5572
    Sep 3, 2021 at 1:42
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    Hi, welcome to StackExchange. Please note the original Question (from six years ago!) asks for a method to find the exact centre of a dowel, plus the OP posted their chosen method which is more accurate anyway. This is however a decent way to approximate the centre of a dowel, but a more direct way to do basically the same is to use a pencil gauge or other marking gauge set to the required measure. Any woodworker should of course already own at least one of these, so no futzing about looking for or having to make an approximately radius-thickness piece of scrap.
    – Graphus
    Sep 3, 2021 at 9:37

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