Easiest way to reduce dowels diameter

[alanesq]

Hello,

I have taken up archery and as a result have to make a lot of arrows (as I am always breaking / losing them)
As part of this I have to reduce the diameter of a wooden dowel down from 10mm to around 8.5mm along the first 8cm of it (to fit the metal point)

at the moment I use a belt sander to do this but I wonder if there is any kind of tool which would do this job more easily/quickly ?

I guess a wood lathe is the obvious answer but it seems a bit over the top and I wondered if there is some kind of hand tool (like a pencil sharpener?) which will quickly do it ?

 

[Jasonb]

Most of the available rounding plabes don't go below 10mm(3/8"), a dowel plate is unlikely to give a true straight concentric dowel.

So you are left with something like this which you can get a blade for that will allow you to do 7.9mm diameter, though it may be cheaper to buy some more arrows

Jason

 

[big-all]

my thoughts on this one

a block of hardwood or steel about 10 " long x 4"wide and about 2" deep

drill a hole centraly about 6mm below the surface horizontaly going 4" into the block with a 10mm drill slightly reamed out or a 10.5 drill[or an imperial one inbetween ]

now the clever bit

remove material from the top untill you expose the end of the drilled hole
the exact amount depends on the the method for cutting

method one a wood chisel flat on the surface to and fro whilst rotating the dowel to give a new surface to slice

method 2 a chisel or plane blade or other suitable blade firmly affixed then all you need do push pull rotate push pull rotate
now if you use a plane iron you could secure it with wing nuts and use thin washers to give fine adjustment

 

[JohnArnoldBrown]

I have seen this done with a table saw, on The Woodworking Channel, I think.
The guy simply rotated the dowel by hand against the fence while feeding it forwards. Looked really easy, but I haven't tried it.
A cheap table saw would be a lot cheaper than that dedicated dowel maker, I'll bet.

 

[alanesq]

Thanks for the replies, some great ideas to ponder on

I already have a cheap table saw so this idea will be my first try, I could even make some kind of guide to feed the shaft onto the blade with

Actually, I never thought of using the table saw and this also gives me an idea that maybe I could do something similar for tapering the shafts

 

[big-all]

if you do use a table saw make shure the dowel is well supported
it may only be just over 1mm you taking off but iff the blade grabs the work not only will it ruin your confidence it will ruin your underpants

 

[oilman]

Suggest you look at an archery forum for advice on making arrows. They are not the toys we played with when young, and can have some nasty tricks up their sleeves. The power driving an arrow can break it, and you would not be the first to be damaged by the remnants. Particularly the material ought to be riven, not sawn. Sawing cuts across grain and weakens the wood. If you can't get wood that is good enough to split, it isn't good enough.

 

[Brad Naylor]

You've only got to remove .75 mm of radius so I 'd try this;

Get a piece of steel about 5-8mm thick and drill an 8.5mm hole through it.

Hold the steel firmly in a vice or workmate and simply bash the 10mm dowel through the hole with a mallet.

It sounds crude (it is!) but it's effective.

 

[nstreet]

How about one of these http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/p...oodturning-lathe/path/power-tool-attachments.

You would probaby need to make a jig of some description to hold the dowel though

 

[salem2000]

Could you use one of these?

Arrow Taper Tool

It may not be for the type of Points you currently use, but it may be quicker (and possibly cheeper) to change the ones you use, than trying to knock something together that MIGHT work.

Salem.

 

[JohnArnoldBrown]

That's just a glorified pencil sharpener!

 

[alanesq]

I tried using my table saw and it did work although its difficult to keep the resulting thickness of arrow constant (probably mostly due to it being a cheap saw)
and I still have to use the belt sander to finish the end
so its an improvement on how I have been doing it

Driving it through a metal plate sounds like its worth a try but I suspect it will be difficult to keep it square ?

The pencil sharpeners are ok for small arrows and if using metal points designed for this (i.e. tapered) but my arrows are 3/8" thick and no pencil sharpener is available for this and my metal points are not tapered anyway

cheers
Alan