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How do I cut a dowel in half?

Tom Baugues

Tom Baugues

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How do I rip a 3/4" dowel rod in half. I'll have to use my band saw but I need some way to hold it with out it trying to turn. I'm thinking about drilling holes into two square blocks and glueing the dowel ends into those holes then run it through the saw. Is there a better way?
 
That would definitely be problematic. I have to ask: Why?
OTOH, I had a similar dilemma with a recently completed project. I need half of a round object. What I did was saw a block in half, glued it back together then turned round but left the ends square. That way I could send it through the bandsaw and had a center line to follow. Worked out well.
Or, you could cut your dowel a little long, bore a hole in a square hunk of wood, glue dowel in and bandsaw in half, cut to length needed.
 
Tom what you described would work pretty well. If I were doing it I would take a piece of 2X4 and cut a shallow V groove into the wide side of the 2X and hot glue the dowel in the groove in a couple of places and then stand it on the edge and run it through the band saw using the fence to guide the cut.
Chuck
 
Get a piece of 3/4" stock. Put a 3/8" radius roundover bit in your router table. Round one edge of the board, flip and round the other edge creating a half-round profile. Rip the half-round edge off on your tablesaw. Repeat.
 

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Is it just me or am I the only one who finds the whole subject of ripping a dowel in half disturbing? :D
 
I do not have a table saw at this time so I'm going to have to do this with just my bandsaw. I need to end up with about 4" long pieces of "half round".
 
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Alright, I can't believe I'm the only one to have ever needed to do this. I thought I might even be ablt to find half round stock somewhere but no...


So...I'll get it done one way or another.

BTW...you guys hitting the sause today???? :rofl: :rofl:
 
Tom Baugues said:
How do I rip a 3/4" dowel rod in half. I'll have to use my band saw but I need some way to hold it with out it trying to turn. I'm thinking about drilling holes into two square blocks and glueing the dowel ends into those holes then run it through the saw. Is there a better way?
Click to expand...


Id say it will work and Id be super careful.
Make sure the fence is long enough so each block rests square against it from start to finish.

glenns way would work fine if you used a bandsaw and a router.
 
If you have a router table and a bandsaw, you could put a bullnose on the edge of a board and rip it off to get a half round. As has been mentioned, you won't get two full half rounds from ripping a dowel.

If you need to rip the dowel, do you need half rounds? A V block might hold a piece of dowel well enough to rip some of it down the middle, but if you need a full half round you can't rip it in the middle. Then the off-center force of the blade will make the dowel tend to twist. Cutting something that moves on you is one of the more popular ways to break a bandsaw blade.

I might put the dowel in a V-block with a stop on the end, or just clamp it to my bench, and plane half of it away rather than trying to rip it. Or I might glue the dowel along the edge of a board so that I can control it as I rip the dowel.
 
I've had good results a couple of times by drilling a hole just a 'hair' larger than the dowel in a block of wood. Then I put the block on the bandsaw and using the drilled hole as a guide, set it approximately where I'd like the split to be, taking into account the kerf. Then I start a cut, go about a half inch to an inch deep, stop, clamp the block to the fence and feed the dowel through the hole...YMMV
 
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