How can I flute my own dowel or create dowel with similar properties

Question

Now I know that I can just buy these in packs of hundreds likely but lets play pretend that I need to make some from what I had available. When I think of fluted dowel I picture these guys...

^{Image from HomeDepot.com}

That style of dowel would be difficult to emulate. I am not going to make a jig where I would rotate the dowel and run a beading moulding plane, or similar tool, to scratch a groove in. If they are actually compressed maybe I just need to compress them with something? Is there another method of working the dowel that will get a similar functional result?

Answer 1

That style of dowel would be difficult to emulate.

Not so much actually! You can do a decent job of simulating this texture by simply gripping the dowel in pliers, vice-grips etc. and drawing it through, or squeezing hard to compress them into the wood.

Here's that tip in an old issue of Popular Mechanics, with another technique underneath:

[Source: Popular Mechanics, Dec 1987]

Both tips are often repeated online and sent in to the tips sections of woodworking mags :-)

In either case you end up with some grooves that prevent a hydraulic seal from forming, allowing air and excess glue out of the drilled hole.

Answer 2

Is there another method of working the dowel that will get a similar functional result?

You could maybe make a dowel plate,

but instead of drilling a regular hole through the steel plate, make a series of smaller holes in a circle that approximate the cross-section profile you're going for, then punch out the section where the dowel goes through.

Or, going with the dowel plate idea again, drill a normal hole and use a small circular file to get the same effect as drilling a series of smaller holes.

Answer 3

If they are actually compressed maybe I just need to compress them with something

Up until I read that answer I had never considered them to be compressed. I had always assumed cut.

If that is the case then a simple approach to this would be to file (or fine rasp) the ends to get the taper and the use a large toothed jawed tool, like pliers, to simply compress the dowel. This needs to be done carefully as to not break the dowel.

Answer 4

Why do you need the dowel to be fluted? If you are worried about blowout (glue/ hydraulic pressure buildup) just plane a small flat spot on the dowel.